Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Tom Tykwer

Writers (WGA):

Andrew Birkin (screenplay) &
Bernd Eichinger (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 January 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

He lived to find beauty. He killed to possess it.

Plot:

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with a superior olfactory sense, creates the world's finest perfume. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent.

Plot Keywords:

Perfume | Scent | Search | Stench | Rowboat

Awards:

12 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Ben Whishaw	...	Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Francesc Albiol	...	Court Official
Gonzalo Cunill	...	Guard 1 Dungeon
Roger Salvany	...	Guard 2 Dungeon
Andrés Herrera	...	Door Guard (as Andres Herrera)
Simon Chandler	...	Mayor of Grasse
David Calder	...	Bishop of Grasse
Richard Felix	...	Chief Magistrate
Birgit Minichmayr	...	Grenouille's Mother
Reg Wilson	...	Customer - Fishmarket
Catherine Boisgontier	...	Woman - Fishmarket
Núria Casas	...	Woman 2 - Fishmarket (as Nuria Casas)
Carlos Gramaje	...	Police Lieutenant - Fishmarket
Sian Thomas	...	Madame Gaillard
Michael Smiley	...	Porter

Also Known As:

Das Parfum - Die Geschichte eines Mörders (Germany)
El perfume - Historia de un asesino (Spain)
Le parfum - Histoire d'un meurtrier (France)
Perfume (International: English title) (informal short title)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality, and disturbing images.

Runtime:

147 min

Country:

Germany | France | Spain | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R | Germany:12 | Czech Republic:12 | UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:R21 | Brazil:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Japan:PG-12 | Sweden:15 | South Korea:15 | Malaysia:18PL | Argentina:16 | Spain:18 | Australia:MA | Portugal:M/16 (Qualidade) | Philippines:R-18 | Peru:18 | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Constantin Film Produktion

Trivia:

Author Patrick Süskind is known to be very skeptical and for a long time did not want to sell the movie rights to his novel. His experience with producer Bernd Eichinger and others who desperately wanted to turn "Das Parfum" into a movie was shown in the satire Rossini (1997), for which he wrote the screenplay himself. His character is the strange author Jakob Windisch, Producer Bernd Eichinger is portrayed in the character Oskar Reiter. In Rossini, the book everybody was fighting over was changed into a novel about the Loreley-legend. Other characters in this movie are caricatures of the Munich media business.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Fifteen minutes into the movie, Jean-Baptiste enters town and sees a carriage with two women inside, one holding a Pomeranian. According to the American Pomeranian Club, "When (Pomeranians) first came to notice in Britain in the middle of the 19th century, some specimens were said to weigh as much as thirty pounds and to resemble the German wolf Spitz in size, coat and color." The film takes place in the mid-seventeen hundreds (the 18th century). The Pomeranian, as we know it today, would not have existed as depicted in the film.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Court Official: Quick. We can't hold them back much longer. Hurry. Come on!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe (2007)

Soundtrack:

Tarentelle

Tykwer is a master

I didn't expect too much of the film as the producer, Bernd Eichinger, didn't succeed in my point of view with other book to film transitions like the name of the rose, the house of spirits or Smilla's sense of snow. they were all far too corny and even though each film had its moment, the films just weren't very good. I suspected the same to happen with the perfume. the teaser trailer was excellent, but the regular trailer spoilt a lot as it just showed too much and didn't capture the film's quality at all. so i entered the film with trepidation and was convinced otherwise. Tom Tykwer showed us again and again that he is a huge talent, be it winter sleeper, Lola runs or the warrior and the empress. the perfume is a visual feast. all roles are perfectly cast, the music, the camera, everything fits together like a perfect jigsaw puzzle. And the film isn't Hollywood-like mainstream like e.g. the Da Vinci Code at all. thank god. it has lots of black humor without getting cynic, it is quite amoral and at other times just immersed in beauty - and every penny of its 50 Mio euro budget shows. how much better to spend 50 Mio in the perfume than 150 Mio in crap movies like Wolfgang Petersen's latest. i am already very much looking forward to Mr Tykwer's next film. he plays in another league now.