Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [Blu-ray]

Director: Tom Tykwer Tom Tykwer

Overview

An obsessive French perfumer with a highly developed olfactory sense and an all-consuming drive to capture the essence of love eventually resorts to murder in his unrepentant quest to find the key ingredient for his recipe in director Tom Tykwer's adaptation of author Patrick Suskind's best-selling 1985 novel. Born in a fetid fish market and raised in a dilapidated orphanage, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) toiled his childhood away in a rank tannery run by the thuggish Grimal (Sam Douglas). Subsequently obsessed by smell, Grenouille's keen olfactory sense becomes so finely tuned that it eventually overpowers such human qualities as love and compassion. Though he has indeed discovered the unmistakable scent of a woman, Grenouille finds it impossible to connect with the fairer sex on any sort of meaningful level. Roaming the streets of Paris late one night, Grenouille catches the scent of a young girl selling plums and impulsively strangles her, later sniffing her nude corpse in a twisted attempt to preserve the distinctive scent in his memory. After persuading legendary perfumer Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) to take him on as an apprentice, Grenouille travels to the town of Grasse in Southern France in order to learn the art of enfleurage at a firm run by the highly respected Mme. Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch). It is there that Grenouille becomes dangerously drawn to the vestal aroma of the young and beautiful Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), the daughter of widower merchant Antione Richis (Alan Rickman). Soon driven to madness by such a pure scent, the spellbound Grenouille continues to claim the lives of the numerous young girls in a tragic attempt to bottle the impossibly elusive smell of virginal womanhood.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/05/2021
UPC:	0191329208052
Original Release:	2006
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	2:27:00
Sales rank:	5,085

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ben Whishaw	Jean-Baptiste Grenouille,Jean-Baptiste Grenouille/Laura
Dustin Hoffman	Guiseppe Baldini,Giuseppe Baldini
Alan Rickman	Antoine Richis,Richis
Rachel Hurd-Wood	Laura
Karoline Herfurth	The Plum Girl,Voices
Artur Sala	Gatekeeper
Sian Thomas	Mme. Gaillard
Jessica Schwarz	Natalie,Voices
Corinna Harfouch	Mme. Arnulfi,Voices
Paul Berrondo	Dominique Druot
Jan Cortes	Boarding House Boy
Berta Ros	Boarding House Girl,Girl - Boarding House
Alvaro Roque	Jean-Baptiste Grenouille at 5 Years Old
Franck Lefeuvre	Jean-Baptiste Grenouille at 12 Years Old,Grenouille - 12 Years
Joan Serrats	Upholsterer
Laura Gelman	Francoise,Albine
Anna Diogene	Tallien's Wife
Toby Harper	Police Lieutenant
Thomas Lennox	Messenger
Richard Collins-Moore	Innkeeper
Francesca Pinon	Innkeeper's Wife
Nico Baixas	Torture Chamber Guard
Enric Arquimbau	Executioner
Oriol Tramvia	Land Priest
Cristina Sola	Woman with Bishop
Laura Vidal Traver	Hangover Girl
Ariadna Cabrol	Beggar Woman No. 1
Maia Jenkinson	Beggar Woman No. 2
Birgit Minichmayr	Grenouille's Mother
David Calder	Bishop of Grasse
Francesc Albiol	Court Official
Gonzalo Cunill	Guard No. 1 Dungeon
Reg Wilson	Fishmarket Customer,Customer Fishmarket
Catherine Boisgontier	Fishmarket Woman
Nuria Casas	Fishmarket Woman No. 2
Jaume Montane	Pelissier
Ramon Pujol	Lucien
Joanna Griffiths	Marianne
Jerome Willis	Councillor No. 1
Fermi Reixach	Councillor No. 2
Derek Smee	Councillor No. 3
Albert Perez	Councillor No. 4
Sam Douglas	Grimal
Harris Gordon	Marquis de Montesquieu
Sara Forestier	Jeanne,Voices
Roger Salvany	Guard No. 2 Dungeon,Voices
Richard Felix	Chief Magistrate
Michael Smiley	Porter
Walter Cots Wanguemert	Driver
Perry Millward	Marcel
Carlos Gramaje	Police Lieutenant
Andres Herrera	Door Guard
John Hurt	Narrator,Narrator
Jaume Montané	Pélissier
Simon Chandler	Mayor of Grasse
Otto Sander	Voices
Bridget McConnell	Aunt
Dora Romano	Voices,Baldini's Wife
Duna Jové	Young Woman
Timothy Davies	Chenier
Carolina Vera	Neapolitan Girl
Carlos Reig-Plaza	Actor
Guillermo Ayesa	Tallien
Montserrat Maso	Housekeeper
Simon Rattle	Conductor
Ben Wishaw	Actor
Johnny Klimek	Composer
Tom Tykwer	Composer
Reinhold Heil	Composer

