Martine's review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
Martine's review
rating:
bookshelves:
continental-european,
crime,
film,
historical-fiction,
magic-realism,
modern-fiction
status:
Read in January, 2006
A cross between The Silence of the Lambs and a period drama. That's how I would describe Perfume, the great German classic of the 1980s. Basically, it's an eighteenth-century murder story, except that it doesn't focus on the victims and the hunt for the killer, but rather emphasises the life and times of the murderer, who is an unusual protagonist to say the least.
Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an eighteenth-century Parisian with a unique gift: a prodigiously well-developed olfactory sense which allows him to recognise pretty much any scent or smell. After a childhood full of hardship, he is apprenticed to a perfumier who teaches him all he knows about distilling smells. Unbeknownst to the perfumier, however, Grenouille isn't in it for the fashionable perfumes. Rather than extracting scents from flowers and petals, he wishes to extract smells from living objects -- more specifically, from the beautiful virgins he comes across every now and...more
Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an eighteenth-century Parisian with a unique gift: a prodigiously well-developed olfactory sense which allows him to recognise pretty much any scent or smell. After a childhood full of hardship, he is apprenticed to a perfumier who teaches him all he knows about distilling smells. Unbeknownst to the perfumier, however, Grenouille isn't in it for the fashionable perfumes. Rather than extracting scents from flowers and petals, he wishes to extract smells from living objects -- more specifically, from the beautiful virgins he comes across every now and...more
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I loved this book. I thought it was interesting and evocative. I was surprised when they made it into a movie. I haven't seen it because I know that it could not live up to my adoration for the novel.
Actually, the film is pretty decent. Tom Tykwer did a great job evoking the atmosphere of eighteenth-century France with all its scents and malodours; in some scenes you can almost smell the things you see on screen. The acting is pretty solid, too. The ending is a bit over the top, but then it is in the book, so no real complaints there. I'd give the film a shot if I were you. Chances are you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Why do I bother writing my own reviews when it would be easier and smarter of me simply to paste the link for your eloquence at the bottom of my 'read' note.
Heh. Thanks, Ginnie. I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that you read and review many books before I get a chance to do so. :-)
I agree that the film is actually quite good, especially when taking into account just how difficult it is to translate a novel like this, which is so detailed and eloquent in its prose, something that rarely translates on the silver screen. It pretty much cuts out or glosses over all the drag that this review referred to, while remaining true to the story. Dustin Hoffman is awful though. Bad casting there.
Exactly, Patrick. It should have been an unadaptable book, but it proved not to be. Tykwer focused on the good parts, left out the bad parts and came up with something quite remarkable -- something that got the story as well as the mood right. There's a reason why the man is one of my favourite directors. :-)I agree on Dustin Hoffman. He should not have been in the film. Apart from that, though, it was an excellent shot at a very difficult adaptation.
