Perfume: The Story of a Murderer **** (2006, Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood) – Classic Movie Review 2939

Director Tom Tykwer’s lovingly crafted 2006 period serial killer movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer isn’t to be sniffed at. Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger and Tykwer’s screenplay makes an involving, often thrilling job of adapting Patrick Süskind’s 1985 hit novel Das Parfum [Perfume], set in 18th century France.

Ben Whishaw breathes the sweet smell of success in his first leading role at 25 playing a killer born with a unique nose and a scarily superior sense of smell. He is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who is beckoned to the scent of a redheaded young woman’s soul, and spends the rest of his life attempting to smell her essence again by becoming a perfumier. He finds that he can create the world’s finest perfume – but then he searches for the ultimate scent.

Also notable in the cast are Dustin Hoffman as Italian perfumier Giuseppe Baldini and Alan Rickman as wealthy Antoine Richis, both relishing their roles, as well as Rachel Hurd-Wood as Laura, Richis’s beautiful, redheaded daughter, Corinna Harfouch as perfumier Madame Arnulfi and Karoline Herfurth as another redheaded girl (selling plums) with an aroma that first excites Grenouille, plus David Calder as the Bishop of Grasse.

John Hurt is another significant character in the drama, though he appears only off-screen as the voice of the Narrator. His inimitable tones help to bring the novel to the screen, a difficult task indeed, for Süskind’s novel isn’t a natural for the cinema, and Tykwer makes quite spectacular work of it, successfully turning it into more of an 18th-century psychological crime thriller rather than the literary historical fantasy original that explores the sense of smell and its relationship with the emotional meanings of scents. The film emerges as a portrait of obsession and alienation.

They have significantly paced up the narrative, glossing over the seven year sequence where Grenouille is disgusted by the scent of humanity and avoids civilisation, and comes to live in a cave inside the Plomb du Cantal, only emerging, haggard, when he finds he does not possess any scent. Sensibly, the film’s Grenouille remains the same young man with the same appearance throughout.

The film’s production is superb, with startling cinematography by Frank Griebe, marvellous production designs by Uli Hanisch, and brilliant costume designs by Pierre-Yves Gayraud. The 1,400 costumes were manufactured in Bucharest, Romania, then aged and dirtied, with the actors wearing them and sleeping in them for several days. The awesome visuals magically re-create the place and period, topped of with an extraordinary execution/ orgy scene, filmed in Barcelona, Spain, in the Poble Espanyol, which took more than a week and 750 extras (including 150 dancers) to film. The Fish Market scenes were shot in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter.

Tykwer also composed the music, with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil.

Also in the cast are Sian Thomas as Madame Gaillard, Sam Douglas as Grimal, Birgit Minichmayr as Grenouille’s mother, Carlos Gramaje as Police Lieutenant, Jessica Schwarz as Natalie, Joanna Griffiths as Marianne, Sara Forestier as Jeanne, Timothy Davies as Chenier and Paul Berrondo as Druot.

Ben Whishaw plays Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man with an overpowering sense of smell.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is directed by Tom Tykwer, runs 147 minutes, is made by Castelao Productions, Neff Productions and VIP Medienfunds 4, distributed by DreamWorks Pictures (US), Constantin Film (Germany) and Metropolitan Filmexport (France), written by Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger and Tom Tykwer, based on Patrick Süskind’s novel Das Parfum [Perfume], shot by Frank Griebe, produced by Bernd Eichinger and scored by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil.

It cost a relatively high $60 million as one of Germany’s most expensive films, but scored a $135 million financial success at the worldwide box office, grossing more than $53 million at home in Germany. However, it disappointed in North America, taking a modest $2,223,293.

Principal photography was from 12 July 2005 to 16 October 2005. The first 15 days were spent on the largest stage of Bavaria Film Studios in Munich, shooting the Baldini and Grenouille workshop scenes, with Hoffman’s scenes completed in the first 11 days. The unit then shot most of the remaining scenes in Barcelona, Girona and Figueres in Catalonia, Spain.

Tykwer is the director of Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas and A Hologram for the King.

Süskind’s novel Das Parfum [Perfume] has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

Tykwer cast Whishaw after seeing him as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn’s London production of the play. Producer Eichinger described Whishaw as embodying both ‘the innocent angel and the murderer’. Tykwer recalled: ‘It only really seemed plausible to choose someone for this role who was completely unknown. You could also say a nobody who is to become a somebody – because that’s what the story is about too.’

This is an intriguing link to The Talented Mr Ripley, another story about a serial killer who is a nobody who is to become a somebody.

The interior of Baldini’s workshop.

Hoffman and Whishaw had a week’s rehearsal and a crash course in perfume making before principal photography. Unusually, their scenes were shot in sequence, so the actors could experience the progression of their characters’ relationship.

Perfume employed 67 actors in speaking roles, workers on 102 sets, 520 technicians and 5,200 extras, nearly 1,000 at once. The climax orgy scene involved 750 extras, including 50 key players from the dance troupe La Fura Dels Baus and another 100 experienced performers in the background. Tykwer considered the orgy scene to be a dance that needed to be choreographed.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2939

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