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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (film)
Encyclopedia
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 2006 German
thriller film directed by Tom Tykwer
and written by Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger
and Tykwer. It is based on the 1985 novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind
. Set in 18th century France, the film tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
(Ben Whishaw
), an olfactory
genius, and his homicidal quest for the perfect scent. The film also stars Dustin Hoffman
, Alan Rickman
and Rachel Hurd-Wood
; John Hurt
provides narration.
The film was made on a budget of €50 million, making it one of the most expensive German films. Principal photography
began on July 12, 2005 and concluded on October 16, 2005; filming took place in Spain
, Germany
and France
.
Perfume was released on September 14, 2006 in Germany. It grossed $135,039,943 worldwide, of which $53,125,663 was made in Germany. Critics' reviews of the film were mixed; the consensus was that the film had strong cinematography and acting but suffered from an uneven screenplay.
(Ben Whishaw
), a notorious murderer. Between the reading of the sentence and the execution, the story of his life is told in flashback
, beginning with his abandonment at birth in a French fish market. Raised in an orphanage, Grenouille grows into a strangely detached boy with a superhuman sense of smell. After growing to maturity as a tanner's
apprentice, he makes his first delivery to Paris
, where he revels in the new odors. He focuses on a girl selling plums (Karoline Herfurth
) and startles her with his behavior. To prevent her from crying out, he covers the girl's mouth and unintentionally suffocates her. After realizing that she is dead, he strips her body naked and smells her until the scent fades. Afterwards, Grenouille becomes haunted by the desire to recreate the plum slicing girl's scent.
After making a delivery to a perfume
shop, Grenouille amazes the Italian owner, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman
), with his ability to create fragrances. He revitalizes the perfumer's career with new formulas, demanding only that Baldini teach him how to convert scents into perfume. Baldini explains that all perfumes are harmonies of 12 individual scents, and may contain a theoretical 13th scent. He also tells a story about a perfume discovered in an Egyptian tomb that was so perfect that it caused everyone in the entire world to briefly believe they were in paradise the moment the bottle was opened. When Grenouille discovers that Baldini's method of distillation
will not capture the scents of all objects, such as iron chains and dead animals, he becomes depressed. After receiving a letter of presentation written by Baldini, Grenouille leaves to learn a different method in Grasse
. En route to Grasse, Grenouille realises that he has no scent of his own, and is therefore a cipher
. He decides that creating the perfect smell will prove his worth.
Upon arrival in Grasse, Grenouille catches the scent of Laura Richis (Rachel Hurd-Wood
), daughter of the wealthy Antoine Richis (Alan Rickman
) and decides that she will be his "13th scent", the linchpin of his perfect perfume. Grenouille finds a job in Grasse under Madame Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch) and Dominique Druot (Paul Berrondo) assisting with perfumes and learns the method of enfleurage
. He kills a lavender picker and attempts to extract her scent using the method of hot enfleurage, which fails. After this, he tries the method of cold enfleurage on a prostitute and successfully preserves the scent of the woman. Grenouille embarks on a killing spree, murdering beautiful young girls and capturing their scents. He dumps the women's naked corpses around the city, creating panic. After preserving the first 12 scents, Grenouille plans his attack on Laura. During a church sermon against him it is announced that a man has confessed to the murders. Richis remains unconvinced and flees the city with his daughter. Grenouille tracks her scent to a roadside inn and sneaks into her room that night. The next morning, Richis discovers Laura lying dead in her bed.
Soldiers capture Grenouille moments after he finishes preparing his perfume. On the day of his execution, he applies a drop of the perfume over himself. The executioner and the crowd in attendance are speechless at the beauty of the perfume; they declare Grenouille innocent before falling into a massive orgy
. Richis, still convinced of Grenouille's guilt, threatens him with his sword, before being overwhelmed by the scent and embracing Grenouille as his "son". Eventually, the town awakens and decides that the godly Grenouille could not have been the murderer. Druot is convicted for the murders and hanged, since it was his backyard where the clothes and hair of the victims were found.
Walking out of Grasse unscathed, Grenouille has enough perfume to rule the world, but has discovered that it will not allow him to love or be loved like a normal person. Disenchanted by his aimless quest and tired of his life, he returns to Paris. Back in the city, Grenouille returns to the fish market where he was born and dumps the perfume on his head. Overcome by the scent and in the belief that Grenouille is an angel, the nearby crowd devours
him. The next day, all that is left are his clothes and the open perfume bottle, from which one final drop of perfume falls.
and Miloš Forman
could do the book justice and refused to let anyone else make a film adaptation of it. Bernd Eichinger
, the film's producer, read the novel when it was first released and immediately approached Süskind, who was also a friend of his, to obtain the film rights — Süskind refused. In 2000, Süskind relented and sold Eichinger the rights. Eichinger had to take out a personal loan because the supervisory board of Constantin Film
refused to approve the selling price. He is rumored to have paid €
10 million for the film rights. The author had no involvement in the project.
Eichinger and screenwriter Andrew Birkin began to write a draft script. Eichinger says that their biggest problem was a narrative one, "The main character doesn't express himself. A novelist can use narrative to compensate for this; that's not possible in film. An audience can usually only get a feeling for a character if the character speaks", said Eichinger. Eichinger said, "With material like this it is especially important for a director to get involved in the script." Eichinger met with a number of directors but felt that only Tom Tykwer was really in tune with the material. In 2003, Tykwer was invited to join Eichinger and Birkin in adapting the novel. The screenplay went through over 20 revisions to get to the final shooting script
. The three writers worked hard to create a faithful adaptation that captured the atmosphere and climate of the novel, yet, at the same time, have a specific and individual perspective, in terms of the story and the main character.
The film had a production budget of €50 million (US$63.7 million), making it one of the most expensive German film productions. The film was financed
by Constantin Film, which Eichinger was the former CEO of; billionaire Gisela Oeri
and VIP Medienfonds. Perfume is Oeri's first investment into a film and she also served as a co-producer. The film received €200,000 in funding from the German Federal Film Board (FFA)'s German–French Agreement fund. Eurimages
also granted the film €600,000 in co-production funding. The film received €400,000 in funding from the German Federal Film Board. The film received production funding of €1.6 million from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, €1 million from the German Federal Film Board and €750,000 from Filmstiftung NRW. The film received distribution funding of €205,000 from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, €180,000 from the German Federal Film Board and €150,000 from the Bavarian Bank Fund.
