"I smell dead people!" What's the matter with that as a movie slogan? (for those who don't get the allusion: the mantra for The Sixth Sense was "I see dead people".)

Answer: motion pictures, and television for that matter, hardly ever "do" odors. (John Waters's 1981 Polyester with its scratch-and-sniff "Odorama" was an exception.) A murder victim's body is hidden in a closet for days and nobody notices. Bread bakes unremarked. Perfume likewise lacks effect. Almost the only time that a flick succeeds with scents is when an animal picks up something that humans are oblivious to. ("Lassie, go find Timmy! Seek!")

Similarly, taste and texture tend to be absent from cinema. Stories are seen and heard — and that's all. It's an entertaining game around our house to spot logical failures in a movie because of the general "senselessness" of the medium ...

TopicHumor - TopicArt - 2003-12-14

(correlates: RubensesquePassersBy, UsualSuspects, NavyBlueOfIndia, ...)