Film Review: Perfume - Essay Example

Film Review: Perfume The film under discussion is no ordinary film. Inspired by the book written by Patrick Suskind, it is a thought out and deep psychological movie which demands viewers’ attention not because it is a story of a murderer but because it ignites the superfluous desires in a man with extraordinary senses. It tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who was born in the slums of 18th-century France with an overpowering atmosphere as his mother delivers him under th. This however, had a consequence on the grown up Jean who could smell stone or even the blades of grass so robustly from a distance that fragrance attracted his nose with great force and the desire to perfect this aroma began from here. Tom Tykwer’s film adaptation tries to depict all the possible themes highlighted in the book. The psychological impact of the loss of his mother at childbirth and being born and raised in the slums can be far more adverse than imagined. Being raised under Ms. Gillard, a professional foster mother, Grenouille is feared by other kids because he is different from the rest. He does not learn to speak or stand till the age of four and only uttered nouns to express himself. Later on he is sold to Grimal and survives the tasks he gives him which others usually fail to do. Grenouille’s thirst for the ultimate fragrance is reawakened when he ends up at the aristocratic locale of Paris. There he follows a perfume that ignites his olfactory sense and leads him to where the red-haired girl is sitting. In an attempt to approach her he alarms her and inadvertently smothers her to death. This is Grenouille first murder but no one learns about this incident. Later on he learns about Baldini’s perfumery and begs him to keep him as apprentice. Baldini’s responds by laughing at the now adolescent boy but is amazed by his olfactory senses. He allows him to make a perfume which he is unsuccessful in making. Grenouille surprises him by making an even better perfume. On taking him as his apprentice, Baldini lets Grenouille mix and combine any scent he finds tempting to his senses. However Grenouille falls ill because he cannot achieve the perfect smell. He recovers in the hope to find his ultimate perfume and resumes to please Baldini making him rich with every passing day. Grenouille becomes a freeman at last once he satisfies his master and travels towards Grasse to learn the art of enfluerage. On reaching Orleans he seeks for a peaceful place near the mountains away from all humans finding an altogether new “respiratory freedom” only to find out that he cannot tolerate his own smell. He flees to Grasse joining widow Arnulfi’s perfumery where he masters the art of making perfumes boiling flowers with essential oil so that the core of the fragrance is captured in the bottle. He plans to do the same with the woman he has targeted. But before approaching her he experiments on a prostitute and thirteen other women in town. Laure whom he has targeted for so long moves out of town with her father who plans to marry her off before she is murdered by this murdered yet to be convicted by the people. Grenouille follows her and innocently kills her taking away fragrance in the bottle. Her father however relentlessly searches for the murdered and finally gets Grenouille captured (Mitrani 4). The opening scene of the film is that of a boy awaiting execution. It is revived with Grenouille standing at the centre of the crowd waving the handkerchief which consumes the fragrance of the victims. The crowd is suddenly enchanted and sways with the odor looking up at Grenouille as their king. All indulge in an orgy and beg for his forgiveness. This is an alarming scene. Now Grenouille only wishes to return to Paris and die. On doing so, out of desperation he pours the bottle of the godly perfume over himself and lets the mob attack him with utter satisfaction. The movie revolves around Grenouille and his innocent psyche. The silence of the protagonist makes it even more intense and allows the viewers to sympathize with Grenouille although horror-struck by the grotesque imagery. Hence it is the “odor” which plays a powerful signifier of the main character from the beginning of the film. The psychological impact on Grenouille of being unwanted before even his birth plays a very significant role. He is welcomed on this earth not by his mother’s loving arms but by death and decay. The mother is arrested for infanticide but she has no husband-like support either. The child survives her crime only to reincarnate the crime magnified as he grows old. He rushes away from his own smell however, because he is odorless, as conceived by his mother. He is maddened by the world around him to which he fails to respond because he cannot care less. He is depressed by his own presence and seeks to perfect his senses but fails to achieve harmony in his life because he is never placed in the right arms (Mitrani 10). “Perfume” is a worth watching film only for those who can appreciate the art that underlies human instinct. It allows the viewer to imagine himself in Grenouille’s place leaving him to shudder at the thought of being suffocated with one’s own self. He desperately wishes to associate himself with the object of love only to be betrayed towards the end. His adhesive persona becomes his own enemy in the hands of the murders he commits. He fails to relinquish his habit because the thirst grows stronger with the perfection he tries to achieve with each fragrance he acquires from the women. He does not expect the people to love him in the end because he wants to be hated. This hatred resides in him since he was conceived in his mother’s womb as an insignificant being. This also highlights the condition of humanity in 18th-century France. Work Cited Mitrani, J. "On Adhesive Pseudo-Object Relations, Part Ii: Illustration." Contemporary Psychoanalysis. 31.1 (1995): 140. Print. Read More