“PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER” (2006)

Starring: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, David Calder, Birgit Minichmayr, Sian Thomas, Alvaro Roque, Franck Lefeuvre, Jaume Montané, Duna Jové, Karoline Herfurth, Carolina Vera-Squella, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Sara Forestier, Joanna Griffiths & Jessica Schwarz
Written by Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer & Patrick Süskind (novel “Das Parfum”)
Directed by Tom Tykwer

Polly Staffle Rating: ****

Love and obsession are not the same thing. But sometimes people have trouble telling the difference between them. You can be obsessed with someone or something you love, but just because you’re obsessed doesn’t mean you’re in love. Obessions are usually founded on ideas that aren’t true. They’re fantasies - often times superficial and based on lust, but they can also be projections of our desires. Since the obsessions are fueled by imagination, they can lead to unreal expectations that are unable to be met in reality. Unaddressed for too long, these obsessions can be very disruptive to people’s lives, not only to the obsessive, but all those around them. Tom Tykwer’s “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” is a film that explores an obsession that goes horribly wrong.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born into the slums of eighteenth-century France. His mother is a fish monger. She gives birth to him on the street under her stall. Assuming he is a still birth, she dumps him with the fish scraps. He is raised as an orphan and sold into slavery.

It was very easy for everyone around him to see that Jean-Baptiste was no ordinary person. Nobody could really put their finger on it, but he was different than everybody else. Other children wanted nothing to do with him. He was even almost suffocated as an infant by a group of orphans. It wasn’t until he was a young adult that Jean-Baptiste learned that he had an extremely strong sense of smell.

Armed with this ability, Jean-Baptiste has a field day walking through the city. He likes any and all smells and loves discovering new ones. Then he stumbles across his favorite new scent – a young raven-haired female. He approaches her to get a stronger whiff, but is rejected. The incident then accidentally turns tragic in a scene that reminded me of “Frankenstein” when the monster throws the little girl in the water. Both Jean-Baptiste and the monster are careless in their actions, but the deaths they cause are due to ignorance and their lack of social interactions.

But Jean-Baptiste soon becomes a bigger monster than Frankenstein ever was. The woman’s scent has such an impact on him that he becomes obsessed with capturing smells and making the world’s greatest perfume. In a nutshell, his life’s ambition becomes to make perfume out of beautiful women. Accomplishing this will not only satisfy himself in some weird sexual fetish, but will also leave a legacy, or so Jean-Baptiste seems to think. In doing so, he becomes a Jack the Ripper-like serial killer, but instead of slitting the throats of his victims, he cuts off their hair. Madness, nudity, death and dark humor ensues.

By the time authorities catch up to Jean-Baptiste, he has killed 15 women, counting his accidental murder. Thirteen of the kills make up his ultimate perfume; one was practice perfecting his craft. Jean-Baptiste is sentenced to be nailed to a cross, beaten until every bone in his body is broken and then hanged. When it comes time for the execution, Jean-Baptiste unleashes his perfume. The blood thirsty mob that has gathered to cheer on his death suddenly gets naked and has a giant orgy.

Jean-Baptiste begins to cry. His tears are not of joy, but of sadness. Though he has accomplished what he wanted and created the ultimate perfume – one that is so strong that it works as an aphrodisiac and brings joy and happiness to those that inhale it – nothing has changed for Jean-Baptiste. The completion of his work has not brought love to him. He’s as empty and sad as he ever was. It’s not him that the people love and desire, it’s his product. He has spent all of this time and energy on an obsession that he felt would reward him greatly, but it hasn’t and will not. He also had become so wrapped up in this obsession that he missed out on all that was going on around him. Instead of falling in love, having a family and establishing himself as a legit perfumist, Jean-Baptiste lived a life of crime and in doing so brought bad luck, misery and sadness into the lives of those he came in contact with.

Tom Tykwer, who brought us great unconventional love stories with “Heaven,” “Princess and the Warrior” and “Run Lola, Run,” has now delivered a very surreal film about obsession. What I like best about “Perfume” is though it is set in the eighteenth century, the themes are very modern. There’s a jab at corruption in the justice system with an innocent man knowingly being executed. And more so, how quickly the public’s opinion changed about Jean-Baptiste, reminded me of how forgiving our society can be when it comes to politicians, celebrities and such.

At the same time, Jean-Baptiste can be likened to a childlike entertainer or an immature athlete born with a gift. He spends his life trying to accomplish something with that gift in order to be loved, only to have it backfire on him. And since his entire life was spent developing that single part of who he is, Jean-Baptiste is an incomplete person incapable of functioning amongst the rest of society.

Overall, this is a beautifully executed film. The acting is solid. Ben Whishaw is good in the lead. I could’ve easily seen Christian Bale in the role, but Whishaw turns in a fine performance. Dustin Hoffman pops up for his best support work in a while and John Hurt’s narration was definitely a nice touch, giving the film a slight “Elephant Man” feel to it. But above anything else, Tykwer’s directing is what really makes “Perfume.” This guy is on fire. Tykwer can do no wrong these days. I felt he misfired with the 1997 film “Winter Sleepers,” but “Perfume” marks his fourth straight four-star picture in my eyes. Tykwer is currently in preproduction for his next film “The International.” Slated to star in the thriller are Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, who have both been involved with some pretty big stinkers lately. No worries. With Tykwer at the helm, I’m sure “The International” will come out smelling like roses.

- CCF, August 2007