Andreas Schmid, CEO of VIP Medienfonds and one of the film's executive producers, was arrested in October 2005 on suspicion of fraud and tax evasion. The resulting investigation revealed some irregularities in the financing of Perfume. According to documents Schmid filed to tax authorities, VIP invested €25 million into the film. But according to Constantin Film's ledgers, VIP only put up €4.1 million. The remainder of the €25 million was banked to collect interest, secure bank guaranties and used to pay back investors their share of the film's revenue. As VIP claimed the whole €25 million was used to produce the film, its investors were also able to write off their entire contribution against tax. Perfume also received €700,000 in state subsidies from Filmstiftung NRW based on the €4.1 million figure. In November 2007, Schmid was found guilty of multiple counts of tax evasion and sentenced to six years in prison. He had already served more than two years in jail since his arrest.
Filming was originally planned to begin in the third quarter of 2004 but the filmmakers had trouble finding the right actor to play the protagonist Grenouille. The search to find an actor to play Grenouille took nearly a year. On casting agent Michelle Guish's advice, Tykwer went to see Ben Whishaw
perform as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn
's production of the play. Tykwer immediately felt that he had found the actor for the role. An audition followed which convinced Eichinger of Whishaw's potential as well. Eichinger described Whishaw as embodying both "the innocent angel and the murderer." Regarding his search to find an actor, Tykwer said "it only really seemed plausible to choose someone for this role who was completely unknown. You could also say a 'nobody' who is to become a 'somebody' - because that's what the story is about too."
When it came to casting the role of Baldini, the washed-up perfumer who first teaches Grenouille how to capture smells and create perfume, Tykwer immediately thought of Dustin Hoffman
. "When I took on this project I knew straight away that there was no one who could play Baldini better," said Tykwer. Hoffman had wanted to work with Tykwer since he saw Run Lola Run
and Tykwer had always wanted to get Hoffman for a part. Hoffman and Whishaw had a week of rehearsal and a crash course in perfume-making prior to the start of principal photography. The scenes between the two actors were shot in sequence, allowing them to follow the natural progression of their characters' relationship.
Alan Rickman
was Tykwer's first choice to play Richis and the role was not offered to anyone else. Tykwer and Eichinger looked through hundreds of audition tapes to find the right actress for the role of Richis' daughter Laura. Tykwer believed he had found the right actress on a tape with 15 actresses but couldn't remember exactly which was the one he liked. Eichinger looked through the tape and found what he thought was a suitable person. It turned out that both men had chosen the same actress, Rachel Hurd-Wood
. Tykwer went to London
to cast her personally. A new tape was recorded and she was given the role. A suitable actress could not be found for the role of the plum girl in England and the United States so Tykwer decided to look at actresses in Germany. Karoline Herfurth
, who had twice worked with Tykwer, was asked to do a screen test
with Whishaw, in costume. Herfurth proved herself to Tykwer and her role was expanded.
A total of 5,200 extras were used for the film, sometimes with nearly a thousand at once. The orgy scene at the film's climax required 750 extras. 50 key players from the dance theater group La Fura dels Baus
and 100 relatively experienced talents formed the core of the crowd. The remaining 600 extras were arranged around this group of 150 performers.
, Amadeus
, Oliver Twist
, Barry Lyndon
, From Hell
, The Elephant Man
, Dracula, Brotherhood of the Wolf
, Vidocq and Les Misérables. Cinematographer Frank Griebe
said that of all the films they watched that had been shot on location, none of them really had the dirt and grit of the city that they desired for Perfume. "We needed a filthy city to get the real feel for the smells of it", said Griebe. Tykwer wanted to recreate 18th-century Paris, as seen through the eyes of the lower-class Grenouille and said that he want to shoot the film "as if we were thrown into a time machine with a camera."
Tykwer describes the film as having "a distinctly dark aesthetic", due to both the lack of adequate lighting during the film's time period and the nature of its storyline. The filmmakers took inspiration from painters that specialized in darkness with few sources of light such as Caravaggio
, Joseph Wright of Derby
and Rembrandt. The film begins with a cool, monochromatic color palette, and as Grenouille discovers more scents, the palette warms and opens up. In the scenes where Grenouille goes to Paris for the first time, the filmmakers subtly added more powerful colors in the sets, costumes, props and lighting to represent Grenouille's experience of the new smells.
One of the main challenges of making the film was to convey the smells and the world of scents that Grenouille experiences. Tykwer said that to him Perfume "was much more a film about the importance of smell in our life than a film that tries to be smelly." The filmmakers strived to convey smell visually without the use of colors or special effects, Griebe says "people see the fish market full of raw, bloody fish, and they know it stinks; they see a field of lavender and know it smells wonderful. We show Grenouille taking in smells by cupping his nose, and by doing close shots of his nose, and that's it!"
Pierre-Yves Gayraud, the film's costume designer, spent 15 weeks researching 18th century fashion. Production of over 1,400 costumes, in addition to the preparation of shoes, hats and other accessories were completed within three months by workshops in and around Bucharest
in Romania
. The costume department had to make the clothing look worn and dirty. Additionally, the actors were required to wear the costumes and more or less live in them prior to shooting. The character Grenouille was not given any white clothing and wore bluish over-garments throughout most of the film because the filmmakers wanted to depict him as a shadow and a chameleon
. Instead of dressing the character of Laura in the colorful regional dress that was the tradition of the time, she was dressed in the less vivid tones of a Parisian damsel to highlight her social aspirations as well as her red hair.
was unlikely due to the extensive modernization
of the city in the 19th century. Croatia
was initially considered as an alternative because of its earthy scenery and pristine old-world towns, but even though the price was right, the distance between locations proved to be disadvantageous. In the end, the filmmakers opted to shoot most of the film in Spain which, although more expensive than Croatia, offered locations which were closer to each other.
Principal photography
began on July 12, 2005 and concluded on October 16, 2005. The first 15 days was spent entirely on the largest stage of Bavaria Film Studios
in Munich
, shooting the scenes between Baldini and Grenouille in the former's workshop. All of the scenes with Hoffman were completed within the first eleven days. Most of the remaining scenes were shot in Spain
, specifically in Barcelona
, Girona
and Figueres
. The streets of Barcelona stood in for that of Paris. El Gòtic, Barcelona's historic town center, was converted into a Paris fish market. The Poble Espanyol
, an open-air museum in Barcelona, was the location for the climatic orgy scene. To create an authentic dirty look, the film's crew included a "dirt unit" of about 60 people whose job was to distribute detritus over the city. Two and a half tons of fish and one ton of meat was dispersed over El Gòtic. Several mountain and forest scenes were shot in the environs of Girona. The city also provided the location of the home and studio of Madame Arnulfi. Sant Ferran Castle
in Figueres provided the location for the tannery, the Paris city gates and the dungeon which Grenouille is imprisoned in. The cave in which Grenouille discovers he has no scent was also located in Figueres. Some landscape shots, including those used as Grasse's lavender fields, were filmed in Provence
, France
in late June 2005, before principal photography started.
