Patrick Suskind 's "Das Parfum", Perfume The Story of a Murderer by Tom Tykwer
The cinema adaptation of one of the greatest German author Patrick Süskind 's impressive novel Das Parfum. It's very difficult for me to free from prejudices as I think (like Stanley Kubrick did- a genious film director and also did great adaptions himself has remarked once- ) the novel is
UNFILMABLE. I've read the novel 10 years ago when i was a teen but I still remember the feeling left in my mind. Süskind 's descriptions of odours was so tangible and powerful that you can swear you are walking in the streets of eighteenth century France with closed eyes and ears
guided by tons of smells. His protagonist Jean Baptiste Grenouille is an abused orphan, always rejected for his physical ugliness and so called diabolic looks. In fact his supernatural sense of odour frightens others. Süskind created his freaky genius by melting all his senses in a pot to gain a more powerful unique sense of smell. He did it with a craftsmasters fussiness, and describe to us from his Grenouille 's thesaurus. You feel a great desire to live in Grenouille 's olfactory world and want the same powerful ambition he has for absolute smell for anything else. That gripping story is not famous just for the nearly perfect translation of odours into touchable words but for the astonishing ending. (impede your curiosity and wait for the end of movie).
Up to now it's all about the novel, What about the film ? First of all Tom Twyker the German director (also the director of one of the movie " Run Lola Run " which has readily taken it's place in cult movies) deserves compliments just for his courage to make this adaptation. He managed to create the atmosphere of eighteenth century France living in poverty. He is also faithful to origin. The third person narrated story enabled the use of quotes from the novel. Casting was suitable for all characters accept for the lead character Grenouille. You imagine him as annoying as Hunchback of Notre Dame with furuncles on his face but Ben Whishaw is more handsome than anybody else in that environment (even from the Marquis de Montesquieu) . Whishaw 's acting was not good not bad. Better could have done. But Dustin Hoffman 's performance compensate the disappointment you had for lead character with his short appearance. The choice of women was ok, especially the last and the most beautiful woman Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood). It is obvious that the costume designers worked hard. Lastly, the most popular part of the film - the ending - is very impressive for it's cinematographic value, it really gives the feeling of 18th century famous french paintings but is spoiled by the meaningless hand movements and gestures of Whishaw. I really wonder who told him to do so.
Despite all above you really must see this movie . In fact it's success shadowed by the magnitude of the original novel and the writer. But it's the fate of most adaptation movies. Forgot to say : movie is 2,5 hours long and the language is English.
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