Why this film?
Perfume: the Story of a Murder is in fact one of my favorite films and my favorite book written by Patrick Süskind. I saw this film before I ever read the book, and would never have read the book if I never saw the film, and for that I’m grateful. The thought of being able to smell such subtle scents such as pheromones, which do affect us in how we act but not being able to really smell them is what amazed me. I know this character is creepy, how he acts and what he does, but he’s intriguing. Thinking about it, the tv series Dexter is also a favorite and he too is a serial killer. It’s not that these characters are murderers but they do it for different internal reasons, not to torture people. Dexter murders murderers who kill innocent people, so his murderers deserve to die. Grenouille murders for an obsession and need to capture the beauty he smells. He wants to give to the world the heavenly beauty he is able to smell.
This movie still is just after
Grenouille had completed distilling Laura's scent. I wanted to point out how
dark this liquid is in comparison to the combination of the 12 other perfuming
victims. Laura's scent is what got him started in this obsession again, she
reminded him of The Plum Girl, her scent is as intoxicating has The Plum Girl’s
was. You can imagine how intense of a smell this was for him just by looking at
the difference in color.