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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 4437
Released: July 24, 2007 |
| Our Price: $13.90 |
| Used Price: $6.43 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Based on the bestselling novel, "Perfume" is a story of an obsession so overwhelming that it leads to murder. In18th-century France lived Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), who was born with a phenomenal sense of smell. But as his gift becomes an obsession, he strives to create the most intoxicating perfume in the world by murdering young women to capture their essence.
Description of Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer:
Based on Patrick Suskind's novel about a serial killer who hunts victims with his superhuman sense of smell, Perfume: Story of a Murderer is a florid, grisly portrayal of this historical drama set in 18th century France. Jean-Baptiste Grunuis (Ben Whishaw) is born under his mother's table at the fish market, onto a pile of muddy fish guts, establishing from the beginning his repulsion for putrid scents. A childhood of neglect and, later, a job at a tannery, encourage Jean-Baptiste to develop his olfactory sense rather than his verbal skills, so that an opportunity to prove his worth to Parisian perfumist, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), results in his immediate hire into a promising new career. His successes in perfume mixing are negated by a blinding obsession for capturing the sublime beauty of human soul, which in his twisted logic requires the killing of young women to reduce their body fats to essential oils for the ultimate, cannibalized eau de parfum. An omniscient narrator tells the story with much sympathy for Jean-Baptiste's perverted psychology, making it, often, too obvious that his need for love justifies his murderous desire to capture misguided sexual attractions in a vile. Continuous close-ups of Grunius's nose, countered by close-ups of the places and objects he smells, enhance the viewer's understanding of his sensitivity. Repeated comparisons are made between the killer and dogs who aid, then expose his sick experimentation. The settings are fascinating, especially Baldini's perfumery and some later scenes in enflorage factories outside Provence. Whishaw's and Hoffman's performances are both grand. But Perfume unnecessarily spells out Jean-Baptiste's psychosis, squelching any chance for metaphor. This is unfortunate, considering the story's paradoxical nature. As this crude hunter navigates his way through a world of utmost delicacy, one craves ambiguity rather than explanation. --Trinie Dalton
Stills from Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (click for larger image)
Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer Reviews:
Wasted Opportunity 
2009-11-25 - Stanley Kubrick owned this property for quite a long time and couldn't make it work. Before Diving Bell and The Butterfly Julian Schnabel was trying to finance Perfume. The problem is the sense of smell -- do you go CGI or the flush of actors faces? They don't photograph cigarette smoke like James Wong Howe anymore.
The Best depiction of scent ever put on film was a cartoon -- Pepe Le Pew the lusty skunk. The way to crack this book is as an adult animated film. I pictured Peter Lorre as Grenouille when I read it.
How many times between Freaky Friday and Big did someone make a picture where parent and child flip minds and lead each the other's life? This movie was not good. It is still waiting to be made.
Perfume is not a great subject ruined by excess -- free base cocaine lets say -- Dennis Hopper and The Last Movie: This is a great subject ruined by competence. Many poor decisions are made.
Undoubtedly someone else has mentioned it but if they haven't Scentless Apprentice by Nirvana was inspired by Patrick Suskind's book. Can you imagine a movie poster with the slug line: Kurdt Cobain's favorite novel finally comes to the screen. Studio films still suck. Does somebody have a pencil?
I Hate Myself And Want To Die was based on Lemony Snicket.
Some books don't read as dark as they would appear to the eye. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by Chuck Barris was loose and funny. George Clooney evidently thought he was reading Goethe.
The loss of color is one fatal flaw of this picture. Schindler's List should not have been in black and white but as least Spielberg was aware of our newsreel memory. The technical advance in his black and white over the newsreel that you know had the impact of a closer look. He also tapped into nostalgia. Let this never happen again -- Rwanda is totally different -- this we can never let happen again. So separation was important. It wasn't Come and See by Elem Klimov; the best film ever made about World War Two. That couldn't be popular.
The loss of color takes us from what is clearly an imaginative tale into the mud. This is not in keeping with the book which was clear lush High pop. You have millions of people going to these Twilight movies with vampires and werewolves -- A movie of Perfume, in keeping with the novel, should be as light as the darkness of Dracula or zombies and only a little more.
You have to leave Perfume with some sense of subtlety.
This should be Pixar's first movie for adults.
Different movie than the regular Hollywood blockbusters 
2009-11-06 - I rented 'Perfume' from local library and I really enjoyed watching it. Infact, I'm going to order a copy of DVD add it to my collection.
perfume
2009-11-03 - This is a great movie,very dark and kind of sad. Good story line you don't know whether to be appalled or feel sorry for the main character...must see!
A Stunning Experience
2009-10-31 - "Perfume" is an absolutely stunning movie. It grabs the viewer from the first moment when a baby is apparently stillborn under the table of a fishmonger's stall amidst garbage and fish innards, in one of the slimiest parts of Paris. But the baby fights to live and live he does despite his desperate beginning and childhood.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is shunned by everyone: his social interactions are abnormal and he cannot relate emotionally with anyone, except to protect himself. However, he does possess an extraordinary skill: his sense of smell. He can smell things that other humans do not believe have any smell at all, e.g. glass, copper, stone etc. His goal in life becomes how to capture the essence of smells, particularly those of the human soul.
This quest leads him to develop methods of preserving human essences, but in order to retrieve them, he has to kill the people whose essences he desires. They are all beautiful young women.
The story starts as a "true" tale told in flashback and it seems totally believable, even though it is fiction. The filmmakers also generate an atmosphere that makes you think you smell what he is smelling too--an amazing feat.
This is an exceptional film, not quite like anything else I have ever seen, except perhaps "Sweeny Todd". This is far superior and is spectacular on every level. The ending is grisly but so are the crimes he commits. This is a one-of-a-kind experience and highly recommended.
Perfume
2009-09-29 - One of Dustin Hoffman's best. The story is haunting and told in narrative that keeps you completely mesmerized. Give this movie a try.