Technical Credits

Tom Tykwer

Bernd Eichinger

Andrew Birkin

Caroline Thompson

Tom Tykwer	Director,Screenwriter
Bernd Eichinger	Screenwriter,Producer
Andrew Birkin	Screenwriter
Viktor Muller	Special Effects
Pep Armengol	Casting
Raul Garreta	Stunts
Uli Nefzer	Special Effects
Luci Lenox	Casting
Michelle Guish	Casting
Grace Browning	Casting
Julio Fernández	Executive Producer
Andreas Grosch	Executive Producer,Producer
Samuel Hadida	Executive Producer,Producer
Manuel Cuotemoc Malle	Executive Producer,Producer
Martin Moszkowicz	Executive Producer,Producer
Andreas Schmid	Executive Producer,Producer
Teresa Gefaell	Producer
Gigi Oeri	Producer
Edmon Roch	Producer
Bedrich Glaser	Special Effects
Flora Álvarez	Stunts
Stefan Busch	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Federico Ransenberg	Special Effects
Gregory Brossard	Stunts
Die Nefzers	Special Effects
Béatrice Kruger	Casting
Anne Fremiot	Casting
Fura Dels Baus	Casting
Caroline Thompson	Screenwriter
Jürgen Müller	Casting
Roland Winke	Sound Mixer
Frank Kruse	Sound/Sound Designer
Johnny Klimek	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Releasing a costume epic in the thick of Oscar season is a calculated risk -- it can pay big dividends in terms of prestige-by-proximity, but if it doesn't get marketed as an outside-the-box genre buster, it'll just get buried. This was the unfortunate fate of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which should have also gotten more attention because it came from Tom Tykwer, the writer/director of the enthralling Run Lola Run. Remarkably, Perfume is an equally original work. Simply put, when was the last time you saw a film about the sense of smell? It would seem a cinematic mismatch, but Tykwer uses every narrative gift at his disposal to give a deeply rich and palpable visualization to the olfactory themes. When Dustin Hoffman's perfumer uncorks the divine scent spontaneously conjured by his apprentice, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), his laboratory morphs into a lush digital garden for the time the scent lingers in the air. Perfume is peppered with such inspired methods of communicating smells, both delicious and repugnant, and their potential to overwhelm. As if tackling this overlooked sense weren't enough, Tykwer also may be the first filmmaker to delve into the mysterious art of making perfume. That gets its procedural day in the sun through another set of fascinating sequences. But what may be most impressive about Tykwer's film is that it is so different from anything he's ever made. Run Lola Run showcased one kind of brilliance, but here, Tykwer nearly eschews Lola's jittery aesthetic in favor of a grand period opulence that's languidly paced and deliberate. One wouldn't even know it was the same director but for the rare signature touch. (And it's worth noting, when praising Tykwer, that he and collaborators Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek composed this film's period-appropriate music, just as they composed Lola's techno soundtrack.) With gorgeous cinematography by Frank Griebe and a trio of art directors working overtime, the alternating grubbiness and glamour of 18th century France pops off the screen, from the fish-strewn marketplaces of Paris to the palatial mansions of Grasse. Some viewers may have a hard time adjusting to Hoffman in a powdered wig, and he does sometimes distract, though his role is relatively minor (as is that of the always good Alan Rickman). But Whishaw makes a profoundly unknowable protagonist -- a loner orphan gifted with a supernatural sense of smell, who uses killing merely as a means of attempting to bottle the perfect scent. Tykwer makes grand gestures in this film, most notably the brilliantly executed climax and its jaw-dropping use of extras. Those who frowned on Perfume may have attacked scenes like this one, which go over the top in adhering to the film's status as a dark fairy tale that knows it couldn't really exist. But anyone who appreciates errors of ambition will surely forgive Tykwer, especially once they get swept up in his spell of smell.