Four for Five: Ridley Scott and Chanel N°5

You, or your loved one, might well have received a bottle of the world’s most famous perfume last week. You, or they, might even dab it on tonight to welcome in the new year. Whilst it’s a scent that has always sold itself, thanks in part to that famous bottle, it didn’t always convey the right image – by the Seventies, Chanel N°5 was thought a bit too ordinary. To reposition the brand as one that epitomised style, glamour and luxury, our very own Ridley Scott was brought in to mastermind a new campaign of commercials. It would last for a decade and result in four films directed by Scott, each of which is an exquisite feast of symmetry, sun, sky, song and sexiness. This is how television advertising used to be done. Bonne année!

"La Piscine" (1979) 

Unfolding to the tune of ‘The Little Fete’ by Vangelis, this is the story of Cinderella – note how the man finds her shoe and returns it. It’s also a nice homage to Jacques Deray's feature of the same name starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. As with many such adverts, there’s a shorter version (voiced by Robert Powell) and a longer one that appeared on French television.

"L'Invitation au Rêve, le Jardin" (1982)

Like a cross between Poirot and Hitchcock, this time we are hearing the beautiful Thirties song Scott had wanted for his film Blade Runner but couldn’t secure the rights to, ‘I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire’ by The Ink Spots. Carol Gramm is the muse. Scott’s visual acuity was perhaps at its peak here, and it's the one I remember best.

"Monuments" (1986) 

Shifting to blues, with Nina Simone providing the tune, we have a real mini-movie as Carole Bouquet kisses an older man goodbye in San Francisco, drives through the desert (stopping briefly to make a phone call at a gas station and flirt with a young man) and arrives in Monument Valley where she meets another man, possibly the one she phoned. It’s breezy and fun and might anticipate Scott's Thelma & Louise.

"La star" (1990)

Brit Marty Wilde sings his best-known song (also heard in a thriller of the same name the year before) in the final film, shot at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Cap d'Antibes, on the French Riviera. A movie star – Bouquet again – relaxes by the pool, waited upon by her understudy (played by the same actress); does the understudy understudy with him, too?