Perfume – The Story Of A MurdererBased on the bestselling novel, “Perfume” is a story of an obsession so overwhelming that it leads to murder. In18th-century France lived Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), who was born with a phenomenal sense of smell. But as his gift becomes an obsession, he strives to create the most intoxicating perfume in the world by murdering young women to capture their essence.Based on Patrick Suskind’s novel about a serial killer who hunts victims with his superhuman sense of smell, Perfume: Story of a Murderer is a florid, grisly portrayal of this historical drama set in 18th century France. Jean-Baptiste Grunuis (Ben Whishaw) is born under his mother’s table at the fish market, onto a pile of muddy fish guts, establishing from the beginning his repulsion for putrid scents. A childhood of neglect and, later, a job at a tannery, encourage Jean-Baptiste to develop his olfactory sense rather than his verbal skills, so that an opportunity to prove his worth to Parisian perfumist, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), results in his immediate hire into a promising new career. His successes in perfume mixing are negated by a blinding obsession for capturing the sublime beauty of human soul, which in his twisted logic requires the killing of young women to reduce their body fats to essential oils for the ultimate, cannibalized eau de parfum. An omniscient narrator tells the story with much sympathy for Jean-Baptiste’s perverted psychology, making it, often, too obvious that his need for love justifies his murderous desire to capture misguided sexual attractions in a vile. Continuous close-ups of Grunius’s nose, countered by close-ups of the places and objects he smells, enhance the viewer’s understanding of his sensitivity. Repeated comparisons are made between the killer and dogs who aid, then expose his sick experimentation. The settings are fascinating, especially Baldini’s perfumery and some later scenes in enflorage factories outside Provence. Whishaw’s and Hoffman’s performances are both grand. But Perfume unnecessarily spells out Jean-Baptiste’s psychosis, squelching any chance for metaphor. This is unfortunate, considering the story’s paradoxical nature. As this crude hunter navigates his way through a world of utmost delicacy, one craves ambiguity rather than explanation. –Trinie Dalton Stills from Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (click for larger image)
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(out of 160 reviews)
Review by K. Harris for Perfume – The Story Of A Murderer
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It must be a daunting task when a filmmaker attempts to adapt a novel that has been deemed “unfilmable.” Such is the challenge Tom Tykwer (the audacious “Run, Lola, Run”) accepted when he decided to film “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” the wildly popular cult novel by Patrick Suskind first printed in the US in 1986. Intrinsic to the success of telling the tale of “Perfume” is to convey a palpable sense of “smell” and its intoxicating powers. While a book may do this with pages and pages of prose, a film does not have this descriptive luxury–hence, it must attempt some sort of visual shorthand. I’m pleased to say that Tykwer was up to the task. With vivid art direction, stunning visuals, and bold editing choices–you feel, almost, as if you can smell this peculiar tale. While this may sound like dubious praise, it is actually the highest compliment.
Set in 18th century France, “Perfume” relates the tragic tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw). Born and almost killed in a fish market, raised in an orphanage, put into manual (and often dangerous) service at a young age, Jean-Baptiste is a disaffected and disconnected youth. Having no social skills and lacking any kind of normal emotional processes, the one thing that differentiates Jean-Baptiste is his keen sense of smell. It seems to be the only thing that connects him to the world he lives in. A chance visit to the city brings him to a perfume shop/manufacturer. Captivated by this world that revolves around the olfactory senses, Jean-Baptiste aggressively pursues a position with the proprietor (Dustin Hoffman). After achieving some success and freedom, he becomes obsessed with procuring the perfect scent–one that he once smelled in the “essence” of a beautiful young woman. Jean-Baptiste’s obsessive bent soon leads to murder (no spoiler here, it is the title) as he seeks to extract this intoxicating smell from his victims. It’s as if creating this one perfect scent will somehow humanize him–but to attempt it, he becomes even more monstrous.
In the opening minutes of “Perfume,” I was absolutely blown away. The visual impact of the early scenes is astonishing and unique. The tale, however, does settle down into a more routine and more familiar pattern. But while it doesn’t maintain the frenetic and captivating pace, it is never less than intriguing and certainly beautiful to view. Technically, the film is awesome. I’ve already mentioned art direction and editing, but scoring, cinematography, and costuming are all top notch. Jean-Baptiste, who is really in every scene, can be a challenging central character–Whishaw plays him fairly vacantly. It is a one note performance, but largely because that’s what the story calls for–a certain emotional flatness. Therefore, I thought it was effective–others might find it somewhat empty.