The cinematographer for Perfume was Frank Griebe
, who Tykwer has worked with on all of his films. The film was shot on Arri
cameras and lenses. For sequences which required the camera to be extremely close to its subject, Griebe used the Kenworthy/Nettman Snorkel Lens System. Griebe shot the film on 3-perf Super 35 film using three Kodak Vision2 film stock
s — 500T 5218, 200T 5217 and 100T 5212. 5218 was used for all the night scenes and the choice between the other two were determined by weather conditions — 5212 when it was very sunny and 5217 whenever it was overcast. Tykwer and Griebe originally discussed shooting Perfume in the traditional Academy 1.33:1 aspect ratio
, but they decided against it because of the difficulty of theatrical exhibition. "We felt 1.33:1 was perfect for many aspects of this story, but today you can't release a 1.33 film in theaters," said Griebe.
as filming progressed which, according to Tykwer, saved a lot of time later. Tykwer said they had to work this way due to the film's tight schedule (the European release dates had already been locked). On every night of filming, Tykwer and Griebe would take screenshots from the dailies and make notes for the film laboratory
on what sort of tone and palette they wanted, and the level of brightness and contrast they wanted for the prints. A digital intermediate
was used for the film. About three months was spent grading
the film. Digital grading tools were used to improve the color of the lavender fields because the film crew had arrived a week early and the flowers were not in full bloom. In the scene where Grenouille murders the plum girl, selective color
ing was used to take the tone of the dead body's flesh from its natural color to a pale white color.
Visual effects
work, of which there were about 250 shots, was carried out by Universal Production Partners in Prague
. Much of the visual effects work for the film consisted of minor CGI
corrections, such as wire removal
s; and a lot of crowd manipulation and set extensions. Scale model
s were used to create the shots of the Seine
river bridge with houses on it.
, the musical score for Perfume was composed by Tykwer and two of his friends Johnny Klimek
and Reinhold Heil
. The score was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of conductor Simon Rattle
. Tykwer began composing the score with Klimek and Heil the very day he started working on the screenplay. Tykwer said, "I feel like I understand very much about the structure and the motivations of the characters when I'm writing the script, but I really do understand the atmosphere and the emotional and the more abstract part of the film when I'm investigating the music, and when I'm planning the music for it. ... When I then come to the shooting, having worked for three years on the music and three years on the script, I really feel like I know exactly the two worlds and how to combine them." By the time it came to shooting the film, a substantial portion of music had been composed. Tykwer hired a small orchestra and recorded them performing the score. Tykwer played the recorded music on set so people could explore the atmosphere and the acoustic world of the film while they were acting in it. The music was also used instead of temp music during editing.
released a 15-piece perfume coffret. The perfumes were a collaboration between Thierry Mugler's Pierre Aulas and International Flavors & Fragrances' Christophe Laudamiel
and Christoph Hornetz. Laudamiel read the novel in 1994 and began recreating odors from it in 2000; Hornetz joined the project in 2002. 14 of the fragrances were inspired by the novel and film, the 15th works as a fragrance enhancer but can also be worn on its own. Smells represented by the perfumes include Paris in 1739, a virgin's navel, a clean baby and leather. The coffret was released as a limited edition of 1,300 sets which sold for US$700 each; all 1,300 sets were sold.
, earning $135,039,943 worldwide. It opened in Germany on September 14, 2006 and was number one on the box office charts in its first three weeks. The film made $9.7 million in its opening weekend and an estimated 1.04 million people saw the film in its first four days of release in Germany. The film ended up selling over five million tickets and grossed $53,125,663, the highest German gross for a dramatic film. The film's strong performance in Germany was attributed in part to a large marketing campaign and numerous premieres throughout the country.
By comparison, the film performed poorly in North America. The film had a three-theater limited release
on December 27, 2006 before being expanded to 280 theaters on January 5, 2007. The film completed its theatrical run in North America on March 1, 2007, taking in a modest $2,223,293 overall. Roger Ebert attributes its poor US box office performance to the film "getting lost in the Christmas rush."
in Germany by Highlight on March 15, 2007. The standard edition DVD and the HD DVD contain the film and three audio commentary
tracks — one by Tykwer, one by production designer Uli Hanisch and his assistant Kai Karla Koch, and one by Griebe and editor Alexander Berner. The two-disc special edition DVD's extra features include the same audio commentary tracks as on the standard edition, a making-of
, interviews with the cast and crew, and six featurettes. The DVD was also released in a numbered, limited edition "Fascination of Smell" configuration which came in a wooden box containing five small bottles of the Thierry Mugler perfumes in addition to the same DVD material as the special edition DVD. Only 7,777 units were available and it was sold exclusively by Müller. A Blu-ray Disc
version of the film, which contained the same extra features as the special edition DVD, was released on November 8, 2007. The DVD sold 300,000 units in its first 14 days of release in Germany and sold 600,000 units by May 22, 2007. As of May 15, 2009, 1.15 million DVD and Blu-ray units of the film have been sold in the country. In the United States, 387,520 DVD units have been sold as of the latest figures, translating to $7,547,755 in revenue.
, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 58%, with an average
score of 6.2/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 44%. Metacritic
, which assigns a weighted average
score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 56 based on 30 reviews.
The Hollywood Reporter
s Bernard Besserglik described the film as a "visually lush, fast-moving story", stating as well that the director "has a sure sense of spectacle and, despite its faults, the movie maintains its queasy grip". Dan Jolin of Empire
gave the film four out of five stars and said "The odd conclusion renders it somewhat oblique, but Perfume is a feast for the senses. Smell it with your eyes..." A. O. Scott
of The New York Times
gave the film a negative review, saying "Try as it might to be refined and provocative, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer never rises above the pedestrian creepiness of its conceit." Scott also said that Whishaw "does not quite manage to make Grenouille either a victim worthy of pity or a fascinating monster. [...] In the film he comes across as dull, dour and repellent."
James Berardinelli
of Reelviews.net gave the film two and a half out of four stars, saying "There's a mesmerizing appeal to the director's in-your-face style, even if the images he displays are often repugnant. Unfortunately, Tykwer is working with a flawed screenplay and even the most arresting visuals cannot compensate for the movie's schizophrenic story." Roger Ebert
gave the film four out of four stars and wrote "It took imagination to tell it, courage to film it, thought to act it, and from the audience it requires a brave curiosity about the peculiarity of obsession." Ebert later named Perfume as "the most underappreciated movie of the year."
