Product Description
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.System Requirements:Running Time: 147 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 097361178349 Manufacturer No: 117834

Amazon.com
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)

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 124 reviews)

All I can say is Wow!

Personally, my five stars apply to all but the last half hour of the movie. That time was brilliant! The story was different and fascinating. The use of a narrator was wonderful and enhanced the movie (Whereas a lot of narrated movies flop in my opinion because they don't know how to use a narrator, especially an omnipotent one}. Visually the movie is simply stunning. They take an abstract and fanciful story and put it in a visually realistic movie, which makes it simultaneously more believable and fanciful. Now the ending had two problems for me. I am not a huge fan of nudity in movies, but up until the end the nudity was tastefully done and in context did not offend me. However toward the end was a mass orgy where I found the context of the nudity unnecessary for furthering the plot. You can understand perfectly well what is going on without the nudity or even the mass orgy. My second issue was that the ending pushed the fanciful aspect of the movie into an area where I had a hard time suspending my disbelief in order to continue enjoying the movie. But, the time preceding the last half hour was so brilliant it made up for the ending.
August 13, 2008

The making of a Psychopath - nature vs. nurture.

Despite being jaded by the thousands of scenes of violence that you have seen in films up to now, nothing can prepare your for the heartbreaking opening scene of this poor fellow (the movie's antihero) being born and abandoned on a filthy Paris street in a pile of fish remains.

From this moment on you are aware that this human being's life will be different from the average person's. After years of suffering abuse in a harsh orphanage and being forced into slave labour as a young adult, the question of whether criminals are born or nurtured begs to be asked.

While the film reveals early on that this boy is "gifted" with a superior sense of smell, leading to olfactory obsession, it is wrong to assume that this automatically leads to criminal (murderous) proclivities. The film is thankfully vague about this.

In this way the film, like all true art, does not beat you over the head with easy answers, nor does it pontificate an agenda, rather it lets you witness events as the proverbial fly on the wall, and encourages you to ponder whether criminals are born or nurtured by and EXTREMELY harsh and unforgiving society.

Despite his crimes, I felt that given his past, I am more empathetic to criminals and may be less prone to judge. For me, good films challenge my world-view, great films challenge my morals. This one does both.

Although this is not a "popcorn" film, or something that you would automatically sit down to watch with your family, it is powerful and provocative nontheless. Despite its bizaare perfume-fetish-theme, it is socially relevant. It is unfair to say the film is poor because it makes you feel depressed or horrified. Not all films are meant to serve that purpose. Some films are meant to entertain, amuse or alternatively to challenge and provoke.

Although it is possible that some scenes could have been shortened, I never found myself bored but rather felt myself mesmerized by the powerful images.

August 05, 2008

The story of a murderer

I've read the book 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind and was surprised at how well this adaptation was made. The visual imagery is amazing. This is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grunuis (Ben Whishaw), who has a super-human sense of smell but no natural body-odour of his own. He obsessively murders in order to capture the smell of women, whose scent he finds appealing, turning it into a perfume. The narrator, disturbingly, makes you sympathise with this cold-blooded killer and his twisted plan.
July 10, 2008

A great movie

This movie was quite different however I found it interesting. I am not quite sure what occurred at the end but I found all of it plausible.
July 08, 2008

Great bizarre movie... definitely original.

Words cannot begin to describe how this film left me. I had to watch it twice to be sure, but I have to say it is exhilirating.
This has to be the most bizarre movie I have ever seen. The only one that even comes a bit close is any version of 'Sweeny Todd', simply because of the story line.
The plot has been gone over, so I won't do that again. I will say that everything about the movie was in prime shape. Actors, sets, costumes,story line, music.... it all came together into an amazing, repulsing masterpiece of a wondrous story! This could almost be fitting to be called a modern, adult fairy tale, with how violent the Grimm Brothers stories were.It does have a finishing moral to boot!
I highly recommend this film. This is one that could certainly be up for discussion in classrooms.
July 03, 2008

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