Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Full of amazing images with a subtext of being obsessed with success...

Eu simplesmente não consigo ver defeitos neste filme.

With Tom Tykwer's kinetic directing and a unique, if implausible story, Perfume: The Story Of A Murder is a based on acclaimed book, allegedly one of Kurt Cobain's favourites, exploring the life of a man without an inability to make human connections, but an incredible talent for detecting scents. It's a weird tale that treats it's subject matter seriously enough for you to go along with it, flaws and all. Ben Whishaw makes an unexpectedly fantastic villain, largely because its so hard to imagine him being a killer in the first place. He plays the lead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille as someone detached from the feelings of others, but not entirely unsusceptible to them, so he never comes across as boring or one note. His ability to blend in with the general populace and pick off victims with ease makes him a threatening presence and a chilling villain, though it seems ridiculous that he would dump his victims bodies in such public places if he wanted to avoid detection. Also, his ability to smell becomes more of a plot device as the film goes on, keeping the story going when it seems there's no way it can move forward. It starts to feel its length in the 3rd act, and the narration feels overwrought and unnecessary, a shortcut to explain what our lead is feeling instead of showing it. But these issues aside, it makes for a fascinating entry into the mass murder subgenre, introducing a killer with a novel motivation and endgame. A long film, but a rewarding one.

Recuerdo cuando tenía 10 años y mi profesor de historia nos recomendó esta película. ¿Inapropiado? Solo un poco. Sin embargo la historia me parece bella y triste, tratando de poner en imágenes y palabras los sentimientos más profundos que solo se comparan con sensaciones. La atmósfera de la película y la ambientación es asquerosamente correcta.

An unpredictable thriller that holds up on repeated viewings. You truly won't see the ending coming and I still can't believe it works.

Quite simply, astonishing! The; sets, acting, script, story, direction EVERYTHING is incredible. Wierd? Yes, but sometimes cinema has to be challenging and not straightforward. This is a challenging stage play brought to the screen. Obviously, as per usual, Alan Rickman is the star, but every actor is superb in this. Attention to detail is incredible and that sets it apart from nearly every other wannabes. Must watch for anyone who likes film……

While the movie was filmed beautifully, and there are some intriguing aspects, the story itself is a mess, and there a lot of goofy decisions made. I'll go through my gripes first, and then my few praises. 1. The opening scene shows a supposedly in-medias-res night-time execution, and yet the actual event later in the movie is daytime, and Grenouille never gets dragged to the stage like in the opening scene. There's no indication that one was "real" or "fake", so what's the deal? 2. The narrator establishes that Grenouille yearned for all scents, and did not distinguish between "good" or "bad" scents. He wanted to smell them all. His "only rule" is that they all "must be new". And yet, he tells his mentor that the Italian perfume is "bad", and also is obsessed with collecting multiple doses of women's scent. 3. The fact that Grenouille can smell so strongly, that he can smell the essence of a woman… silliness aside, that's fine. But then why would him taking that scent (which is largely faint to the average human) from multiple woman and cocktailing them together cause any extraordinary reaction from other humans? Isn't Grenouille the one with the strong nose? Not everyone in Grasse? 4. The whole concept explained about enfleurage is that the matter must be made to "die slowly" so that it can retain its scent. That made sense at first, especially when we saw the first victim lose her scent 30 seconds after she died. So them how is Grenouille able to extract the scent of all of his other victims if he's straight clubbing their skulls in, hauling their carcasses all the way back to his lab, disrobing them, and shaving them? That's a long time. Makes no sense. 5. Baby Grenouille kung-pow gripped the boy's finger to smell it. Enough said. 6. Why does Grenouille care so much about other people's perception of his own identity? It would have been nice if the movie established some kind of motivation with this, such as his previous handlers not referring to him by name, or perhaps him noticing that all people/things with scent seemingly have value. His obsession with self-identity came out of nowhere, and left his initial "gotta smell them all" motivation off by the wayside. 7. This movie was LONG. And unnecessarily-so. Many scenes were either too long, with no value added, or just repeats of what we've already seen. For example, the filmmakers decided to show almost the entire enfleurage process for half of Grenouille's victims. We only needed to see it once. And while I'm sure many other people enjoyed the length and focus of the olfactoral orgy scene, I thought it could have been at least 10 minutes shorter. Now for the praises: 1. Again, the cinematography was stunning. 2. The sound editing was phenomenal, and it really did serve to highlight the concept of heightened senses throughout the movie. 3. Other critics noted that there was a lot of over-acting. I didn't think so. I thought the actors were all excellent. 4. While I don't understand how the concept of Grenouille's curse-like path of destruction toward each of his handlers connects with the rest of the movie's theme, I do appreciate how it was followed-through and wrapped up with the thriving of a once-derelict district of Paris upon Grenouille's death. I guess, in the end, most of my issues were regarding the story. And while I haven't read the book, I suppose it may simply be that I wouldn't like it. Outside of the story, I really did find the production and showcased talent to be impressive. This certainly is a weird one, and I certainly am not surprised that it has an audience. But I can't overlook the story holes.

it's too bad kurt wasn't alive to witness this adaptation of the story that inspired 'scentless apprentice'

An arty and ambitious attempt to adapt Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel and on the whole it's reasonably well done.

A really singular and disturbing, but at the same time arty, this one is a whole different genre