Well that was rather good! Just watched on Sky.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0396171/
A nice refreshing change.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0396171/
A nice refreshing change.
Perfume : The Story of a Murderer
- Thread starter Toekiller
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I saw it in the cinema, and came out unsure of whether I enjoyed it - which is always good 
v+ed it tonight, so will watch it again tomorrow
v+ed it tonight, so will watch it again tomorrow
i absolutley love this film i thought it was awesome and they got it quite close to the book too (so my girl friend informs me). i first got quite interested when i found out nirvana's scentless apprentice was based on this story.
I saw this film tonight - holy moly it was freakin' terrible! It didn't know whether it wanted to be serious or not - half the time we were treated to disturbing imagery and unsettling scenes, whilst the other half was utterly ludicrous (the lead smelling an apple being thrown towards him, and the location of a girl apparently 30 miles away).
It also gets my vote for the worst endings to a film ever. The last ~20 minutes is just jaw droppingly ridiculous.
It also gets my vote for the worst endings to a film ever. The last ~20 minutes is just jaw droppingly ridiculous.
Bumpmeister, you have no soul 
Being a massive fan of the book, I thought the film made a reasonable stab at getting across the main story and concepts.
As ever, some bits were omitted to make it a little more Hollywood, and some of the casting was just plain wrong [Dustin Hoffman as Baldini?! No way! And Mr Rickman, thank you for phoning in your performance].
It's a fictional story about a guy with a supernatural sense of smell, so it's bound to have elements of ludicrousness; some willing suspension of disbelief is required. Y'know, like that required for Lord Of The Rings or The Bible.
Oddly enough, stories of people with a typical sense of smell were found to be less interesting
EDIT: Oh, and the ending - inevitably - makes more 'sense' in the book.
Being a massive fan of the book, I thought the film made a reasonable stab at getting across the main story and concepts.
As ever, some bits were omitted to make it a little more Hollywood, and some of the casting was just plain wrong [Dustin Hoffman as Baldini?! No way! And Mr Rickman, thank you for phoning in your performance].
It's a fictional story about a guy with a supernatural sense of smell, so it's bound to have elements of ludicrousness; some willing suspension of disbelief is required. Y'know, like that required for Lord Of The Rings or The Bible.
Oddly enough, stories of people with a typical sense of smell were found to be less interesting
EDIT: Oh, and the ending - inevitably - makes more 'sense' in the book.
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I enjoyed the concept and the themes that ran throughout, but it was just presented really poorly. Some of the dialogue was laugh out loud funny too:
"His coat was filled with old smells - sand, rocks, grass, coal... and even the sausage he ate for breakfast last week"
It either needed to stick to the gritty feel of the first 30 minutes, or make out more obviously that it wasn't supposed to be squarely based in reality.
"His coat was filled with old smells - sand, rocks, grass, coal... and even the sausage he ate for breakfast last week"
It either needed to stick to the gritty feel of the first 30 minutes, or make out more obviously that it wasn't supposed to be squarely based in reality.
Have to agree with you there, yeah.
It's been a while since I last saw it, but I do recall thinking they needed to do more to convey just how scarily powerful his nose was. Something that Suskind could do easily in words is ten times more difficult in film 'language', and as I said, I thought they had a game [but far from perfect] stab at it.
The "sausage..." line is, if I remember rightly, from Suskind himself. He used this 'mundane/ridiculous analogy' technique throughout the book, to emphasise the yawning chasm between our level of smell and the protagonist's. And to be fair, it's likely that 18th-century Europeans did eat a lot of sausage
Needless to say, if anyone reading this has an interest in the story, go read the book first
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Needless to say, if anyone reading this has an interest in the story, go read the book first
I appreciate that the book was probably much more effective at telling the story - my house mate is about to start reading the book and if she gives it the thumbs up I'll give it a crack
