Perfume

[Pubrick]

mmm mmm mmm this film could be up there with The Fountain as one of the most highly anticipated films going on these days.

i have no idea what the point of that comment was. or any other of your comments from the last 24hrs.

[The Perineum Falcon]

mmm mmm mmm this film could be up there with The Fountain as one of the most highly anticipated films going on these days.

i have no idea what the point of that comment was. or any other of your comments from the last 24hrs.

He makes the posts that I'd make if I made posts.

Such as this one.

So, ignore him all the same.

[matt35mm]

mmm mmm mmm this film could be up there with The Fountain as one of the most highly anticipated films going on these days.

i have no idea what the point of that comment was. or any other of your comments from the last 24hrs.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that his recent posts were all off-putting in some way.

[MacGuffin]

[polkablues]

See how pretty posters can be when they don't have giant floating heads on them?

[modage]

yep.   

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

[Pubrick]

Trailer here.

please deliver please deliver please deliver please deliver please deliver.

bonz is right he's not ugly enough.

[Ghostboy]

I'm gonna skip the new trailer, since I'm seeing the movie next week.

RK, feel like standing in line at the Paramount with James and I?

[Ghostboy]

Just got back from it. I'll write more later, but for now, I'll just say that it's almost a beat-for-beat adaptation of the book, and as such, it's extremely satisfying, and frequently almost perfect. They make Grenouille attractive, yeah, but I think it really works for the best. It's very sensual and very funny (mostly in the same way that the book is funny), and I have no idea how audiences who aren't expecting it will react to the climax. It's one of the most beautifully absurd scenes I've seen in ages. I wish I could have been there on set, because I really don't know how Twyker pulled it off.

[socketlevel]

my o my where are you now kubrick, are you turning in your grave?  saw the trailor and wow, great story that looks like has been interpreted as typical hollywood bs.  where is johnny depp?  oh wait that was a different movie... or was it?

-sl-

13000 posts mac!!!  holy shit it's been a while hasn't it.

[RegularKarate]

my o my where are you now kubrick, are you turning in your grave?  saw the trailor and wow, great story that looks like has been interpreted as typical hollywood bs.  where is johnny depp?  oh wait that was a different movie... or was it?

-sl-

13000 posts mac!!!  holy shit it's been a while hasn't it.

What the fuck are you talking about?
Do you even know?

[Pubrick]

my o my where are you now kubrick, are you turning in your grave?  saw the trailor and wow, great story that looks like has been interpreted as typical hollywood bs.  where is johnny depp?  oh wait that was a different movie... or was it?

-sl-

13000 posts mac!!!  holy shit it's been a while hasn't it.

you better be drunk, stoned, or retarded.

[modage]

mmm mmm mmm this film could be up there with The Fountain as one of the most highly anticipated films going on these days.

today i was lucky enough to see both.  i liked this, i knew almost nothing about it going in, havent read the book so the film was almost a complete surprise.  as such, without the weight of expectation, i enjoyed it.  the stuff at the beginning is great, the birth especially, the random deaths of those he comes into contact with but the film lost some of its momentum.  so i enjoyed the first half better than the second half, the ending is insane though i knew part of it was coming (from that trailer).  there were some snickers in our theatre, though there were only about 20 people in there incl. my main man, samsong.  i'm curious to hear what he thought of it.  this movie actually reminded me of The Messenger, another film i saw in the theatre, really liked, great work all around, but hadn't thought about since.  i feel like this will sort of have the same fate.  its a good film, but one that will be forgotten.  i'd like to read the book though.

[MacGuffin]

Capturing a Whiff of a Repellant Hero
By COELI CARR; NY Times

"PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER," Patrick Süskind's seductive novel about the power of scent, was first published in Germany and went on to sell 15 million copies around the world. For its many fans the evocative tale lingered like the bottom note of a fragrance. But it took 21 years to find its way onto screens. A film adaptation is opening Dec. 27 in New York and Los Angeles.

The book tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a young 18th-century Parisian born to lowly means but blessed with a preternatural sense of smell. He emits no body odor, a condition that he believes has made others ignore or dismiss him. Seeking to create a scent that will compel the world to esteem him, Grenouille, by then a journeyman perfumer, decides to kill virgins to obtain its components.

"There was a tremendous buzz about this book, everybody in the world was interested, and its reputation spread very quickly," said Carol Janeway, the senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf who acquired the title for the American market. "The boldness of writing a book about one of the senses that is almost impossible to put into words is a brilliantly daring one."

