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It's
hard to get through the first 30 minutes of
this film as it has two big problems, one of
which disappears after the opening segment elapses.
The problem that is fleeting is filmmaker Tom
Tykwer's insistence that the beginning act be
filled with the most gruesome of images. Tykwer,
who brought us the delightful "Run Lola Run,"
is working from a source novel by Patrick Suskind
which he translates from the page to the screen
here with the help of Andrew Birkin and Bernd
Eichinger. I've heard the genre of the novel
described as "magical realism" and, if this
is true, the first 30 minutes here are about
as grisly and "real" as film ever gets. There
are putrid surroundings where animals and fish
are gutted endlessly in shocking close-ups.
There are rats and sewage everywhere. There
is a disgusting baby's birth where the newborn
lay in the shit on the street… and on and on.
It is nauseating. I assume Tykwer is trying
to establish the putrid and rancid surroundings
his antihero is born into. His protagonist is
a young man born with an extraordinary sense
of smell and I guess the filmmaker, who is working
in a medium without any odor, feels he must
make his images so rank and powerfully gruesome
that we feel as if we can smell them. It is
overkill. This vicious assault on the ocular
senses definitely cannot compare to the sense
of stench that we would be confronting if film
were also an olfactory experience (only John
Waters has had the balls to try that in the
last 30 years). Instead, the intrusion of the
disgusting images we see here only reminds us
of Tykwer's grisly determination to nauseate
us.
And, as if these images weren't appalling enough,
then there is the matter of John Hurt's equally
gruesome narration. Oh, I don't mean gruesome
in the visual sense, but rather the cerebral,
as Hurt's pompous, snooty voice tries to add
an aura of mysticism and conceit to the proceedings.
Hurt's voice doing narration has become as mundane
and boring as Sir Ian McKellen playing in blockbuster,
epic, multi-part fantasy films. Plus, anytime
I hear Hurt narrate now, I am too easily reminded
of the recent dismal, hateful, terrorist films
of Lars Von Trier. Having this association with
such an irritating moron as Von Trier only makes
one wish that Hurt were never employed to speak
again. And I love Hurt. He was once one of my
favorite actors. God damn you Von Trier! You
have made me hate the voice of the man who brought
us John Merrick in "The
Elephant Man" and Winston Smith in the underrated
"1984." You bastard!
This is a film in four parts and the second,
after this unseemly beginning is a charming
little romp with Dustin Hoffman as an aging
perfume maker in Paris. Our antihero is employed
as an apprentice to Hoffman and there is much
humor and charm in the proceedings. That is,
of course, until the protagonist because an
18th century sniff freak. Ben Whishaw is an
extraordinarily handsome and sensual young actor
but his antics here, during these early scenes,
where his character becomes infatuated with
the smells of a woman, is creepy and somewhat
unintentionally funny. Whishaw does an amazing
job of conveying a young man whose sense of
smell is out of control and exaggerated and
yet when he gets near a woman, it gets silly.
(This film would be called "Scent of a Woman"
if that title hadn't already been taken by the
horrible Al Pacino film). Whishaw evokes a character
who becomes entranced by the smell of women
quite well, but when he sniffs one whom he has
just killed, it gets weird, and in a humorous
way. It's really hard not to giggle here.
The third section of the film concerns Alan
Rickman as a wealthy man trying to protect his
daughter from a murderer who is killing young
girls for no apparent reason. We are allowed
to know who is doing the killing and why. Rickman's
character is not. The actor is his usual pretentious
and elevated serious character here so it is
an acceptable portion of the film. In fact,
the film is actually quite good for about an
hour during this part of the story.
The finale is simply fan-fucking-tastic! Here
we enter the realm of the "magical" and realism
takes a sideways step so that we may have one
of the most stunning and remarkable endings
to a film in recent memory. There is an orgy
scene here to rival "Caligula" and one which
makes this film quite a nice companion piece
to John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" (which
I saw a couple of days later).
"Perfume" is a decent film when all is said
and done. With four acts and a running time
of nearly three hours, there is something for
everyone to like (and maybe even hate) here.
And the ending is a real whopper. The last 20
minutes or so of this film are quite unique
and interesting. Tykwer takes great strides
in making this film, as he did in his debut,
and the result is often an exceptional cinematic
moment. Sadly, it's the whole that seems less
than a sum of its parts.
Notes:
With Rachael Hurd-Wood.
Tykwer has a band called Pale 3 who did the
score for the film.
Several directors wanted to make this film at
various times including Ridley Scott, Milos
Forman, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and
Tim Burton. Of these, I believe only Burton
could have succeeded as well as Tykwer does
here.
Suskind was reluctant to sell the film rights
to his novel but eventually relented in 2001.
He satirized his business dealings with those
who wanted to purchase the novel for filming
in the 1997 film "Rossini."
Released in Germany, where it was billed as
the most expensive German film ever, in September
of 2006. Dreamworks has scheduled a late December
release in 2006 to make it eligible for Academy
Awards.
Viewed in Austin in October of 2006 at The Paramount
Theater as part of the Austin Film Festival
Report
Card
Script:
B-
Acting:
A-
Cinematography\Lighting:
A+
Special Effects\Make Up: A+
Music: B-
Final
Grade: B-
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