Boyd van Hoeij of European-Films.net said "Tykwer's sane decision to prefer traditional craftsmanship over computer-generated imagery and a highly intelligent screenplay that hews very close to the spirit of the novel put Perfume way ahead of its competitors." Van Hoeij later named Perfume: The Story of a Murderer one of the ten Best Films of 2006. Variety
s Derek Elley said the film was an "extremely faithful" adaptation, but felt the film was slightly too long and "more liberties should have been taken to make the novel work on the screen."
Reviews of the cast were mixed. Whishaw's performance was praised by many critics. Boyd van Hoeij said Whishaw was "a revelation in a very difficult role that is mostly mute and certainly ugly." The San Francisco Chronicle
s Mick LaSalle
said "Whishaw succeeds in making the repulsive protagonist thoroughly repulsive, which is probably a testimony to his acting ability." The casting of Dustin Hoffman as Baldini was criticized by several critics. The Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano called his performance "disconcertingly kitsch and over the top." Rickman's performance as Richis was also well-received.
s at the 33rd Saturn Awards
— Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Director (Tom Tykwer), Best Writing (Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer), Best Supporting Actress (Rachel Hurd-Wood) and Best Music (Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil). At the 2007 European Film Awards
, Frank Griebe won the award for Best Cinematographer and Uli Hanisch won the European Film Academy Prix d'Excellence for his production design work. The film also received nominations in the People's Choice Award, Best Actor (Ben Whishaw) and Best Composer (Tykwer, Klimek, Heil) categories. At the 2007 Germany Film Awards
, the film won the Silver Best Feature Film award and the awards for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Production Design and Best Sound. It also received nominations for Best Direction and Best Film Score. At the 2007 Bavarian Film Awards, Tykwer and Hanisch won awards for Best Director
and Best Production Design
categories, respectively.
Cinema of Germany
Cinema in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film.Unlike any other national cinemas, which developed in the context of relatively continuous and stable political systems, Germany witnesses major changes to its...
thriller film directed by Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run , Heaven , Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , and The International ....
and written by Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger was a German film producer and director.- Life and career :Eichinger was born in Neuburg an der Donau. He attended the University of Television and Film Munich in the 1970s, and bought a stake in the fledgling studio company Neue Constantin Film in 1979, becoming its executive...
and Tykwer. It is based on the 1985 novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind
Patrick Süskind
Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter.- Life and work :The public knows little about Patrick Süskind. He has withdrawn from the literary scene in Germany and never grants interviews or allows photos. He was born in Ambach am Starnberger See, near Munich in Germany...
. Set in 18th century France, the film tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is the protagonist from Patrick Süskind's novel Perfume, published in 1985. Grenouille is born with an extreme form of hyperosmia , which eventually leads to him becoming a serial killer....
(Ben Whishaw
Ben Whishaw
Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw is an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Whishaw is perhaps best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and his role as the lead character in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.-Early life:Whishaw was born and raised in...
), an olfactory
Olfaction
Olfaction is the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...
genius, and his homicidal quest for the perfect scent. The film also stars Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
, Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and Rachel Hurd-Wood
Rachel Hurd-Wood
Rachel Clare Hurd-Wood is an English actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.-Personal life:Rachel Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
; John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
provides narration.
The film was made on a budget of €50 million, making it one of the most expensive German films. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began on July 12, 2005 and concluded on October 16, 2005; filming took place in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Perfume was released on September 14, 2006 in Germany. It grossed $135,039,943 worldwide, of which $53,125,663 was made in Germany. Critics' reviews of the film were mixed; the consensus was that the film had strong cinematography and acting but suffered from an uneven screenplay.
Plot
The film begins with the sentencing of Jean-Baptiste GrenouilleJean-Baptiste Grenouille
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is the protagonist from Patrick Süskind's novel Perfume, published in 1985. Grenouille is born with an extreme form of hyperosmia , which eventually leads to him becoming a serial killer....
(Ben Whishaw
Ben Whishaw
Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw is an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Whishaw is perhaps best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and his role as the lead character in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.-Early life:Whishaw was born and raised in...
), a notorious murderer. Between the reading of the sentence and the execution, the story of his life is told in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
, beginning with his abandonment at birth in a French fish market. Raised in an orphanage, Grenouille grows into a strangely detached boy with a superhuman sense of smell. After growing to maturity as a tanner's
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
apprentice, he makes his first delivery to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he revels in the new odors. He focuses on a girl selling plums (Karoline Herfurth
Karoline Herfurth
-Life and career:She is probably most well known to English-speaking audiences for her appearances in the Academy Award Best Picture-nominee The Reader and in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the 2006 film adaptation of Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel Das Parfum. The feature was directed by...
) and startles her with his behavior. To prevent her from crying out, he covers the girl's mouth and unintentionally suffocates her. After realizing that she is dead, he strips her body naked and smells her until the scent fades. Afterwards, Grenouille becomes haunted by the desire to recreate the plum slicing girl's scent.
After making a delivery to a perfume
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
shop, Grenouille amazes the Italian owner, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
), with his ability to create fragrances. He revitalizes the perfumer's career with new formulas, demanding only that Baldini teach him how to convert scents into perfume. Baldini explains that all perfumes are harmonies of 12 individual scents, and may contain a theoretical 13th scent. He also tells a story about a perfume discovered in an Egyptian tomb that was so perfect that it caused everyone in the entire world to briefly believe they were in paradise the moment the bottle was opened. When Grenouille discovers that Baldini's method of distillation
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
will not capture the scents of all objects, such as iron chains and dead animals, he becomes depressed. After receiving a letter of presentation written by Baldini, Grenouille leaves to learn a different method in Grasse
Grasse
-See also:*Route Napoléon*Ancient Diocese of Grasse*Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department-External links:*...
. En route to Grasse, Grenouille realises that he has no scent of his own, and is therefore a cipher
Cipher
In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...
. He decides that creating the perfect smell will prove his worth.
Upon arrival in Grasse, Grenouille catches the scent of Laura Richis (Rachel Hurd-Wood
Rachel Hurd-Wood
Rachel Clare Hurd-Wood is an English actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.-Personal life:Rachel Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
), daughter of the wealthy Antoine Richis (Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
) and decides that she will be his "13th scent", the linchpin of his perfect perfume. Grenouille finds a job in Grasse under Madame Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch) and Dominique Druot (Paul Berrondo) assisting with perfumes and learns the method of enfleurage
Enfleurage
Enfleurage is a process that uses odorless fats that are solid at room temperature to capture the fragrant compounds exuded by plants. The process can be "cold" enfleurage or "hot" enfleurage.- Process :...
