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+ Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Ben Whishaw + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Serial Killer Movie of the Year
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| An unnaturally red-haired, beautiful fair woman lies outstretched in a pose that suggests that she may be deceased on this sensual poster for Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer |
An orphan boy with an extraordinary sense of smell later in life begins the criminal hobby of enfleuraging women, essentially meaning that he murders them in order to make perfumes out of them.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is written by Andrew Birkin (King David (1985)), co-writer/producer Bernd Eichinger (Die Eltern (1974, TV movie)) and great German filmmaker, co-writer/director/co-composer Tom Tykwer (Friday Afternoon (1986)), adapting Patrick Süskind's (Das Kontrabass (1981)) same-titled 1985 novel.
A highly unusual story, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is an epic crime drama narrated wonderfully by John Hurt (Jackie (2016)), with the attractive Ben Whishaw (Surge (2020)) portraying the murderer Jean Baptiste. There are plenty more of Christian connotations in the film, especially towards the end of it, and ending which is highly ambiguous; at the same time seemingly pleading the case for love - and limitless, decadent aestheticism.
Dustin Hoffman (Boychoir (2014)), Alan Rickman (The Butler (2013)), the music (by Tykwer, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek (Deadwood: The Movie (2019, TV movie), both)) and the images (cinematography by Frank Griebe (Sense8 (2015, TV-series))) are also large enjoyments in this stunning film.
Related posts:
Tom Tykwer: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Run Lola Run/Lola Rennt (1998) - Tykwer's zeitgeist amuck run
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 63.7 mil. $
Box office: 135 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.11 times its cost)
[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer premiered 7 September (Munich, Germany) and runs 147 minutes. Eichinger had attempted to buy the film rights from Süskind since his bestseller's publication, but he had resisted for many years, explaining that only Stanley Kubrick and Milos Forman were appropriate to film it. Eventually Eichinger got the rights, reportedly for a gigantic 10 mil. € paycheck. 19 companies and support bodies cooperated in the financing and making of the film. CEO of VIP Medienfonds Andreas Schmid was later found guilty of multiple counts of tax evasion connected to the financing of the film and given a 6 year prison sentence. The huge budget made the film one of the costliest German films ever made. Shooting took place from July - October 2005 in France and Spain. 3.5 tons of fish and meat were reportedly used in the fish market scene. The film opened #48 to a 37k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 280 theaters, grossing 2.2 mil. $ (1.6 % of the total gross). The film's biggest markets were Germany with 53.1 mil. $ (39.3 %), where it was #1 for 3 weeks, selling more than 5 mil. tickets; Spain with 9.9 mil. $ (7.3 %) and Russia with 9.2 mil. $ (6.8 %). The film won 2/5 European Film award nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film made more than 7.5 mil. $ on the North-American home video market and much more in Germany. Tykwer returned with The International (2009). Whishaw returned in I'm Not There (2007). Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is rotten at 59 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?
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