PERFUME

Released in 2006, and directed by Tom Tykwer Perfume is a harrowing tale of the Drama genre. The story is taken from the book 'Perfume' written by Patrick Suskind.

Synopsis

Set in 18th Century France in a small sleepy town a mother gives birth to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. She immediately abandons him in the Parisian fish market, under a filthy market stall rife with rats and the stench of fish. Immediately Jean-Baptiste is enveloped in a putrid smell of the markets wares of rotting meat, maggots, and old food, which are presented to us in a series of snapshots. The child sniffs the air, and these are the first smells his young highly developed olfactory senses are greeted by. The mother is hung for her crime of child abandonment, and the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille begins. He is immediately taken into care, has an abysmal upbringing, and then when old enough he is sold into slavery. Jean-Baptiste has been gifted with an overdeveloped sense of smell, acute heightened olfactory senses. He is able to pick out and isolate a single scent from any given situation. He derives great pleasure from this, and it is his very reason to be.

Jean-Baptiste is fascinated with the petals of the rose, and extracts and bottles their essence, adding ingredients to formulate many beautiful and interesting fragrances. Frustrated with the limitations of the floral aroma, and striving for the ultimate scent. He discovers he has acquired an unhealthy obsession with the smell of a young female in her virginal state. With a fevered passion he wonders how he could bottle this intoxicating fragrance, realising the only way he could do this would be to kill the woman to extract the life core 'essence' from her at the 'moment' of death, knowing that the fragrance disappears soon afterwards.

His search to unlock the ultimate perfume leads him into the depths of depravity and ensuing insanity. Meanwhile master perfumier Giuseppe Baldini takes the young man on as his assistant perfumier. Jean-Baptiste impressed him greatly at his interview, when he is asked to make an original scent. Baldini tells him 12 notes make the perfect perfume and the thirteenth note adds that extra special ingrediant. Baldini is taken aback when Jean-Baptiste concocts a fragrance unlike any that he has smelt before, and Baldini sees the young man as an instrument to help his flailing business. With Jean-Baptiste on board he can present France with a new perfume like no other. -

Opinion

I thought the life of 18th Century France in a small town was captured very well on screen, Frank Griebes cinematography was stunning with beautiful panning camera work. I like the colours used within this film they were drab and neutral depicting the grimness of the storyline and costume, then contrasting to vivid colour to the opulence of the upper class. I thought the film was carefully constructed in an attempt to bring the authors book to life. This is a hard story to put to screen and very brave an attempt it was. It is a very unusual subject and needed careful handling so as not to make the film appear ridiculous. I think they succeeded in the main, but the ending let the film down for me I'm afraid. I found it comical and hard to believe in, and felt they had gone one step too far.. They seemed to lose the thread towards the end, which is a shame as the film built well throughout. This could have been a masterpiece of film making, but instead it stops short about three quarters of the way through, and seems to lose it's vision.

The sinister quality threaded throughout the film was evident, and a feeling of disgust always had to creep in from time to time because of the films subject. I found watching the the character of Jean Baptiste unfold, a fascinating character study, and Ben Whishaw played the part with a very believable reality. His acting, though virtually non verbal is done through the eyes. He displayed an animal quality and a child like innocence all at the same time. He seemed without guilt or conscience to the acts he was committing. A detached individual with no social skills or experience of correct human interaction. An excellent performance I thought, chilling in fact! Convincingly animalistic in his base need for the essence of life. Voice over narration was used for his character as he barely utters a sound, and I felt I got all I needed from the actors facial expressions and eyes, to feel a kind of empathy with his plight, without the need for speech. I think the sense of smell, which is very important to the film came across very well in transference. It's all to do with the actors ability to portray emotions and senses. I could actually smell the rose petals as he prepared them.

This film is based on the olfactory senses and crosses the film audience divide very well as far as I am concerned. With snapshot images of random objects he isolates from a chosen situation, and close up photography of Jean Baptiste nostrils picking up the scent. It's like anything, you just have to use your imagination, and get enveloped by the imagery. The feel throughout the film was one of subdued terror simmering away under the storyline. I felt slightly sick throughout watching the film as the actors portrayal of the main protagonist was so convincing. The story being so unusual it was very interesting to watch, like no other film I had seen before. So it was quite revolutionary in it's appeal for me. So much so in fact that It has made me want to read the book now, as I have heard that the film has stuck as closely to the book as far as possible. A good cast of actors including the brilliant Dustin Hoffman who played his part as perfumier with his usual practiced flair, maybe a tad ott on the characterisation, but nonetheless a convincing performance.

The direction was excellent. Casting spot on, and I was very impressed with the costume department for perfect adherence to the period down to the very last detail. The scenes were set with excellent attention to propping giving the whole film a truly authentic atmosphere of small town Grenouille in 18th century France. The musical score was fantastic, and cinematogrophy superb. I enjoyed this film for it's difference, and for it's attempt to put a difficult literary work onto the big screen.-

BBFC Rating 15. Contains sexual nudity and disturbing images

Cast

Ben Whishaw
Rachel Hurd Wood,
Alan Rickman,
Dustin Hoffman,

Director(s): Tom Tykwer.
Produced by Bernd Eichinger
Written by Patrick Süskind (novel)
Andrew Birkin
Bernd Eichinger
Narrated by Tom Tykwer
Music by Tom Tykwer
Johnny Klimek
Reinhold Heil
performed by Berliner Philharmoniker
conducted by Simon Rattle
Cinematography Frank Griebe

Thank you for reading
Electra 2008*