. He kills a lavender picker and attempts to extract her scent using the method of hot enfleurage, which fails. After this, he tries the method of cold enfleurage on a prostitute and successfully preserves the scent of the woman. Grenouille embarks on a killing spree, murdering beautiful young girls and capturing their scents. He dumps the women's naked corpses around the city, creating panic. After preserving the first 12 scents, Grenouille plans his attack on Laura. During a church sermon against him it is announced that a man has confessed to the murders. Richis remains unconvinced and flees the city with his daughter. Grenouille tracks her scent to a roadside inn and sneaks into her room that night. The next morning, Richis discovers Laura lying dead in her bed.
Soldiers capture Grenouille moments after he finishes preparing his perfume. On the day of his execution, he applies a drop of the perfume over himself. The executioner and the crowd in attendance are speechless at the beauty of the perfume; they declare Grenouille innocent before falling into a massive orgy
Group sex
Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Group sex can occur amongst people of all sexual orientations and genders...
. Richis, still convinced of Grenouille's guilt, threatens him with his sword, before being overwhelmed by the scent and embracing Grenouille as his "son". Eventually, the town awakens and decides that the godly Grenouille could not have been the murderer. Druot is convicted for the murders and hanged, since it was his backyard where the clothes and hair of the victims were found.
Walking out of Grasse unscathed, Grenouille has enough perfume to rule the world, but has discovered that it will not allow him to love or be loved like a normal person. Disenchanted by his aimless quest and tired of his life, he returns to Paris. Back in the city, Grenouille returns to the fish market where he was born and dumps the perfume on his head. Overcome by the scent and in the belief that Grenouille is an angel, the nearby crowd devours
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
him. The next day, all that is left are his clothes and the open perfume bottle, from which one final drop of perfume falls.
Development
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is based on the 1985 novel by Patrick Süskind which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Süskind reportedly thought that only Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
and Miloš Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
could do the book justice and refused to let anyone else make a film adaptation of it. Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger was a German film producer and director.- Life and career :Eichinger was born in Neuburg an der Donau. He attended the University of Television and Film Munich in the 1970s, and bought a stake in the fledgling studio company Neue Constantin Film in 1979, becoming its executive...
, the film's producer, read the novel when it was first released and immediately approached Süskind, who was also a friend of his, to obtain the film rights — Süskind refused. In 2000, Süskind relented and sold Eichinger the rights. Eichinger had to take out a personal loan because the supervisory board of Constantin Film
Constantin Film
- History :Constantin Film Distribution GmbH was founded by Waldfried Barthel and Preben Philipsen on April 1, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. On December 21, 1964, the name of the company was changed to Constantin Film GmbH....
refused to approve the selling price. He is rumored to have paid €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
10 million for the film rights. The author had no involvement in the project.
Eichinger and screenwriter Andrew Birkin began to write a draft script. Eichinger says that their biggest problem was a narrative one, "The main character doesn't express himself. A novelist can use narrative to compensate for this; that's not possible in film. An audience can usually only get a feeling for a character if the character speaks", said Eichinger. Eichinger said, "With material like this it is especially important for a director to get involved in the script." Eichinger met with a number of directors but felt that only Tom Tykwer was really in tune with the material. In 2003, Tykwer was invited to join Eichinger and Birkin in adapting the novel. The screenplay went through over 20 revisions to get to the final shooting script
Shooting script
A shooting script is the version of a screenplay used during the production of a motion picture. Shooting scripts are distinct from spec scripts in that they make use of scene numbers , and they follow a well defined set of procedures specifying how script revisions should be implemented and...
. The three writers worked hard to create a faithful adaptation that captured the atmosphere and climate of the novel, yet, at the same time, have a specific and individual perspective, in terms of the story and the main character.
The film had a production budget of €50 million (US$63.7 million), making it one of the most expensive German film productions. The film was financed
Film finance
Film finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the development stage prior to pre-production, and is concerned with determining the potential value of a proposed film...
by Constantin Film, which Eichinger was the former CEO of; billionaire Gisela Oeri
Gisela Oeri
Gisela "Gigi" Oeri is a Swiss-German football chairwoman and philanthropist born 8 November 1955 in Schopfheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is currently the chairwoman of FC Basel....
and VIP Medienfonds. Perfume is Oeri's first investment into a film and she also served as a co-producer. The film received €200,000 in funding from the German Federal Film Board (FFA)'s German–French Agreement fund. Eurimages
Eurimages
Eurimages is the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution, exhibition and digitisation of European cinematographic works. It aims to promote the European film industry by encouraging the production and distribution of films and fostering co-operation between professionals....
also granted the film €600,000 in co-production funding. The film received €400,000 in funding from the German Federal Film Board. The film received production funding of €1.6 million from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, €1 million from the German Federal Film Board and €750,000 from Filmstiftung NRW. The film received distribution funding of €205,000 from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, €180,000 from the German Federal Film Board and €150,000 from the Bavarian Bank Fund.
Andreas Schmid, CEO of VIP Medienfonds and one of the film's executive producers, was arrested in October 2005 on suspicion of fraud and tax evasion. The resulting investigation revealed some irregularities in the financing of Perfume. According to documents Schmid filed to tax authorities, VIP invested €25 million into the film. But according to Constantin Film's ledgers, VIP only put up €4.1 million. The remainder of the €25 million was banked to collect interest, secure bank guaranties and used to pay back investors their share of the film's revenue. As VIP claimed the whole €25 million was used to produce the film, its investors were also able to write off their entire contribution against tax. Perfume also received €700,000 in state subsidies from Filmstiftung NRW based on the €4.1 million figure. In November 2007, Schmid was found guilty of multiple counts of tax evasion and sentenced to six years in prison. He had already served more than two years in jail since his arrest.
Casting
Ben Whishaw
Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw is an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Whishaw is perhaps best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and his role as the lead character in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.-Early life:Whishaw was born and raised in...
perform as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
's production of the play. Tykwer immediately felt that he had found the actor for the role. An audition followed which convinced Eichinger of Whishaw's potential as well. Eichinger described Whishaw as embodying both "the innocent angel and the murderer." Regarding his search to find an actor, Tykwer said "it only really seemed plausible to choose someone for this role who was completely unknown. You could also say a 'nobody' who is to become a 'somebody' - because that's what the story is about too."
