The new costume drama/crime mystery Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is one of the oddest films to come along in what is admittedly a film era overflowing with oddities. Unless you happen to be one of the 15 million or so readers of German writer Patrick Suskind's novel — frequently described more as a cultural phenomenon than a strictly literary event — or familiar with the three rock songs it has inspired, from groups as diverse as Nirvana, Rammstein and Moonspell — you may never have heard of this strange and twisted tale of an 18th-century lad born without any personal odor but with a powerful sense of smell, a man of whom it could be fairly said that he was led around by his nose rather than his dick. He was born of a fishwife who tried to have him snuffed straight out of the womb, became an orphan, was widely despised, and finally landed as the humble apprentice of Paris' second-greatest maker of perfumes. We never meet the number one guy.
Our hero (an odd appellation for an individual linked to the deaths of 25 women) has a somewhat baroque-sounding name for one of such lowly birth. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has one overwhelming goal: to discover a fragrance so wonderful that it will usher love into the life of its creator. Grenouille is therefore a queer character, but one lacking a sex drive or even an appreciation of beauty except as it serves his obsession. He doesn't kill his victims out of malice or kinky thrills, but merely to extract their fragrance. The book delves into the extraction process with great specificity; the film spares us most of the messy details.
What does one say about a story that no less than Stanley Kubrick reportedly labeled unfilmable? Under the steady hand of Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Perfume moves right along without dull patches or great joyous moments until Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) comes under the sway of Baldini. Dustin Hoffman is tons of fun in a role he attacks with gusto. He clearly relishes Baldini's absurdity as the old windbag plays the fool for the benefit of his young apprentice who is the real deal, a true genius of odor, albeit an extremely feral one. The young British actor Ben Whishaw bears a disquieting resemblance to the young Tony Perkins, in the era when Perkins was dating Tab Hunter and still nourished matinee-idol dreams. Like Perkins, Whishaw is no conventional leading man, but does possess the ability to hide his character's seamier motives under layers of boyish charm.
Perfume's great set-piece is a kind of fantastic mass orgy, inspired by a man bereft of erotic capacities. I won't spoil it, but it is a moment worth the wait. It's a challenging film that requires its audience to do some of the emotional heavy lifting, but rewards with that one ineffable moment.
On the record
Appearing in San Francisco just before the holidays, Tykwer conceded how strange it was that Perfume fell into his hands, along with a chance to work with his sometime pen-pal Dustin Hoffman.
David Lamble: I understand at the time of the film, people often didn't take their clothes off even when having sex.
Tom Tykwer: The funny thing about the period is that most people were actually sewed into their underwear, they just kept it on for six months. We can imagine the smelliness of those individuals. A big part of the rehearsal process was getting people to learn how to undress with these complicated costumes. It was to get people used to touching each other, to strip stuff off each other, to be naked and completely comfortable with touching each other. It was a long path of experimenting.
I'm surprised I'd never even heard of this amazingly popular novel.
In Europe, it's something like a myth, the novel. People love it to a very obsessive degree. It took awhile [to obtain the film rights] because the writer [Patrick Suskind] is extremely reclusive. My first instinct on being approached by the producer was to say, "Do you really think I'm the right person to do a period costume drama in France?" At the same time, some instinct in myself said that's exactly what I should be doing. Then I reread the book and found I could really connect with the main character.
He's driven by emotional conflicts that are familiar to all of us. He's a nobody who's trying to be a somebody. He thinks this is because he doesn't have a smell of his own. He thinks the entire social system is based on the idea that people smell each other, then find sympathy or antipathy, or fall in love with each other just because of smelling each other. He thinks he has to create a smell for himself so that people will become more interested in him and ultimately fall in love with him.
Lead actor Ben Whishaw is very striking looking. He doesn't automatically read as a leading man.
I saw him at the Old Vic playing Hamlet. There was something mesmerizing, disturbing and beautiful about him that I had rarely seen. Ben is able to present a certain amount of innocence as much as there's a darkness around him. You always feel attracted to him at the same time there's something scary, which was exactly what I was looking for.
Talk about Dustin Hoffman.
Dustin is the most complete genius actor of our time. With a character like Baldini, who could be reduced to his burlesque dimensions, Dustin is always able to add a huge amount of life and history. He brings a heartfelt depth to this aging genius that I really enjoyed.