Perfume: the Story of a Murderer is the compelling, and creepy, tale of a man doomed from the day he was born. The film is directed with technical virtuosity and an extremely adept visual sensibility by Tom Tykwer. The story is bizarre, and, at times, tragic. However, the film suffers near the end when the story takes an almost nonsensical turn that reduces the film's visceral impact and fails to fit the rest of the story thematically.
Based on the novel by Patrick Suskind, Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), a fictional 18th century Parisian perfumer, who is also the subject of the Nirvana song, The Scentless Apprentice. His life starts with a birth beneath a fishmonger's stall. Soon schlepped off to an orphanage, Jean-Baptiste realizes he has a uniquely superior sense of smell. Later apprenticed to perfumer Giusseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), Grenouille begins to explore a darker side of perfume making in his attempts to create the perfect smell.
Dealing with personal alienation and serial murder is rarely a "fun" thing in any medium. But, somehow, Tykwer manages to tell the story in a surprisingly watchable fashion. The world is treated with a certain sense of humor, and even death is shown in a comical light, from time to time. Rather than creating a morose, dark film, Tykwer balances sheer creepiness and dark comedy that makes the film enjoyable, without turning it into a farce. Another interesting point is that the film never judges Grenuille. The townspeople definitely do, and their judgment is harsh, but that appraisal stays within the narrative of the film. In fact, a narrator is used to tell the majority of the story. This technique helps to distance the spectator from the main character, giving the spectator enough space that he or she can withhold their verdict, allowing them to enjoy the movie, as a hated main character tends to make any film less fun to watch. However, purposefully preventing the audience from identifying with the main character is a double-edged sword. Doing so requires the character to remain somewhat undeveloped, and an underdeveloped main character is never a good thing, as it leaves the audience without any sense of the character's motivation. Even the antagonist in a good story requires some kind of explanation of their motives, otherwise the spectator is left wandering "why?" throughout the entire film.
Visually, Perfume is a feast for the senses. It would be the perfect film to showcase Hans Laube's Smell-o-Vision, (or John Water's Odorama, for that matter) but even without such a gimmick, the film is able to showcase the sense of smell beautifully. Tykwer and DP Frank Griebe use extreme close-ups as a stand-in for Jean-Baptiste's exceptional sense of smell, and it works extremely well. Combined with Alexander Berner's exceptional editing, every rotting fish and beautiful woman almost feel as if they are in the audience under Griebe's wide-open lens.
In the end, Perfume: the Story of a Murderer is a well told story that spends most of the time being a story worth telling. It deals with its main character's emotional alienation in an amusing way. It only fails in not fully developing its characters and having an ending that is borderline inexplicable. Other than those faults, it is a very easy film to recommend to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of macabre humor or a character that is certifiably psychotic.
Technorati Tags:Tom Tykwer Tom Tykwer, perfume, murder, patrick, suskind, dustin, hoffman, ben, whishaw, nirvana, serial, killer, grenouille, film, cinema, review, movie
Based on the novel by Patrick Suskind, Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), a fictional 18th century Parisian perfumer, who is also the subject of the Nirvana song, The Scentless Apprentice. His life starts with a birth beneath a fishmonger's stall. Soon schlepped off to an orphanage, Jean-Baptiste realizes he has a uniquely superior sense of smell. Later apprenticed to perfumer Giusseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), Grenouille begins to explore a darker side of perfume making in his attempts to create the perfect smell.
Dealing with personal alienation and serial murder is rarely a "fun" thing in any medium. But, somehow, Tykwer manages to tell the story in a surprisingly watchable fashion. The world is treated with a certain sense of humor, and even death is shown in a comical light, from time to time. Rather than creating a morose, dark film, Tykwer balances sheer creepiness and dark comedy that makes the film enjoyable, without turning it into a farce. Another interesting point is that the film never judges Grenuille. The townspeople definitely do, and their judgment is harsh, but that appraisal stays within the narrative of the film. In fact, a narrator is used to tell the majority of the story. This technique helps to distance the spectator from the main character, giving the spectator enough space that he or she can withhold their verdict, allowing them to enjoy the movie, as a hated main character tends to make any film less fun to watch. However, purposefully preventing the audience from identifying with the main character is a double-edged sword. Doing so requires the character to remain somewhat undeveloped, and an underdeveloped main character is never a good thing, as it leaves the audience without any sense of the character's motivation. Even the antagonist in a good story requires some kind of explanation of their motives, otherwise the spectator is left wandering "why?" throughout the entire film.
Visually, Perfume is a feast for the senses. It would be the perfect film to showcase Hans Laube's Smell-o-Vision, (or John Water's Odorama, for that matter) but even without such a gimmick, the film is able to showcase the sense of smell beautifully. Tykwer and DP Frank Griebe use extreme close-ups as a stand-in for Jean-Baptiste's exceptional sense of smell, and it works extremely well. Combined with Alexander Berner's exceptional editing, every rotting fish and beautiful woman almost feel as if they are in the audience under Griebe's wide-open lens.
In the end, Perfume: the Story of a Murderer is a well told story that spends most of the time being a story worth telling. It deals with its main character's emotional alienation in an amusing way. It only fails in not fully developing its characters and having an ending that is borderline inexplicable. Other than those faults, it is a very easy film to recommend to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of macabre humor or a character that is certifiably psychotic.
Technorati Tags:Tom Tykwer Tom Tykwer, perfume, murder, patrick, suskind, dustin, hoffman, ben, whishaw, nirvana, serial, killer, grenouille, film, cinema, review, movie
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