Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11001 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-04-30
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 141 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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, cannibalised 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

Synopsis
Author Patrick Suskind enjoys a career shrouded in Salinger-esque mystery. Suskind’s best-selling novel PERFUME was coveted by Hollywood for many years, and finally makes it to the screen in this production helmed by Tom Tykwer (RUN LOLA RUN). The film stays remarkably faithful to the author’s vision, perfectly summoning up the brooding ominousness of small-town life in 18th-century France, and getting the casting of its central character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), exactly right. Grenouille is an orphan whose sense of smell is extraordinarily acute. He impresses master perfumer Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) enough to work for him, and this sets Grenouille off on an epic quest to find the perfect scent. When he discovers that killing young women and bottling their essence is the only way he can achieve his dream, Grenouille is soon a wanted man with multiple murders to his name. However, when it comes to making one last kill--namely the attractive redhead Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood)--the young perfumer may have met his match in her overprotective father, Richis (Alan Rickman). Tykwer’s film is an impressive achievement, not least because the subject of scent and the cinematic medium were always going to make uneasy bedfellows. Couple that with the weight of expectation caused by the millions of readers who have delighted in Suskind’s words, and it needed a brave director to take on such a project. Whishaw is a revelation in his first major screen appearance, and Tykwer made a wise choice in bringing in some older heads (Rickman, Hoffman) to support the younger actor. Visually, the film is stunning, and cinematographer Frank Griebe clearly worked hard to bring Suskind and Tykwer’s visions to life. But ultimately this is an ensemble piece, with cast and crew all pulling together to create a film that simmers with a hushed menace throughout.

Customer Reviews

Perfume of death
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.

Excellent and well worth the wait!
When I heard that perfume was finally being made in to a movie, I almost fell off my chair! I knew that Suskind had been unwilling to give up the rights for the making of a film so it was with baited breath that I waited to finally see the movie. I was so pleased that it had kept close to the book and that it had been filmed so well against the beautiful scenery of southern France. The quality of the acting is superb especially that of the lead played by Ben Whishaw who plays Jean-Baptiste Grunuis capturing the haunted obsession of a young man who suffers through his tremendous sense of smell and lack of personal odour while he searches for the perfect perfume. Perfume is not a story, which should be read or watched on a passing fancy, it is dark and strange and weaves a fairly simple story in to often-great complexity. If you don't get it, read the book or watch the movie again. It's well worth taking the time with both and ultimately the film is a rare find in that it accurately captures the heart and sole of Suskind's original work.

Snort for the faint-hearted
Critics have famously said that Patrick Suskind's novel, from which this movie is adapted, is unfilmable. How can a director even get close to evoking the stench of putrid, pre-revolutionary Paris? Well, darn it, they very early managed it.

Director Tom Tykwer has managed to bring to the screen, through various images, some of them not very pleasant, a whiff of the time. It's strewn with sewage, fish guts, maggots, rotten veg, it it stinks it will be in there. From this fetid stew, comes the story of a serial killer who just happens to have the greatest sense of smell in the world. Wishaw's nose, often in close up and sometimes creeping out from his shadow-covered face, plays a big part.

The acting is fine, especially Ben Wishaw as the tormented Grenouille. Hoffman and Rickman also put in good performances but it's the setting and the directing which take the plaudits. With creepy voiceover, it's treated like a very dark, very adult fairytale and that's how viewers should approach it. It's a bit Edward Scissorhands without the slushy bits. Yes, it is fantastic but aren't all fairytales?

My one fear is that those who have not read the book might find it harder to get to grips with the storyline and the lead character's olfactorial skills. It's still well worth a look though, if you can manage to sniff out a copy.