Perfume - May 5/7/8
MA 15+ (Strong themes)
Director Tom Tykwer takes Patrick Süskind’s best selling novel about a tortured soul’s search for the magical elixir of happiness, and allows us to get under his skin. In 18th-century France, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is alone in the world.
A peculiar child who rarely speaks, Grenouille is alienated from others but blessed with a remarkable gift. His sense of smell is so refined, so attuned to every blade of grass and blossoming flower, that it’s tragic when he’s sold into servitude to a tannery at the age of 13 and surrounded by the foul odours that accompany his work. But there comes a day when Grenouille does an errand in town and discovers the object that will transform his life: perfume. 
After an apprenticeship with a once-renowned perfumer Grenouille sets out to find a perfect perfume. When he discovers the most intoxicating scent he has ever experienced–the natural fragrance of a beautiful young girl–he learns that the only method to preserve her innocence and fresh beauty will require murder. Plaguing the countryside with a series of gruesome killings, Grenouille must stay one step ahead of the authorities until he captures the final ingredient for his greatest perfume–the essence of a beautiful redheaded girl whose wealthy father earnestly protects her. Only then, he believes, will he earn the attention and adulation that his extraordinary talent deserves.
The marvellous production design offers sharp contrasts between the grime of 18th Century Paris and the breathtaking beauty of Grasse’s lavender fields in bloom. Rachel Hurd-Wood is the best thing in the film, closely followed by Alan Rickman as her dad.
Origin: Germany 2006
Director/s: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Ben Winshaw, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Alan Rickman
Running Time: 141 minutes
Source/s: Hollywood.com
Compiled by: Jack Morton