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Title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ben Whishaw | ... | Jean-Baptiste Grenouille | |
 |
Francesc Albiol | ... | Court Official |
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Gonzalo Cunill | ... | Guard 1 Dungeon |
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Roger Salvany | ... | Guard 2 Dungeon |
| Andrés Herrera | ... | Door Guard | |
| Simon Chandler | ... | Mayor of Grasse | |
| David Calder | ... | Bishop of Grasse | |
| Richard Felix | ... | Chief Magistrate | |
| Birgit Minichmayr | ... | Grenouille's Mother | |
| Reg Wilson | ... | Customer Fishmarket | |
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Catherine Boisgontier | ... | Woman Fishmarket |
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Núria Casas | ... | Woman 2 Fishmarket |
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Carlos Gramaje | ... | Police Lieutenant Fishmarket |
| Sian Thomas | ... | Madame Gaillard | |
| Michael Smiley | ... | Porter | |
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) came into the world unwanted, expected to die, yet born with an unnerving sense of smell that created alienation, as well as talent. Of all of the smells around him, Grenouille is beckoned to the scent of a woman's soul, and spends the rest of his life attempting to smell her essence again by becoming a perfumer, and creating the essence of an innocence lost.
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To my dismay this movie has been accused of dealing with the addressed subjects only on the surface and just trying to shock the audience with extreme imagery. I strongly have to disagree with that. "Das Parfum" may be a lot of things but shocking sure isn't one of them. Of course it is visually overwhelming and not only with pictures of pretty flowers and sounds of the wind softly shaking the trees on a warm summer night but what is this movie, if not a piece about the sensuality of the human being? Yes, it is about smells but smelling is just simply not one of the things you can experience while sitting in a movie theatre. This motion picture however comes very close to it. We see close-ups on maggots crawling around and fish getting their heads chopped of but also human bodies in all their perfection and people declaring their honest love for one another. It might be impossible to make the audience fully understand the world in which Jean-Baptiste Grenouille lives but it does manage to create a similar vibe that brings us close to what Grenouille "feels" when he smells. Tom Tykwer beautifully achieves to always put the audience in the right mood, with the help of an amazing soundtrack and great camera work.
One could criticize that Ben Wishaw is too good looking for the part but we have to keep in mind that this story is supposed to be about the character of Grenouille and the way he himself sees his live. Since to him, the smell is the soul of every being, his appearance does not matter to him. So we might as well thank Tom Tykwer for casting an actor who is pretty decent to look at for two and half hours.
Please watch this movie without any prejudices. Open your mind to images and sounds and try to imagine what your feeling could "smell" like. And even if that does not work you can still just enjoy a beautifully told story. Either way, you will be touched.