Movie #22 - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a wonderful film with some unique plot twists and is visually stunning. The plot is set in 18th Century France following the life of Jean Baptiste Grenouille, a troubled boy born in the poor fish market of France.

Through various tribulations in his life, Grenouille is blessed with a special gift - a tremendous olfactory sense, able to decipher between the world of smells and odors. As the film progresses, Grenouille's character further develops and enhances his innate gift.

What was a repetitive theme in the film was that every character that attempted to take advantage of Grenouille in some way came to an untimely death. Whether it be his mother after birth who left Grenouille for dead, the keeper of the orphanage he was sold to, his tannery owner for which he worked for, and even his perfume mentor played by Dustin Hoffmann. Each character seemed cursed by dealing with Grenouille and that was a comical way of progressing through the film.

In his work with Hoffmann's character (Giuseppe Baldini), a down and out perfume maker who takes in Grenouille to teach him the workings of the industry, Grenouille learns the myth about the "12 perfume notes" and how these notes were able to change the world in one combined scent. The key was that there is a mythical thirteenth scent, which Grenouille becomes obsessed with obtaining.

This movie takes a strong turn towards the dark side of Grenouille's character. What the audience doesn't know with this tragic hero is that Jean Baptiste is in fact a sociopath. He has no remorse in what he is doing and justifies everything for the sake of obtaining his "12 perfume notes."

Grenouille travels to another area of France in which he learns how to create scents through other means outside of distillation. He learns of a method used in developing soaps and scented oils, which requires the subjects being covered in animal lard and wrapped until the lard absorbs the scent, then is boiled off to produce the scented oils. In Grenouille's case, these oils consist of 12 young women of different scent, thus producing his coveted 12 perfume notes.

In the process, Grenouille stumbles upon his mythical thirteenth scent, played by Rachel Hurd Wood. The film follows Wood's character of Laura as her father attempts to protect her from the menacing predator who is preying on the young women of the small town. Despite his efforts, Laura becomes the final piece of the perfume notes and thus the movie takes a weird twist.

During his trial and inevitable execution for the murder of 13 women, Grenouille conjures up a mixture of the 13 notes into the wondrous perfume that can control the world. By using the perfume, Grenouille is able to turn a mass crowd of hatred into an odd mass orgy. This ending seemed out of place and quite fantastic, but I guess the movie makers were bound by the plot provided by the novel, Das Parfum - by German writer Peter Suskind. Although this ending was definitely not tacked on, it did seem out of place and was a disappointment as compared to the entire movie as a whole.

Overall, this movie is visually beautiful and there are some great scenes of suspense and intrigue. By the end of the film, you are hoping that Grenouille can overcome adversity and make the 12 perfume notes, while at the same time you realize that he is just a cold blooded killer. This contrast of character development is worth watching on screen.

Reference: I originally published this article on Helium.com