Producers competed to obtain the film rights, but Mr. Süskind did not want to sell. "Patrick felt there were only two people who could possibly make the right movie out of this book," Ms. Janeway said. "The first, by a long way, was Stanley Kubrick. His second hope would have been Milos Forman. Neither was drawn to doing this as a movie, and Patrick simply wasn't interested in anybody else trying." Not even Mr. Süskind's friend Bernd Eichinger, who took over Constantin Film in 1979 and now produces for the company.

Mr. Eichinger, who was the producer of "The Neverending Story" (1984) and "The Name of the Rose" (1986), among other films, had read the book when it was first published and instantly knew he wanted to turn it into a film. "It is a very unique concept," he said. "You cannot compare it to any other piece of literature." He thought the rights issue "might change over the years," and his instincts proved correct.

While in Los Angeles in 2000, Mr. Eichinger said, he "sensed some rumors that this book could be purchased." He immediately hopped a flight to Zurich to meet with Mr. Süskind's publisher, who, while Mr. Eichinger smoked a cigarette in the waiting room, struck a deal with Mr. Süskind by phone. (Contractually, Mr. Eichinger said, he cannot discuss how much he paid for the rights.) But securing the rights would turn out to be the easy part.

Mr. Eichinger was now faced with a reprobate lead character, an individual he calls "unsympathetic," having no "regrets or doubts or remorse" and seemingly irredeemable. As his sense of the world is constructed solely through scent, Grenouille can neither communicate with people normally nor share their point of view. "On one side he's a very naïve figure, and on the other side you have a person with a very dark obsession," Mr. Eichinger said.

By 2002, having drafted a 70-page film treatment, he was acutely aware of the challenges that faced him. As he met with potential writers and directors, Mr. Eichinger said, a number of the American writers strongly suggested he introduce a new character to provide more drama: an antagonist, who would pursue Grenouille.

Rejecting such a drastic structural change, he invited Andrew Birkin, the British screenwriter of "The Name of the Rose," to write the script with him. Sometime later, with the thought of having him eventually direct the film, Mr. Eichinger brought in a fellow German, Tom Tykwer, who had written and directed "Run Lola Run" (1998) and "The Princess and the Warrior" (2000).

Over the next two years the three men — they share screenwriting credit — met at different locations, sometimes for months, to create a narrative that would turn Grenouille's murderous agenda into something fascinating. As Mr. Eichinger put it, there would come a time when audiences would have to decide whether they wanted a pretty girl to survive or Grenouille to succeed. After some 20 revisions, Mr. Eichinger said, he felt "we got it right."

What goads Grenouille, Mr. Tykwer says, is the "urge and desire to be recognized," a motivation he calls "absolutely universal and simple and substantial," and one reason an audience would stay attached to such a character until the very end.

Finding an actor to portray him took a year. It was only late in the game, in 2004, that the casting agent in London steered the team to an actor named Ben Whishaw, a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, who was then 23 and playing Hamlet at the Old Vic. Mr. Tykwer saw the performance and later met with Mr. Whishaw, who said the really difficult task was Mr. Tykwer's having "to convince everybody else it was a good idea to cast some complete unknown bloke from England."

For Mr. Whishaw what stood out about Grenouille was not so much his criminality but his state of solitude. "He's so withdrawn as a human being," he said. "It's the loneliness. There are so few scenes with any other actor."

"Because he hardly ever says anything," Mr. Whishaw continued, "you start to read his behavior and look at those tiny things — posture, gait or the expression in the eyes — that are usually secondary to words." He and the director even explored how animal instincts translate into movement.

Mr. Whishaw was also fascinated by the character's contradictions. "He's a murderer and an artist, he's like a child and also like an old man, and he's like an animal, but there's something ethereal about him," he said. In talking with people who had seen the movie, Mr. Whishaw said, he found that some had enormous sympathy for Grenouille, while others were repelled. "I like the fact that the film allows for those two very different responses," he said.

Mr. Tykwer was also aware that many viewers would consider the novel a reference point. "People say, 'I'm the only one that really gets it,' which means they have this very personal relationship with the idea of the olfactory world as a setting," he said. Beyond its basic story, the book can be interpreted in various ways, among them an artist's obsession, a yearning to be loved and an exploration of death.

On the other hand the film, in which Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman also appear, may generate new readers. "This is the kind of movie that will send people back to the book," said Marty Asher, editor in chief of Vintage Books, the Random House imprint that publishes the novel's paperback version and whose movie tie-in edition will be in stores on Tuesday. The publisher will also reissue several thousand copies of the title in hardcover.

"The character's so weird," she said, "and it kind of raises the whole question of 'Is he a monster or does he have redeeming features?' "

Mr. Asher said the filmmakers had turned Grenouille "into something between the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Jesus." But if he were a complete monster, he added, "the movie would have no emotional heart to it, and it does." How much of that heart belongs to Grenouille will be up to audiences to decide.