Directed by:
Tom TykwerCinematography:
Frank GriebeCast:
Ben Whishaw, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Dustin Hoffman, Karoline Herfurth, David Calder, Simon Chandler, Sian Thomas, Jessica Schwarz, Corinna Harfouch (more)Plots(1)
In the slums of 18th century Paris, a baby is born to an impoverished fishmonger who abandons her child in the stinking, rotten detritus of a street market. Passed over to monks as a charity case, they can find no one to care for the child - for Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is no ordinary child. Grenouille has the extraordinary ability to decipher the complex swirl of smells around him but soon realizes, to his horror, that he has no smell of his own. He apprentices himself to a perfumer and quickly masters the art. One day he smells the essence of something so exquisite that he is determined to capture it: a beautiful young virgin on the brink of womanhood. With an artist's desire to create perfection - yet without those "ordinary" feelings of moral responsibility - we follow Jean-Baptiste along his murderous quest to create the ultimate perfume for his own adornment: leading to a rising storm of terror across the French countryside. (Pathé Distribution UK)
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Reviews (12)
This couldn't have been filmed better! Tom Tykwer took Süskind's seemingly unfilmable story and retold it. Like the author, with his colorful descriptions, the director also uses visual finesse to convey a subliminal sensation that the film medium deprives us of, and which leads the viewer's senses into a state of their own dubious confusion. With this film, there is no point in arguing about the strong implausibility of logic, etc. For the first time since Run Lola Run, Tykwer proves that brilliant craftsmanship can say (almost) everything.
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Four stars, but a weaker four stars. If it weren't for Hoffman and Rickman, I'd give it a three, especially for the cinematography, which gives you a really unreal feeling of being "right there". I haven't read the book, so I don't know why, but I was bothered by the ending, which was so very bland. Moreover, films in which the viewer is supposed to root for the real asshole (whatever his motives for doing what he does) are always harder for me.
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A film where even the closing credits have their specific scent. A scent both intoxicatingly sweet and desperately bitter. Perfume is a masterful and complex work, in which Tom Tykwer shocked me with his precision and, above all, his rawness. It is rare for me to be hit by such a rough film that matches my taste, but here a pleasantly exceptional success was achieved. It is not difficult to succumb to the magic of the film, with such fascinating editing and perfect musical accompaniment, few can resist. Another key advantage is the main character, who, despite his perversity, is strangely believable and induces almost guilty sympathy.
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Tom Tykwer is very inventive and has a head full of ideas, which he throws at the viewer with an unprecedented force, and he managed to adapt “Perfume” to the movie screen as well as possible. If we add great actors and the truly beautiful visuals, the occasional plot gaps and excessive running time can be forgiven. A truly unique story, a truly unique film.
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If anyone should have adapted the book "Perfume", it was probably only Tykwer, because a book with such a reputation requires a director of his caliber. It's a slight mindfuck in places, but I think it sufficiently rehabilitates the good aspects of modern German culture. Ben Whishaw is properly disgusting, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman ensured the general public's attention and Corinna Harfouch and Karoline Herfurth added their inimitable faces to the whole.
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