Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396171/
Director: Tom Tykwer / Script: Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer
Runtime: 147min
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Hurd-Wood
Genre: Drama / Thriller / Crime
Tagline: Enter an intoxicating world of passion, obsession and murder

The tagline is truly appropriate. It introduces us to the ‘fleeting realm of scent’, to the colourful and ‘intoxicating world of passion, obsession and murder’. Sacrifices have to be made in order to achieve the finest perfume of the world. How far would you go? Can you imagine a perfume so powerful, that it provokes an utter feeling of happiness, love and lust? It doesn’t matter if you can’t; the film will still be a feast for your senses.

The movie is based on Patrick Suskind’s exquisite novel, which has such a rich language as few I have read, being a ‘delicatessen’ for the reader. As superb a language is displayed in the book, as visual imagery in the movie. It is set in 18th century France; the era’s aesthetic being faithfully captured, presenting a colourful world, setting all our senses into motion. We have a narrator, like in fairy tales, who provides the fluidity of the story; the story of Grenouille, some kind of a genius born with an extraordinary sense of smell. The visual is so powerful, that you will almost be able to feel the thousands of smells; the stench and the fragrances alternating on the screen through the images. The extraordinary sense of smell, is an original idea from Suskind, and obviously very useful to a perfumer, which Grenouille is to become. His ‘talent’ of higher sense, is pretty inconceivable to us; but it kept my eyes glued to the screen, as Grenouille took in all the possible smells in the world surrounding him, and found pleasure in it. So much pleasure, that he didn’t need anything else. Interestingly, beautiful and yet untouched girls emanated the finest and most irresistible scent, which Grenouille was mesmerized by and wanted to preserve it, so that he may never had to live without it. His character is weird, but somehow fascinating too; my feelings towards him remained neutral throughout the movie; I found it hard to decide whether he was sympathetic or repulsive (probably because Ben Whishaw wasn’t utterly unattractive). Rachel Hurd-Wood is an excellent choice for an unusually exquisite beauty; it is of no wonder that Grenouille wanted to preserve her scent above anyone else’s; it’s like she was the main ingredient, without which his work would have been incomplete. Did he get to her?

Still asking why should you watch it? Because it is intriguing, mysterious, perverse and like nothing you’ve ever seen. As of 2006, you will be watching the most expensive German movie ever made. And let’s face it, there aren’t many movies featuring serial killers placed in the 18th century. And well, there should be more like this.