Title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Year: 2006
Country of Origin: Germany
Director: Tom Tykwer
Screenplay: Tom Tykwer, Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger
Rating: US: R / Canada: 18A / UK: 15 / Australia MA / Germany: 12
Length: 147 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 (Original Aspect Ratio)
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish. Closed Captioned.
Well, usually I'm not to keen on reviews, but I'll try to keep everything objective.
I may have been around 15 when I first read Patrick Süskind fantastic, fascinating novel
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and immediately became infatuated with it. Many people regard it as a horror novel, but actually there's nothing truly horrific about it, I'd say it's more of a fable, a very dark fable at that. Being a child of the movies, I always thought to myself, "damn, this would make one hell of a film", problem was, and I agreed, it would be a complete nightmare to translate this into a visual form and for many many years it was considered, mostly by Stanley Kubrick, as the 'great, unfilmable novel'. Why? Just keep reading, just keep reading, just keep reading reading reading...
Perfume, the book and film, deals with the life of young Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born swiftly and uncaringly in the dark gutters of the street markets, abandoned by his mother, surrounded by the thousands of odors and stink of 18th century France. Raised in a local orphan house, people are immediately aware that Jean-Baptiste is not an ordinary, cute baby. No way, this baby is creepy as hell and as we witness, his only and unique motivation in life is to discover every odor, every scent and smell known and unknown in the universe. This is his driving force throughout his life and quite simply, people are scared of him, not because he is considered a menacing character or horrifying monster, but because Jean-Baptiste himself lacks an odor of his own, and this is quite unnerving.
Jean-Baptiste's fascination with everything that his nose his capable of capturing, quickly turns to an obsession. He finds himself hired by a local perfumer, well-regarded in his time, but know tired and bored, faced with the rising competition of other perfumers. Jean-Baptiste learns the trade of the perfume craft, aided by his uncanny ability to recognize every smell in the world. His fist encounter with a woman, has terrible consequences. He is so moved by the scent of a girl he meets, that in his obsession he accidentally kills her so he can smell her better. Obsession turns to frustration at not being able to preserve the smell of the dead girl. The odor vanishes and he becomes haunted by the idea of preserving the scent, the soul of women.
As you can see, the whole idea of the original material is the driving force of smell. How can you ever capture this into film? Well, Tykwer's film has more or less been successful at capturing this. He goes to many great extents for his film to work and for his audience to have clear in their mind that scent is the one thing that will drive us into the story. Of course, the best solution would be to have some sort of interactive smelling feature, but I'm afraid we puny 21st century humans won't get to experience this any time soon.
Plotwise, what follows in the film (and book), I will not disclose. But trust me, you are in for quite a ride. The climax is one hell of an experience ever put on film, don't be surprised if you find your mouth hanging open and your eyes glued to the screen. A personal epic of the mind.
Without a doubt, this is Tykwer's most accomplished film, filled with dark dark twists, fascinating images and strong acting. For me, it's one of those that make you feel all excited about movies again. Do yourself a huge favor and don't miss it.
THE DVD
Video: Tops. Beautifully transferred from the original digital source, it captures everything magnificently.
Audio: Subdued. This is not something that blasts its way though your speakers., but it's a very pleasant Dolby Digital mix, the music by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek and Tykwer himself flowing elegantly and capturing the mood very effectively.
Extras: Very disappointing. The only single extra is one of those damn promotional press junkets that sheds no light whatsoever about the making of the film. Oh, it has a few previews of other movies as well, but overall: Meh. I've discovered there's a fine fine two-disc German release with three audio commentaries (!) and 54 minute Making-Of feature. Sadly, it doesn't seem to have English subtitles at all. I better refine my rusty German and be ready to double dip!
Overall: Bad extras, magnificent film. Don't be a fool, get this as soon as you can.