I suspect many will absolutely loathe “Perfume,” however, for I have yet to speak about the ending. The ending is absolutely outrageous, and I suspect that it will polarize audiences into “love it/hate it” camps. It’s so over-the-top, so unlike anything you might foresee, and so unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed in a film before. Yet, for me, these excesses worked and fit well with the tone of this lurid little tale. Love it or hate it, it’s a bold choice–and one you’re not likely to forget. So I am recommending “Perfume” for those that like something different–this is not standard Hollywood fare, and I mean that in a good way. KGHarris, 02/07.
Review by Tsuyoshi for Perfume – The Story Of A Murderer
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If you’re looking for something unusual, unconventional and unpredictable, “Perfume” is your film. I am not saying this will give a pleasant smell to you. Probably some people would be attracted to the complexity of the strange world where olfactory perception means everything. Or some would loath the film’s story and main character itself, especially the conclusion. Whatever you may find it, Tom Tykwer’s “Perfume” remains intriguing throughout as allegorical tale, dark comedy or serial killer suspense. Pick your choice.
With John Hurt as narrator with slightly mocking tone, the eventful life story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is introduced, and from the very first moment you realize “Perfume” is no ordinary film. The film successfully conveys how Paris in the 18th century (at least one certain district) smelled really bad, with too realistic scene of its fish market, which is followed by the birth of Jean-Baptiste. His life is destined to be a different one, and the first chapter fully convinces us of his fate.
Ben Whishaw plays adult Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and his wonderful acting as the (anti-)hero virtually carries the entire film to the last. Typical rags-to-riches drama is given a twist when other characters step in his life. First Jean-Baptiste is apprenticed to Giuseppe Baldini, second-rate perfumer who lost his skills. Dustin Hoffman’s fake Italian accent may annoy you, but wait for what happens. Jean-Baptiste creates a “hit” perfume with his superb olfactory sense, making Baldini a rich person, and then … see it for yourself. The story is not definitely Charles Dickens.
Beautiful Rachel Hurd-Wood and Alan Rickman are both memorable as aristocratic father and his only daughter. Tom Tykwer relies much on their acting talent to create the credible relations between them, which is I think still underwritten and not interesting enough. His skills as director are more effective in presenting Jean-Baptiste who can create the perfect scent in the most unique and terrifying fashion.
As to its conclusion – don’t worry, this is spoiler-free – you will find it either fascinating or just awful. But maybe we shouldn’t take the story too seriously for “grenouille” also means “frog” in French. “Perfume” defies easy explanations like real perfumes you smell every day. “Perfume” has that inexplicable quality that makes itself all the more attractive to us.
Review by E. A Solinas for Perfume – The Story Of A Murderer
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How exactly do you make a movie about smells? After all, a movie is all about sight and sound. Touch, taste and smell rarely come into it.
But acclaimed German director Tom Tykwer manages to make us smell things, in his most disturbing movie to date, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.” This time around, the talented Tykwer abandons his usual lovers-against-the-world stories for a lushly-filmed, darkly comic story of olfactory obsession. Yes, that is what I said.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouillle (Ben Whishaw) is a man with a brilliant sense of smell, and zero body odor. He was born in a putrid fishmarket, raised in an orphanage, and later escapes from a tannery where he was working. He’s enraptured by the many thrilling smells in the city — he even kills a young girl, so that he can smell her lovely scent.
In his search for the perfect scent, Jean-Baptiste gets a job with a once-famed perfume-maker (Dustin Hoffman). But after learning that not everything has a scent, he begins killing women to try to distill their scents into the ultimate perfume — with beautiful redhead Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood) as the “thirteenth scent.” But his ultimate scent has an even more sinister side, as his scents begin to affect the population in unusual ways.
“Perfume” is Tykwer’s most unique movie to date, and the one that definitely identifies him as a cinematic master. There are lots of music that are evocative, sensual, colourfully beautiful, or unspeakably creepy, but not many manage to be all of them. “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” is all of those, and more.
Obviously a movie doesn’t smell like anything, except maybe stale popcorn. So Tykwer uses sight for smell — rotted fish, maggots, moldy walls from the late 1700s to show Jean-Baptiste’s miserable origins. And he uses sparkling colour and windblown trees for nicer scents. Colour takes the place of scent itself — bright red Lola hair on multiple girls, flowers that seem to pop out of the screen, fresh leaves, brilliant fruits, even brightly coloured food. It gives the visuals a fairy-tale vibrancy.
In fact, the scripting almost comes second to the exquisite cinematography. Yet Tykwer is able to bring across the powerful symbolism that brings the movie to life — the smells are symbolic of love itself, which the scentless and amoral Jean-Baptiste does not have. He can only try to take it from others, with a finale that is the very image of poetic justice.
Jean-Baptiste himself is one of those love/hate characters, and Whishaw does an excellent job with his sort of half-crazy, intent stare. And there are some great supporting performances by Alan Rickman as Antoine Richis (Laura’s dad) and Hoffman as the eccentric old perfume-maker — he adds a welcome note of comedy.