When it came to casting the role of Baldini, the washed-up perfumer who first teaches Grenouille how to capture smells and create perfume, Tykwer immediately thought of Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
. "When I took on this project I knew straight away that there was no one who could play Baldini better," said Tykwer. Hoffman had wanted to work with Tykwer since he saw Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run is a 1998 German crime thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 German marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life...
and Tykwer had always wanted to get Hoffman for a part. Hoffman and Whishaw had a week of rehearsal and a crash course in perfume-making prior to the start of principal photography. The scenes between the two actors were shot in sequence, allowing them to follow the natural progression of their characters' relationship.
Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
was Tykwer's first choice to play Richis and the role was not offered to anyone else. Tykwer and Eichinger looked through hundreds of audition tapes to find the right actress for the role of Richis' daughter Laura. Tykwer believed he had found the right actress on a tape with 15 actresses but couldn't remember exactly which was the one he liked. Eichinger looked through the tape and found what he thought was a suitable person. It turned out that both men had chosen the same actress, Rachel Hurd-Wood
Rachel Hurd-Wood
Rachel Clare Hurd-Wood is an English actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.-Personal life:Rachel Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
. Tykwer went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to cast her personally. A new tape was recorded and she was given the role. A suitable actress could not be found for the role of the plum girl in England and the United States so Tykwer decided to look at actresses in Germany. Karoline Herfurth
Karoline Herfurth
-Life and career:She is probably most well known to English-speaking audiences for her appearances in the Academy Award Best Picture-nominee The Reader and in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the 2006 film adaptation of Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel Das Parfum. The feature was directed by...
, who had twice worked with Tykwer, was asked to do a screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
with Whishaw, in costume. Herfurth proved herself to Tykwer and her role was expanded.
A total of 5,200 extras were used for the film, sometimes with nearly a thousand at once. The orgy scene at the film's climax required 750 extras. 50 key players from the dance theater group La Fura dels Baus
La Fura dels Baus
La Fura dels Baus is a Catalan theatrical group founded in 1979 in Barcelona, known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan means "vermin from the sewers"....
and 100 relatively experienced talents formed the core of the crowd. The remaining 600 extras were arranged around this group of 150 performers.
Design
To help define the film's look the crew watched period films such as Sleepy HollowSleepy Hollow (film)
Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American period horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones,...
, Amadeus
Amadeus (film)
Amadeus is a 1984 period drama film directed by Miloš Forman and written by Peter Shaffer. Adapted from Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the story is based loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers who lived in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the...
, Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist (1922 film)
Oliver Twist is a 1922 silent film adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist featuring Lon Chaney as Fagin, and Jackie Coogan as Oliver. Directed by Frank Lloyd.- Synopsis :Oliver's mother, a penniless outcast, died giving birth to him...
, Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon is a 1975 British-American period romantic war film produced, written, and directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray which recounts the exploits of an 18th century Irish adventurer...
, From Hell
From Hell (film)
From Hell is a 2001 American crime drama horror mystery film directed by the Hughes brothers. It is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders.-Plot:...
, The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man (film)
The Elephant Man is a 1980 American drama film based on the true story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
, Dracula, Brotherhood of the Wolf
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Brotherhood of the Wolf is a 2001 French film directed by Christophe Gans, starring Samuel Le Bihan and Mark Dacascos, and written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel...
, Vidocq and Les Misérables. Cinematographer Frank Griebe
Frank Griebe
Frank Griebe is a German cinematographer.He is most popular for his work with German director Tom Tykwer. He photographed his movies Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , Heaven , The Princess and the Warrior, Run Lola Run, Wintersleepers and The International .He also worked with Sönke Wortmann on...
said that of all the films they watched that had been shot on location, none of them really had the dirt and grit of the city that they desired for Perfume. "We needed a filthy city to get the real feel for the smells of it", said Griebe. Tykwer wanted to recreate 18th-century Paris, as seen through the eyes of the lower-class Grenouille and said that he want to shoot the film "as if we were thrown into a time machine with a camera."
Tykwer describes the film as having "a distinctly dark aesthetic", due to both the lack of adequate lighting during the film's time period and the nature of its storyline. The filmmakers took inspiration from painters that specialized in darkness with few sources of light such as Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
, Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution"....
and Rembrandt. The film begins with a cool, monochromatic color palette, and as Grenouille discovers more scents, the palette warms and opens up. In the scenes where Grenouille goes to Paris for the first time, the filmmakers subtly added more powerful colors in the sets, costumes, props and lighting to represent Grenouille's experience of the new smells.
One of the main challenges of making the film was to convey the smells and the world of scents that Grenouille experiences. Tykwer said that to him Perfume "was much more a film about the importance of smell in our life than a film that tries to be smelly." The filmmakers strived to convey smell visually without the use of colors or special effects, Griebe says "people see the fish market full of raw, bloody fish, and they know it stinks; they see a field of lavender and know it smells wonderful. We show Grenouille taking in smells by cupping his nose, and by doing close shots of his nose, and that's it!"
Pierre-Yves Gayraud, the film's costume designer, spent 15 weeks researching 18th century fashion. Production of over 1,400 costumes, in addition to the preparation of shoes, hats and other accessories were completed within three months by workshops in and around Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. The costume department had to make the clothing look worn and dirty. Additionally, the actors were required to wear the costumes and more or less live in them prior to shooting. The character Grenouille was not given any white clothing and wore bluish over-garments throughout most of the film because the filmmakers wanted to depict him as a shadow and a chameleon
Chameleon
Chameleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, the possession by many of a...
. Instead of dressing the character of Laura in the colorful regional dress that was the tradition of the time, she was dressed in the less vivid tones of a Parisian damsel to highlight her social aspirations as well as her red hair.
Filming
Although the filmmakers needed an 18th century French setting, shooting the film in its original setting of ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
was unlikely due to the extensive modernization
Haussmann's renovation of Paris
Haussmann's Renovation of Paris, or the Haussmann Plan, was a modernization program of Paris commissioned by Napoléon III and led by the Seine prefect, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870...
of the city in the 19th century. Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
was initially considered as an alternative because of its earthy scenery and pristine old-world towns, but even though the price was right, the distance between locations proved to be disadvantageous. In the end, the filmmakers opted to shoot most of the film in Spain which, although more expensive than Croatia, offered locations which were closer to each other.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began on July 12, 2005 and concluded on October 16, 2005. The first 15 days was spent entirely on the largest stage of Bavaria Film Studios
Bavaria Film Studios
The Bavaria Film in Geiselgasteig, a district of Munich's suburb Grünwald, Bavaria belongs to one of Europe's biggest and most famous film production companies.- History :...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, shooting the scenes between Baldini and Grenouille in the former's workshop. All of the scenes with Hoffman were completed within the first eleven days. Most of the remaining scenes were shot in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, specifically in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
and Figueres
Figueres
Figueres is the capital of the comarca of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which attracts many visitors...
