Hey folks, Harry here - this is a film I've been excited about seeing since we first heard that Dreamworks had optioned it, then when Tykwer was attached, that excitement kept growing. Now that it is being screened to praise - well I can't see it soon enough. Take a read...

Hey Harry,

So this morning at 10:30AM, in Grenoble, France, I was invited to a "Private Screening" for teachers (god knows how I got in) of Tom Tykwer's newest film "THE PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER". The film opens in France this coming weekend. I saw in French, but that did not ruin the overall experience. And 147 minutes, it flies by without a pause.

Let me say now that I have not read the Patrick Suskind novel "Das Parfum", so I went into this film with no knowledge of what was about to unfold before my eyes. I'll say it flat out that "THE PERFUME" is a visual feast of a film, something I did expect from the director of the kinetic "RUN LOLA RUN".

In "THE PERFUME", Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (played by the creepy Ben Winshaw) is born at a fish market and immediately exposed to smells of unbearable intensity. He is then sent to an orphanage where he develops a sense of smell that goes beyond any of our five senses. He smells the world and its nature, and combine smells to create wonderful odors. He can smell humanity ooze from the bodies of men and women. He is a gift to the world that no one knows about.

After a hard childhood, he is taken in by Giuseppe Baldini (a very good Dustin Hoffman, who also narrates the film), a man who specializes in perfume making. Baldini discovers that Grenouille can emulate other perfumes by simply mixing and matching fragrances, and soon Grenouille becomes Baldini’s protégé.

Eventually, Grenouille becomes so obsessed with smells that he develops an urge to find the ultimate fragrance, and he will kill to find. This is where the “murderer” part comes in.

“THE PERFUME” is set in 18th century and the sets and costumes are very elaborate, and the visuals are flawless in every word. [I believe this is the most expensive German film ever made, though the dialogue is in English]. There are sights to behold in the film, from the birth of Grenouille in the fish market to a full-blown peasant orgy at the very end of the film.

While I’m sure the book delves much deeper into Grenouille’s sense of smell, what truly made the film work was how the main character’s sense of smell was depicted. In the simplest fashion (no f/x), Tykwer simply shows shots of noses very close-up, and repeatedly flashes images of objects and people being smelt. But it works, and it transports you into the mind of Grenouille.

The film’s only flaw is that the second half plays more like a serial killer movie than a movie about an obsessed man trying to find the fragrance of humanity, but nonetheless, the film’s visual strength and power cannot be denied. And there is another element of the film that deals with Grenouille and his ability to be loved, but I’ll let that be discovered by those who see this film. Which you should!

In the end, THE PERFUME is a great, artistic achievement that will probably develop a cult following, because it certainly isn’t the type of film that will earn any mainstream success in the U.S. Call me surprised if it does. If not, call me Kightlinger.

GRADE: A.