A movie is dependent on sight, but Tom Tykwer creates a movie that you can almost smell. “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” is darkly comic, bizarrely beautiful movie, and definitely worth seeing.
Review by Anton Ilinski for Perfume – The Story Of A Murderer
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Everyone who read Patrick Suskind’s “Das Parfum” must remember how well-scented and at the same time fetid it was. Every page of the novel effuses some smell and it literally makes you either savor it or hold your nose in disgust. Suskind’s talent in describing different kinds of flavour can’t be overestimated, like a real poet he finds words and metaphors that sometimes let you salivate and sometimes bring you very close to throwing up. In my opinion the main challenge of this film from the very beginning of its creation was: will this movie smell like the book does?
Many great directors were to make “Perfume…” and many washed their hands for a variety of reasons. Martin Scorsese, Milos Forman, Tim Burton and others – all of them were once attached to the project and walked away. Stanley Kubrick nurtured the idea of filming Suskind’s novel for a long time but finally concluded “Das Parfum” was UNFILMABLE. And I can understand that – the book based on all kinds of odours is very hard to be put on celluloid. So walking to the theater I was recalling the book’s first scene taking place at Paris’ fish market couple of centuries back and thinking – will it all smell?
And – oh, my God – it did! It smelled and it reeked right from the screen. Certainly the book smelled better (or worse in this case) but those things you do not see but only imagine always hit harder, so I doubt any movie can be better than a book. But in this case actually it wasn’t this film’s idea – to top the novel, it just had to match it distantly. And it matched indeed. “Perfume…” is no cheap adaptation of another book – it’s a piece of art of its own and it deserves some recognition. Tom Tykwer – a young German director whose best-known work to date was “Run, Lola, Run” seemed rather strange candidate to direct this picture at the first glance, but ultimately it turned out to be a wise idea. Tykwer is not afraid to experiment and we’ve seen it in “Lola”. Many of his patterns and tricks from that movie were later used by a number of directors around the world. He is innovative and that’s a fact. If you close your eyes and try hard to imagine what Martin Scorsese, Milos Forman or Tim Burton would do with this picture, I bet you’ll come up with some idea and I bet it will be right. But what could we expect from Tom Tykwer? Only some surprise.
Finally there were no surprise and in “Perfume…” Tykwer didn’t invent anything. It was pretty traditional I’d say, but still very professional, magnificent and exciting. Still better than I think any other director would manage it. And what’s most important – it SMELLED. It had all the scents and fragrances needed to feel yourself inside this movie. Tykwer didn’t do the impossible, but he was very close… And in this case it’s a hell of an achievement.
Actors deserve a whole separate article, I’ll only say Ben Whishaw and everyone else except Dustin Hoffman were awesome and the latter is still playing the role of Bernie Focker as it seems with all my respect
Although I like THAT role of his a lot I think here he could be a little more serious. On the other hand – don’t pay attention to my lamentations – a comic part was never too bad for any movie. So maybe it’s just me. Anyway – why 4 stars? 5 would go for the impossible done by the director, but unfortunately I’m positive it was impossible to do so (no pun intended). Hence 4 is the highest rating this picture can get in my opinion and I’m giving it the highest rating possible.
Review by Staci L. Wilson for Perfume – The Story Of A Murderer
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Scent of a Woman collides with Silence of the Lambs in this bizarre, beautiful and bittersweet story of a compulsive killer.
A savant of smell, Parisian-born orphan Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) grows up in the 18th-century school of hard knocks, yet is determined to become the greatest perfumer the world has ever known. As he stalks the evanescent aroma of a beautiful young redhead (Karoline Herfurth), his obsession turns to tragedy, setting him of a life-path of death and destruction.
Pros:
A visual feast that almost magically conjures the scents onscreen
A serial killer story steeped in a historically-heightened fairytale feel
Cons:
A little too much foreshadowing makes the movie drag here and there
Perfume is brilliantly cast, with great — and sometimes delightfully over-the-top — performances from silver screen stars like Dustin Hoffman (master perfumer), John Hurt (narrator), and Alan Rickman (the protective father of a would-be Grenouille victim). Ben Whishaw portrays a truly reprehensible, murderous character with no redeeming qualities, yet he imbues Grenouille with a pitiable, sympathetic air reminiscent of Boris Karloff in Frankenstein.
It’s very well-directed (if somewhat a tad too leisurely) by Run Lola Run’s Tom Tykwer, and wonderfully wrought by everyone else from the set-designer, to the composer, to the flower-finder.
This is a difficult film to describe without spilling too many surprises, so all I can say is: take the time to stop smell the cinematic rose that is Perfume.
Staci Layne Wilson