While this film is peripherally about movies, Leconte has two key scenes that take their cues from Hollywood. While not a direct lift from Funny Face, there is a scene of a fashion show involving girls, dogs and cars with a lush color palette that recalls Stanley Donen. Totally breathtaking is Leconte's variation on the most famous image from Billy Wilder's Seven Year Itch. Yvonne is seen standing at the railing of a boat wearing a simple white dress. She deftly slips off her white panties to give as a remembrance gift to Victor. Leconte places the camera at a discrete angle while the wind billows in and under the dress.

I am baffled that Leconte is unappreciated in his own country and not considered an auteur. While avoiding the obvious repetitions of someone like Woody Allen, Leconte's films are frequently about chance meetings that evolve into relationships, and love affairs based on impulsiveness. Frequently Leconte's characters are marked by self-destructive tendencies, whether social, physical, or both. For Leconte, being estranged from mainstream society can sometimes be a survival tactic one chooses for oneself. In an indirect way, Leconte has created a narrative that recalls the scene in Citizen Kane where the character of the aging Mr. Bernstein recalls a girl he saw only once, but never forgot. If La Parfum d'Yvonne doesn't conclude with the optimism of Girl on the Bridge, Leconte ends this film with the acknowledgement that love can be ephemeral, and that the person we may be in love with may only remain as a memory or image.