Stanley Kubrick said it couldn’t be done. And he wasn’t alone. The idea of transposing the magic of Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume to the big screen raised doubts among movie buffs and Süskind fans alike. And yet, on September 14th, Tom Tykwer’s highly anticipated movie adaptation finally premiered in Germany. I happened to be in Berlin a week later, and bought a ticket to the most expensive production in German cinematic history. Despite the absence of red carpets and confetti, there was a sense of excitement at the theater entrance. The obvious question on everyone’s mind was: how will the movie compare to the book? But as the credits appeared at the end of the show, I realized that a side-by-side comparison would only do injustice to the movie.
Tykwer’s latest really does hold its own as a captivating, entertaining film…
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Posted by Robin
on
7 September 2006
The film version of Patrick Suskind's Perfume opens today in Germany. See early reviews in This Is London and DW-World. It will open in the US in December.
Update: more reviews, in The Guardian and SpiegelOnline (link no longer active).
Posted by Robin
on
16 June 2006
The movie version of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer now has its own website, complete with a picture gallery, links to the trailer, and a synopsis of the story. Per Horror Channel, where I found the link, the movie is to debut on December 8.
Will we get a tie-in perfume, as we did with Memoirs of a Geisha?
Posted by Robin
on
17 May 2006
Earlier this year I linked to a brief trailer of the movie version of Patrick Suskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Dustin Hoffman, Ben Wishaw, Rachel Hurd-Wood and Alan Rickman. Here is a longer trailer, in German, and perhaps even creepier than the first despite the fact that I don't understand a single word. According to Cinematical, where I found the link, it is due for release in Germany in September; the US in December.
More reading: see Marcello's review of the Perfume novel. Note: image via rottentomatoes.
Update: see Marcello's review of the Perfume movie.
It’s never too late to read a good novel; but if you haven’t read Süskind’s Perfume yet, now is the time to do so. A combination of breathtaking suspense and unparalleled olfactory prose, this literary debut was one of the greatest worldwide bestsellers in the mid ’80s. The eponymous movie, directed by Tom Tykwer, will premiere in a few months. This may be your last chance to apply your personal, unbiased imagination to the story.
Perfume is the horrifying tale of an 18th century Parisian orphan, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, whose primal curse — his unhuman lack of body odor — is paradoxically contrasted by a superhuman sense of smell. While the ‘demonic’ absence of a personal smell makes him a social outcast, Grenouille’s interior world is completely dominated by olfactory perceptions: the boy thinks, dreams, lives in terms of scent. Throughout his childhood, he avidly memorizes the fragrant landscapes surrounding him; in a desperate attempt to regain his own humanity, he becomes obsessed with the idea of creating the most sublime perfume imaginable. As a perfume apprentice, he quickly reveals his uncanny talent for fragrant compositions; but conventional methods will not lead him to his ultimate goal. For his definitive masterpiece, Grenouille resorts to dramatic sacrifices…
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