Perfume: The Story of Murderer (2007) Movie Review

He can rule this world with a small bottle of perfume in his pocket. Only a small bottle, not up to half a liter. Only with that, people will worship him wherever he is. Though he was just a skinny, poor teenager, who had killed 25 young and beautiful women. Because of his madness. Because the extraordinary sense of smell. This film, set in French background in the 18th century, reminds me of the Dangerous Liaisons that I wrote yesterday. A very good film setting and adapted from the story of the novel as well, with the same title by Patrick Suskind.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (played by Ben Whishaw ) is an orphan born in the slums of Paris. He was not good at talking so everyone avoided him. But he was blessed with an extraordinary sense of smell. Unfortunately, he was sold to a smelly tannery factory, so he was tormented by the scent he had to breathe every day.

When delivering leather orders to the city, Grenouille became aware of a perfume called perfume, concocted by a famous perfume expert in Paris named Giuseppe Baldini (played by Dustin Hoffman ). He loved the perfume and tried hard to find any material that had made it so fragrant.

When he was busy looking for scents that might be in the perfume mixture, he suddenly smelled a very fragrant scent that he had never smelled before. It turned out that the scent she smelled came from a fruit seller girl who was walking a few meters in front of her. That girl is poor so it's impossible to wear perfume. So the fragrance that he smelled was definitely derived from the natural scent of his body.

That's when Grenouille found the most fragrant scent among all the usual perfume mixes. The scent of a beautiful young girl. So obsessed with this sweet scent, Grenouille began killing one by one the beautiful girls in the city. He made a concoction of animal fat, which could store the girl's body scent. It's just the way it is strange. He had to rub the fat all over the girl's body, then scrape the fat from his skin using a knife. But of course, all the girls he asked to volunteer would be frightened and refused. Finally he killed her. The first girl he killed was the fruit seller he had found on the street.

Since then he began to kill every beautiful girl in the city. The entire city fears. Allegations were directed at poor and unmarried men who were scattered there. As a result, many victims, were killed because of suspicion. The church has begun to fret with this upheaval. They assume that the devil is behind all these bad events. And decided to invite the Cardinal to pray that the city would be free from evil powers.

Coinciding with the emergence of the Cardinal, one of the arrested criminals claimed that he was the killer of the young girls. The whole city was relieved. Nobody else is afraid of going out at night. They returned to the party as before the incident took place. Without them knowing, Grenouille peered out from behind the darkness, feeling lucky with this unexpected event.

Actually he was eyeing a very beautiful red haired girl named Laura (played by Rachel Hurd-Wood ). It's just that Laura is different from her previous victims because she is the daughter of a wealthy nobleman. While the other victims are poor girls or even prostitutes, so it's easier to get. The fat from the bodies of the victims girls was then distilled, so that it turned into one tablespoon of perfume extract. Each one is put in a separate small bottle. When finally the 24th bottle is filled, then only Laura has to get it. The scent of his body that will fill the 25th bottle.

Laura's father, Richis (played by Alan Rickman ) did not simply believe that the serial killer had been caught. He was sure, if the claimant was not the murderer they were looking for, and the truth was still hanging around looking for prey. That's why he was so protective of taking care of his daughter and forbid her to stay outside the house for too long. But Laura is a cheerful teenage girl, she doesn't like being too confined by her father. Because of this, his father decided to take Laura out of town and leave him in a monastery, until the killer was captured.

They leave early in the morning on horseback. Richis designed their group to be divided in two. One group carrying their gear walked through the southern path, while the two of them passed through the north. But Grenouille 's incredible sense of smell cannot be deceived. He could still find Laura's whereabouts, only by taking a deep breath, trying to breathe in the beautiful girl's scent. And he also found it. And killed Laura while sleeping in her room. He then distilled Laura's body fat and mixed it with the 24 small bottles he already had. A small bottle of several millions of perfume core was collected from the 25 young and beautiful girls he had killed.

That's when Richis caught him and reported it to the authorities. They planned a very cruel punishment for Grenouille. This punishment was very famous in Paris at that time. Where criminals will be tied to a wood. Then an executioner will hit twelve joints on his body until it breaks. This is a very painful and long process of death. So that the criminal will feel extreme pain first, then die.

When picked up from prison, Grenouille took out his perfume bottle. And accidentally took a few drops into his hand. Unexpectedly, after smelling the perfume, the warden changed his attitude and bowed to worship him. He even gave his luxurious clothes for Grenouille to wear. Also gave his horse carriage to use Grenoullie to the field where he would be executed.

Thousands of people who had been waiting furiously on the square were amazed to see the criminal who was to be executed come in a luxury car owned by officials and wearing expensive oversized clothes. Because the warden was fat, while Grenouille was very thin. When he was on the stage where he was executed, he took a silk handkerchief from his pocket and sprinkled a little of his perfume to the end of the handkerchief.

The executioner who looked big and cruel immediately knelt down to worship him and called out to the crowd that Grenouille was innocent. People were surprised. Grenouille was getting excited. He then waved the handkerchief at the crowd, especially towards the Cardinal who was some distance away. Instantly, all people who like drift and forget themselves. Even the Cardinal fell to his knees and mentioned that Granouille was not human. "He is an angel. He is an angel. " He said. And in an instant, the crowd knelt down to worship him and then fainted unconscious.

At the end of the story it is shown that Grenouille walked alone to the slum where he was born. On the way he thought that his perfume had no meaning at all. Perfume can indeed make him enslave the whole world. He could send a letter dripping with perfume to the Pope and say that he was the new Messiah. But Grenouille did not do it.

No matter how great the perfume is, it won't be able to make others love it sincerely. They only love him because of the perfume. And the girl he loved, the flower seller on the first slum he killed, would not come back to life. Even though he has one big barrel of that magical perfume, he will still be alone in this world. Lonely. Finally he decided to return to the area that had raised him first. On the slums of Paris.

Arriving there, he saw a group of beggars and vagrants who were gathered around a small campfire. Grenouille then poured the entire contents of the bottle into his body. All the tramps turned to him and were fascinated. Screaming they ran toward him and surrounded him. The love they felt was so great that they all ate Grenouille alive, without being left. His bones were gone. That's the end of the expert perfume mixers. Killed because of being eaten by a tramp. Apparently, even the greatest power cannot make someone happy