The Perfume Connection concept has been re-engineered and repositioned in a complete make-over by its new owners.

Inside Retailing Weekly, our subscription-only edition, reports that the Queensland-founded chain has relocated its head office to Melbourne and a new executive team led by new owner Jeff Sher has been built up.

Sher, who successfully expanded the Priceline chain, launched Priceline Pharmacy and created a retail-driven growth platform for Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, bought the 60-strong Perfume Connection chain in August last year.

A full explanation of the reformation of the chain is published in this week’s subscriber edition.

Maria Bethania is a legendary Brazilian singer whose siren call has stirred the souls of her fellow countrymen for decades. Now in her sixties, the gracefully-aging diva proves here that she is still capable of delivering a ballad in heartrending fashion. The performance-driven picture features plenty of concert footage, offset by interviews with friends, family (including her brother, renowned composer Caetano Veloso) and Maria herself.

The full-throated contralto’s career began in 1964 and has endured long enough for her to release 30 albums thusfar. The movie amounts to the cinematic equivalent of a fanzine, a delightfully melodic montage during which Maria meanders through many classic hits from her extensive repertoire.

Offstage, Maria is at her best while sharing her feelings about her music, such as when she describes samba as “sadness dancing. That is the very essence of samba.” Equally evocative are the moments when she talks about the genre’s history, describing it as “a black people’s lament.” Acknowledging a debt owed to African slaves, she goes on to say that “We were colonized by the Portuguese, but our heritage, the richness of our music, is black.”

And to think I always blamed it on the bossa nova.

Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
In Portuguese with subtitles.
Running time: 82 minutes
Studio: ArtMattan Productions