adrianwalby The story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (John Whishaw) takes us on a journey from the squalor of Paris's fish markets, to the city's most established perfume houses, to the quietude of the countryside and finally to the attention of society's elite. Grenouille has the best nose in Paris, and a compulsion to continue expanding his library of olfactory experiences. He progresses from Madame Gaillard's orphanage to Grimal's tannery, and from here coaxes his way into an apprenticeship with the once-respected Perfumier, Baldini. Here he learns vocabulary for the aromas, how to write formulae and how to present himself in society if he is to become a great artisan one day. Without Grenouille's knowledge, the people who've had any influence in his disadvantaged life are doomed soon after he moves on from them.Having kept his promise of 100 written perfume formulae for Baldini, Grenouille is encouraged to travel to Grasse to further expand his skills. Here he perfects the art of "enfleurage", a process by which odorless fats, solid at room temperature, are used to capture the fragrant compounds exuded by plants. Without a scent of his own, the young man's ultimate goal is to apply this methodology in a manner which will change his status forever, from reviled and feared to adored by mankind. German Director, Tom Tykwer, applies a mostly sepia / monochromatic colour scheme throughout the movie, with occasional bright splashes to focus the viewer on certain details: yellow plums, lavendar fields, flora and the red hair of the mesmerising young women Grenouille encounters. John Hurt's narration perfectly captures the author's original writing style, evokes the smells of the locale and slowly articulates the main character's disturbing thoughts.Whilst the movie is set in France, Grenouille's London accent eliminates the need for sub-titles and instead enables the viewer to keep pace as the story unfolds. The eerie choir music draws us deeply into this dark, extraordinary film. Our empathy for Grenouille's introversion and tenacity may begin to waver during the story. However, towards the end of the movie we are reminded of the struggles he's endured - his reasoning, sensuality and brilliance once again merit our respect. Grenouille's self-transformation from invisible to invincible is compelling. Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel which I first came across 30 years ago has been beautifully adapted to film. 10/10 Score in my opinion. This movie will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover".

shivajabarnia I hated the movie so much that I can not even find words to describe it.It's mindless, sexist, poorly executed, and definitely not worth the time. The only reason I'm giving it two stars is that the basic idea - of someone perceiving the world through smells - is nice, and that's merely the only good thing about this movie.

krocheav It never fails to amaze just how easily people are seduced into liking foolish works - mostly, simply because they look good! Stylish visuals, sets, effective wardrobe decoration, slick direction, don't always add up to a good movie. Perfume has all these attributes but is built around a mind-numbingly worthless story. Just think about this...a baby is born in an 18th-century street produce market, to a woman working on a fish stall to be exact. She's cutting off fish heads and throwing them onto the ground, then she almost vomits, at the same time she drops a baby (gives birth) onto this putrid floor. There lies the new born on the floor covered in absolute filth, with maggots crawling all around it. She intends to dump it along with the other rubbish but a customer happens to see it – so, she is hung for her crime – good riddance to this pitiful wretch.Now, this babe as it turns out grows up in a work house but seems to have the world's first supersonic nose, capable of picking up the slightest scents many, many, miles away (counties in fact!) - as if that premise alone isn't enough to put you off. He follows a young girl home to smell her but accidentally kills her in the attempt. He dumps the body but is now hooked on the odour of women. He then gets a job in a French perfume shop and sets about killing as many beautiful women as he can find (seems they smell better than 'ordinary' girls). Putting their bodies into huge glass vats filled with flower petals, he siphons off the juices as they decompose (a decomposing body that somehow smells like an irresistible sweet perfume!) Who writes this tosh? His murders escalate sending the town into a chaos of fear - is no woman safe from becoming a mere decomposing scent! Alan Rickman plays a father trying to protect his daughter – he tries to play it straight but looks all the while like he knows this script is on the nose. The murderous schnozzle is finally caught and sentenced to a public death in the town square but, he has a bottle of his best perfume in his coat pocket and with a wave of his handkerchief sends the entire population into a frenzy of copulation - thus turning attention from himself! Next, he douses himself with his irresistible decomposing female scent - which further so enamours the town folk that they eat him alive! This stinker is played for real and to the tune of 60 million Dollars – It's too self consciously serious to be good satire and too straight to work as horror. Who are these fools that will spend huge sums on junk like this? This is somewhat typical of many other international co-productions.The movie made money in Germany (sort of figures) and they wondered if the Americans would understand it. Seems the Americans not only understood but, could smell a rat and stayed away to protect their health. So, the movie fell afoul and languished on the trash heap. Bravo America! Preposterous over-everything simpleton fare masquerading as 'art'. But, managed to fool a few on the way. Critic A.O.Scott of the N.Y.T. (along with a couple of others) at least had the courage to sum it up perfectly. Now to get the stench out of my head.Footnote: Several IMDb reviewers do well with analyzing this but, maybe Mathew-Lolomgwtf (around the bottom of page 2 or so) nails it well enough to save you wasting any of your valuable time.

HAFEEZ Khan One of the best Movie i have ever seen. The story is amazing. The acting is amazing. I have watched it so many times. Just loved it.I have recommend it so many people they loved it. I like very few movies but this on is just amazing.The struggle hero went through is beyond amazing.