Perfume [DVD]

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.

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.

Having rented and watched this film last night, and being so impressed with it, I thought I just had to write a review. I have never read the book, so wasn't sure what to expect. What I found, was one of the best films I've seen this year. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, takes us into his world, which revolves around his fantastic sense of smell. We follow him as he trys to capture and preserve the most precious scent of all.... women. With great acting and wonderful imagery throughout, this is a must see film! Like the others reviewers say, don't listen to what people have said about the ending!