Perfume: Story of a Murderer
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

This film is about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a 17th Century serial killer with superior olfactory sense. If you've ever watched Dracula by Brian de Palma, I think you'll get the idea.

I read the novel, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, dozens of years ago. It was a best-seller translated from German. I thought the book was dynamite, enthralling, very unusual, and damn strange. I had always enjoyed books topically about killers, thrillers, and scarily strange events.

It's about a young man, a fifth child who lived after four were stillborn, to a fishery woman in a Parisian marketplace. His sense of smell rivaled a bloodhound. I could almost identify with this character (except for the desire to kill to distill a scent). I too, have a strong olfactory sense (when I've paid attention).

The following are personal examples: at work, I knew who was in the building based on their smell. It wasn't hard. I could smell smokers, those who saturated themselves in perfume (women), those who had infections that gave me too much information about them (you know, that fishy odor), and many other examples.

I picked up the scent of those who were ill: it forced me to ask, delicately, if anyone noted this particular smell. No one caught it, but me. A headcold smelled a bit like Ajax, or that kind of household cleanser, but with a tinge of funk. These working stiffs with stinky heads had sinusitis or a sinus infection. There's always someone at the office with it.

Then there were women who smelled - gosh, I didn't work at smelling them - yet this odor wafted over the walls from their cubicles. There was this kind of funk that smelled a bit of moldy bread, perspiration, something rancid, and musk (perfume to bury the odor). I would reckon that this individual was sick. Last, but not least, ever caught a whiff of someone smelling of salts? I used to know an old woman on my block like that: my Mom said she had sores on her body.

Yeah, I guess?

This movie was filled with attractive blue-eyed, pale-skinned redheads. Hollywood should use more of them. These were women whose scent Jean-Baptiste couldn't resist and needed.

It's a good work of fiction, because I've never encountered one woman who ever smelled appealing - regardless of pores soaked with perfumes.

Men, Yes, but women? No.

The entire film is based on the process he goes through to capture the scent of a woman. Strange. Yet, very riveting and amusing to boot. This will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea.

Labels: Alan Rickman, Brian de Palma, Dracula, Dustin Hoffman, Perfume

posted by GoldenAh

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