. The streets of Barcelona stood in for that of Paris. El Gòtic, Barcelona's historic town center, was converted into a Paris fish market. The Poble Espanyol
Poble Espanyol
The Poble Espanyol is an outdoor open-air architectural museum, located on the mountain of Montjuïc, in the city of Barcelona, Spain.It was constructed in 1929, for the Barcelona International Exhibition, that was held in Barcelona that year....
, an open-air museum in Barcelona, was the location for the climatic orgy scene. To create an authentic dirty look, the film's crew included a "dirt unit" of about 60 people whose job was to distribute detritus over the city. Two and a half tons of fish and one ton of meat was dispersed over El Gòtic. Several mountain and forest scenes were shot in the environs of Girona. The city also provided the location of the home and studio of Madame Arnulfi. Sant Ferran Castle
Sant Ferran Castle
The Sant Ferran Castle is situated on a hill in Figueres, Catalonia at the end of Pujada del Castell. It is a large military fortress built in the eighteenth century under the orders of several military engineers, including Peter Martin i Cermeño Juan Martin Cermeño...
in Figueres provided the location for the tannery, the Paris city gates and the dungeon which Grenouille is imprisoned in. The cave in which Grenouille discovers he has no scent was also located in Figueres. Some landscape shots, including those used as Grasse's lavender fields, were filmed in Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in late June 2005, before principal photography started.
The cinematographer for Perfume was Frank Griebe
Frank Griebe
Frank Griebe is a German cinematographer.He is most popular for his work with German director Tom Tykwer. He photographed his movies Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , Heaven , The Princess and the Warrior, Run Lola Run, Wintersleepers and The International .He also worked with Sönke Wortmann on...
, who Tykwer has worked with on all of his films. The film was shot on Arri
Arri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
cameras and lenses. For sequences which required the camera to be extremely close to its subject, Griebe used the Kenworthy/Nettman Snorkel Lens System. Griebe shot the film on 3-perf Super 35 film using three Kodak Vision2 film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...
s — 500T 5218, 200T 5217 and 100T 5212. 5218 was used for all the night scenes and the choice between the other two were determined by weather conditions — 5212 when it was very sunny and 5217 whenever it was overcast. Tykwer and Griebe originally discussed shooting Perfume in the traditional Academy 1.33:1 aspect ratio
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...
, but they decided against it because of the difficulty of theatrical exhibition. "We felt 1.33:1 was perfect for many aspects of this story, but today you can't release a 1.33 film in theaters," said Griebe.
Post-production
Post-production took place in Munich and required nine months to complete, concluding in the third quarter of 2006. Film editor Alex Berner was present at all the shooting locations and was on set with Tykwer. Berner also cut dailiesDailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
as filming progressed which, according to Tykwer, saved a lot of time later. Tykwer said they had to work this way due to the film's tight schedule (the European release dates had already been locked). On every night of filming, Tykwer and Griebe would take screenshots from the dailies and make notes for the film laboratory
Film laboratory
A film laboratory is a commercial service enterprise and technical facility for the film industry where specialists develop, print, and conform film material for classical film production and distribution which is based on film material, such as negative and positive, black and white and color, on...
on what sort of tone and palette they wanted, and the level of brightness and contrast they wanted for the prints. A digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
was used for the film. About three months was spent grading
Color grading
Color grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing and is typically performed at a photographic...
the film. Digital grading tools were used to improve the color of the lavender fields because the film crew had arrived a week early and the flowers were not in full bloom. In the scene where Grenouille murders the plum girl, selective color
Selective color
Selective color is a post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color. This is usually achieved by using layers and masks in photo editing software .A common application for selective color is portraiture, to keep the eyes and...
ing was used to take the tone of the dead body's flesh from its natural color to a pale white color.
Visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
work, of which there were about 250 shots, was carried out by Universal Production Partners in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. Much of the visual effects work for the film consisted of minor CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
corrections, such as wire removal
Wire removal
Wire removal is a visual effects technique used to remove wires in films, usually as a safety precaution or to simulate flying in actors or miniatures....
s; and a lot of crowd manipulation and set extensions. Scale model
Scale model
A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...
s were used to create the shots of the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
river bridge with houses on it.
Music
As with all of Tykwer's films since 1997's WintersleepersWintersleepers
Wintersleepers is a 1997 German film directed by Tom Tykwer. It was premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival.-Plot:The film is set in the deeply snowy alpine winter resort of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria; the story begins shortly after Christmas Day, with five people returning, not all of...
, the musical score for Perfume was composed by Tykwer and two of his friends Johnny Klimek
Johnny Klimek
Johnny Klimek is an Australian film and television composer, currently based in Los Angeles. He is known by association with German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, with whom he and longtime partner Reinhold Heil have collaborated on seven films, including Run, Lola, Run and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer...
and Reinhold Heil
Reinhold Heil
Reinhold Heil is a composer and former member of Spliff and the Nina Hagen Band who has largely worked on film music but has produced pop music for Kim Wilde, Rosemarie Precht , and Nena...
. The score was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of conductor Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
. Tykwer began composing the score with Klimek and Heil the very day he started working on the screenplay. Tykwer said, "I feel like I understand very much about the structure and the motivations of the characters when I'm writing the script, but I really do understand the atmosphere and the emotional and the more abstract part of the film when I'm investigating the music, and when I'm planning the music for it. ... When I then come to the shooting, having worked for three years on the music and three years on the script, I really feel like I know exactly the two worlds and how to combine them." By the time it came to shooting the film, a substantial portion of music had been composed. Tykwer hired a small orchestra and recorded them performing the score. Tykwer played the recorded music on set so people could explore the atmosphere and the acoustic world of the film while they were acting in it. The music was also used instead of temp music during editing.
