A perfume maker's work turns sinister in this dark thriller.
The idea of scent is, for obvious reasons, not usually expressed through the medium of cinema. This film tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a young man born into the rotten core of 18th century Paris, possessing the most acute sense of smell in the world. Guided by narrator John Hurt, we follow this strange boy"s life from birth and abandonment among the putrid fish innards of a market stall to a career as a perfumer in a town in Provence. His every action is led by one obsession: To create the ultimate perfume by capturing what he considers to be the scent of beauty and the essence of love he cannot feel. For this higher purpose he feels justified in clubbing young women to death. CKone won"t do then?
But how do you describe an aroma without getting a whiff of it? Grenouille himself cannot find the words: "something...something" he utters when his nose finds another delicious smell. Patrick Suskin"s bestselling book on which the film was based was declared by Stanley Kubrick as "unfilmable". Yet ironically, by concentrating on our other senses, director Tom Tykwer gives us such an impression of what a smell should look and sound like, that the slap of a greasy fish or a close-up of a fleshy yellow plum carries us into the olfactory realms of Grenouille"s world.
It is an almost silent but incredibly striking performance from newcomer Ben Whishaw, whose fragile physique and dark features give the character an autistic, practically animalistic intensity. He brings us Grenouille, not as a sadistic killer but an amoral outsider whose frustrated desperation somehow inspires our pity. Whishaw even manages to outshine scene-stealing turns from Alan Rickman and a camp Dustin Hoffman.
This film is worth seeing for the intoxicating cinematography alone, and in spite of an implausible finale which might have some scratching their heads, the complete result is one of the most creative adaptations for a long time. Its scent will stay with you for days.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. He lived to find beauty. He killed to possess it. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with no smell, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent. Actors Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd Wood, Andreas Herrera, Simon Chandler, David Calder, Richard Felix, Birgit Minichmayr, Reg Wilson, Carlos Gramaje, Sian Thomas & Michael Smiley Director Tom Tykwer Certificate 15 years and over Year 2006 Screen Widescreen Anamorphic Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1) Subtitles English Duration 2 hours and 27 minutes (approx) Region Region 2 - Will only play on European Region 2 or multi-region DVD players.
Tale of murder and intrigue explores the under-reported sense of smell in a tale from the blockbuster novel by Patrick Süsskind. Grenouille is a baby born into squalor. Uniquely, he is born with no scent of his own - causing his own mother and a string of surrogate mothers to shun him. The result of his not having a smell, however, is that he develops the strongest sense of smell imaginable. He becomes apprentice to a famed perfumer (Dustin Hoffman) who hones his craft and makes his fortune from the talented waif. Obsessed with wringing the essence out of anything with a smell, the idea soon occurs to Grenouille that a beautiful, fine smelling woman might make the perfect tea bag for a vat of wonderful perfume. Things take a dark turn for the smell-free youth, however and, in his quietly desperate, compulsive search for new odours, nothing can stand between him and the scents he wishes to acquire.
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