Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer

Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer
by Tom Tykwer

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DVD details

Actor: Alan Rickman, Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Francesc Albiol, Gonzalo Cunill
Director: Tom Tykwer
Brand: Paramount
Writer: Tom Tykwer
Producer: Andreas Grosch
Producer: Andreas Schmid
Producer: Bernd Eichinger
Writer: Bernd Eichinger
Writer: Andrew Birkin
Writer: Patrick S?skind
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 147 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Dreamworks Video

DVD Reviews of Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer

DVD Review: Weirdest Movie I have ever seen
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a must see! I can't say if it was good or bad - just that it is a very, very strange movie. Great cast, great acting. You MUST watch until the very end. I was tempted to stop it when I thought it was over, but there was still more. I guarantee, you will be talking about it with your friends the next day.

DVD Review: The Smell is Unforgettable
Summary: 1 Stars

It's--a movie. Lots of money was spent on it apparently. It's great to see Dustin Hoffman's grandfather is still spry and getting work. Perfume is really--well it's like--remember when we had to read long novels in school and we wished somewhere in the book, the earth would open up and--well, it kind of happens here kind of. I think the rodent was the tip off. But man when they sell a movie, they really hook you and--ok--it's not something I would--I didn't watch the interviews with the film makers cause--ah--I didn't want to spoil the bouquet.

And of course death has its lingering scent--Andy Warhol's Frankenstein proved that--it's just--well--it's a long movie or maybe not. And it is based on an unfilmable novel--some reviews say--and I'd take that as a measure of warning--well what I'm trying to say, without spoiling the surprises, and that is one tough thing to do--let's just say you may be singing Good Morning, Starshine or Hair by the time the perfume just soaks into everything--the room, the furniture, the aforementioned hair--

It's just--getting back to that what we would like to happen in the middle of a novel we're forced to read in school--and you want to run from the room when your face is just about as full of blood as it can get--that rodent scene kind of makes one feel the same way--course the stench of France then--well--you gotta smell then you gotta smell, I say.

Remember Hans Conreid on an I Love Lucy show reciting his poem that ends with "....I just love to stand there and smell"? It's kind of a huge practical--well, I don't want to spoil the vintage here--I would have loved to have seen this in an art theatre--not really--and go around giving the audience a hot foot--cause that would be liberating--kind of symbolic too I guess--

Oh come on, the movie stinks, the thing is a practical joke, there is one line toward the last that will leave you in hysterical laughter, so see the thing, really, cause it's just one of the most--well, you remember Goldman's law concerning more than one writer, or two writers--this film could have used William Goldman as script doc--don't think I'll be buying the novel it's based--it's based on a novel? Lord. Is there no shame?

Any how..it's a movie to give one that smell of delusion, not to mention the drugs they must have been on when they made this--you remember Snidley Whiplash? And how we hated him? But we loved him too cause he was so Snidley. Doesn't have anything to do with Perfume: The Story of a Killer--just wanted to mention it. But it's good Dustin Hoffman's grandfather still gets work--his house caves in--well--it's like they're saying just how long can they string us along here?

And from some of these reviews apparently a long long time. It's a movie about murder. And it's--well--the breakout comedy hit of the year. Get that blu-ray--yep--do get that blu-ray. Honest. It's a love in, yes sir, with some of the ugli---well never mind. You can tell people about the movie. And they will take one giant step back from you and look around nervously for the nearest exit. S'true. I lived to tell the tale.

DVD Review: Perfect!
Summary: 5 Stars

The film deals with the extremely difficult problem of dealing with how to translate an entire story based on smell onto the screen. I don't want to reveal too much about this, but they were definitely successful! The ending of this movie is absolutely incredible!

DVD Review: This frog has no scent
Summary: 2 Stars

The book was a bit of a publishing sensation in Germany in the early 80s. The author was not known for writing novels, or prose in general. He was a TV scriptwriter, if I remember right. The book was a big success. I liked it for its lighthanded witty amoral entertainment value. I am not sure if I would still like it on a re-visit.
The story is about a freak of nature, Grenouille, a man without an own scent, but with 'the best nose in the world', who will literally kill for his craft of making perfumes.

The movie is a big disappointment. It is actually quite boring. The only reason to stay with it was the exquisite cinematography and music. It claims to be the story of a murderer, but that is misleading if it makes you expect a crime story. As a crime story it has no head nor tail. It is more like a gruesome fairy tale without much beauty to it. Some scenes are rather degoutantes.

The book is clearer about seeing the hero as a monster. The movie manages to make him appear nearly human. Some viewers interpret the ending as an act of forgiveness for the sake of beauty (the mass murderer escapes execution by intoxicating the spectators with his love scents), but I would think that is an overinterpretation. I believe, in fact, that the script has no idea what it means, it just tries to be spectacular.

DVD Review: The Joke's on You.
Summary: 1 Stars

Some of the reviewers who enjoyed this film seem to think those of us who didn't enjoy it missed the point. Well, I despised this film and I know I didn't miss the point. Oh, I tried to like it, too. I remarked at how beautifully filmed it was and I enjoyed the mood the director set. But, the fact that I didn't like it doesn't mean I didn't "get" it. I got it. But, there's a reason so many of the negative reviews mention "The Emperor's New Clothes".

The movie was all dressed up in oversaturated colors and gorgeous scenery. The acting was good enough and the premise even interesting. But, still, it was repugnant. The idea that everyone can forgive Jean-Baptiste for the atrocities he committed because he created something that seemed to be of overwhelming beauty is repulsive. Slaughter isn't beautiful.

And, that's the thing right there. I didn't read the book and don't plan to. Yet, I understand what the filmmaker was doing and what the author of the book was trying to do. However, it doesn't work unless you realize the joke is actually on those who enjoyed it. Those who LIKED the film are those "masses" in the orgy scene-- pseudo-intellectuals seduced by a perfume or a pretty set created with disregard, blood, and pain. The murder of innocents isn't beautiful no matter what nice things are created from their blood. This film is fake art and fake beauty. Those of us who understood this also understood that the orgy scene represented the blind and gullible public at large, easily seduced by charisma, by a pretty scent, by a moody set even though there's no depth and no soul and no intellect and absolutely nothing redeeming at all.

That's what's really ironic here. We actually do get it and, sadly, the joke's on you.

Description of Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer

Based on the bestselling novel, "Perfume" is a story of an obsession so overwhelming that it leads to murder. In18th-century France lived Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), who was born with a phenomenal sense of smell. But as his gift becomes an obsession, he strives to create the most intoxicating perfume in the world by murdering young women to capture their essence.

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, cannibalized 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

Stills from Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (click for larger image)

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