Marketing
To coincide with the film's release, clothing and fragrance company Thierry MuglerThierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler is a French fashion designer and creator of several perfumes.-Childhood:Mugler was born in Strasbourg, France on 21 December 1948. His passion led him to focus more on drawing than on school and at the age of 9, he began to study classical dance...
released a 15-piece perfume coffret. The perfumes were a collaboration between Thierry Mugler's Pierre Aulas and International Flavors & Fragrances' Christophe Laudamiel
Christophe Laudamiel
Christophe Laudamiel is a Contemporary French Perfumer, M. Sc. Chem., born in Clermont-Ferrand and living in New York City.- Education :...
and Christoph Hornetz. Laudamiel read the novel in 1994 and began recreating odors from it in 2000; Hornetz joined the project in 2002. 14 of the fragrances were inspired by the novel and film, the 15th works as a fragrance enhancer but can also be worn on its own. Smells represented by the perfumes include Paris in 1739, a virgin's navel, a clean baby and leather. The coffret was released as a limited edition of 1,300 sets which sold for US$700 each; all 1,300 sets were sold.
Box office
The film was a financial success, especially in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, earning $135,039,943 worldwide. It opened in Germany on September 14, 2006 and was number one on the box office charts in its first three weeks. The film made $9.7 million in its opening weekend and an estimated 1.04 million people saw the film in its first four days of release in Germany. The film ended up selling over five million tickets and grossed $53,125,663, the highest German gross for a dramatic film. The film's strong performance in Germany was attributed in part to a large marketing campaign and numerous premieres throughout the country.
By comparison, the film performed poorly in North America. The film had a three-theater limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on December 27, 2006 before being expanded to 280 theaters on January 5, 2007. The film completed its theatrical run in North America on March 1, 2007, taking in a modest $2,223,293 overall. Roger Ebert attributes its poor US box office performance to the film "getting lost in the Christmas rush."
Home media
The film was released on DVD (in three configurations) and HD DVDHD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
in Germany by Highlight on March 15, 2007. The standard edition DVD and the HD DVD contain the film and three audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
tracks — one by Tykwer, one by production designer Uli Hanisch and his assistant Kai Karla Koch, and one by Griebe and editor Alexander Berner. The two-disc special edition DVD's extra features include the same audio commentary tracks as on the standard edition, a making-of
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
, interviews with the cast and crew, and six featurettes. The DVD was also released in a numbered, limited edition "Fascination of Smell" configuration which came in a wooden box containing five small bottles of the Thierry Mugler perfumes in addition to the same DVD material as the special edition DVD. Only 7,777 units were available and it was sold exclusively by Müller. A Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
version of the film, which contained the same extra features as the special edition DVD, was released on November 8, 2007. The DVD sold 300,000 units in its first 14 days of release in Germany and sold 600,000 units by May 22, 2007. As of May 15, 2009, 1.15 million DVD and Blu-ray units of the film have been sold in the country. In the United States, 387,520 DVD units have been sold as of the latest figures, translating to $7,547,755 in revenue.
Critical response
The film divided critics. Based on 121 reviews collected by Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 58%, with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 6.2/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 44%. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 56 based on 30 reviews.
The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
s Bernard Besserglik described the film as a "visually lush, fast-moving story", stating as well that the director "has a sure sense of spectacle and, despite its faults, the movie maintains its queasy grip". Dan Jolin of Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
gave the film four out of five stars and said "The odd conclusion renders it somewhat oblique, but Perfume is a feast for the senses. Smell it with your eyes..." A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
gave the film a negative review, saying "Try as it might to be refined and provocative, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer never rises above the pedestrian creepiness of its conceit." Scott also said that Whishaw "does not quite manage to make Grenouille either a victim worthy of pity or a fascinating monster. [...] In the film he comes across as dull, dour and repellent."
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
of Reelviews.net gave the film two and a half out of four stars, saying "There's a mesmerizing appeal to the director's in-your-face style, even if the images he displays are often repugnant. Unfortunately, Tykwer is working with a flawed screenplay and even the most arresting visuals cannot compensate for the movie's schizophrenic story." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film four out of four stars and wrote "It took imagination to tell it, courage to film it, thought to act it, and from the audience it requires a brave curiosity about the peculiarity of obsession." Ebert later named Perfume as "the most underappreciated movie of the year."
Boyd van Hoeij of European-Films.net said "Tykwer's sane decision to prefer traditional craftsmanship over computer-generated imagery and a highly intelligent screenplay that hews very close to the spirit of the novel put Perfume way ahead of its competitors." Van Hoeij later named Perfume: The Story of a Murderer one of the ten Best Films of 2006. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s Derek Elley said the film was an "extremely faithful" adaptation, but felt the film was slightly too long and "more liberties should have been taken to make the novel work on the screen."
Reviews of the cast were mixed. Whishaw's performance was praised by many critics. Boyd van Hoeij said Whishaw was "a revelation in a very difficult role that is mostly mute and certainly ugly." The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
s Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
said "Whishaw succeeds in making the repulsive protagonist thoroughly repulsive, which is probably a testimony to his acting ability." The casting of Dustin Hoffman as Baldini was criticized by several critics. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Carina Chocano called his performance "disconcertingly kitsch and over the top." Rickman's performance as Richis was also well-received.
Accolades
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was nominated for five Saturn AwardSaturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
s at the 33rd Saturn Awards
33rd Saturn Awards
The 33rd Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and television in 2006, were held on 10 May 2007 at the Universal City Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Greg Grunberg and Jeffrey Ross...
— Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Director (Tom Tykwer), Best Writing (Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer), Best Supporting Actress (Rachel Hurd-Wood) and Best Music (Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil). At the 2007 European Film Awards
European Film Awards 2007
The 20th Annual European Film Awards took place on December 1, 2007 in Berlin, Germany-European Film of the Year: 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile by Cristian Mungiu/ Auf Der Anderen Seite by Fatih Akin The Last King of Scotland by Kevin Macdonald La Môme by Olivier Dahan Persepolis by Marjane...
, Frank Griebe won the award for Best Cinematographer and Uli Hanisch won the European Film Academy Prix d'Excellence for his production design work. The film also received nominations in the People's Choice Award, Best Actor (Ben Whishaw) and Best Composer (Tykwer, Klimek, Heil) categories. At the 2007 Germany Film Awards
Deutscher Filmpreis
The Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...
, the film won the Silver Best Feature Film award and the awards for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Production Design and Best Sound. It also received nominations for Best Direction and Best Film Score. At the 2007 Bavarian Film Awards, Tykwer and Hanisch won awards for Best Director
Bavarian Film Awards (Best Director)
This is a list of the winners of the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Director.-References:* * This is a list of the winners of the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Director.-References:* * This is a list of the winners of the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Director.-References:* * (12 pages, 124 KB...
and Best Production Design
Bavarian Film Awards (Production Design)
This is a list of the winners of the Bavarian Film Awards Prize for best production design.1979 Hans-Jürgen Syberberg1980 Bengt von zur Mühlen1993 Barbara Baum2006 Uli Hanisch-References:**...
categories, respectively.