Perfume

[grand theft sparrow]

I think I may have visited this thread once ever and that was before they started filming.  I've never read the book and didn't recall any recommendations I had to have read here.  I don't think I even watched the trailer when it was first posted.  Don't know why.  Even though Lola was the only Tykwer I've seen (which I haven't watched in years), I still take note of when he makes a film and try to remind myself (and failing) to see it.  I know I might be setting myself up for minor disappointment in regards to his back catalogue but it's got to be worth it because this film was just fucking incredible. 

I think I may have been peripherally aware of any connection to Kubrick this film had but I didn't know that Suskind had wanted him to adapt his book.  I completely understand why; as much as I enjoyed this film, I kept imagining what Kubrick would have done with it, say, 10 years ago with, say, Christian Bale in the lead.

But that's not a slight to this film in the least.  I was sucked in right from the start.  I have to say that anyone criticizing this film for not being able to represent smell on film simply has no imagination.  They're like those people who were too busy missing out on similar pleasures in Ratatouille (with which this would make the most bizarrely appropriate double feature) because they were waiting for the fart jokes that never came.  This was a dark kind of fairy tale that I wasn't even expecting it to be.

Like mod, I was reminded of The Messenger but I think that was entirely because of Dustin Hoffman being in a period piece set in France.  At first, I was thinking, what the hell is he doing in this movie?  But he had me at his first snap of the handkerchief, despite his made-up accent.  And I read the criticisms that Ben Whishaw is too good-looking to be Grenouille based on his description in the book, but there's still an ugly, repulsive quality about him that makes it work.  Like he's as ugly as a handsome man can be without being actually ugly.  I don't think Leo or Orlando could have pulled that off.  And maybe it's because I just recently saw The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner but Whishaw reminds me a LOT of a young Tom Courtenay. 

And that ending... holy shit.  You don't really see it coming and it was just perfect... Rickman's reaction was just... fuck.  I just wish Dreamworks had had the balls to release this wide; that ending may be too much for the average joe moviegoer to handle but if they had released it wide, it would have actually made some money here before people ran screaming from the theatres about how horrible it was.

So the redhead connection... was that in the book or is that more evidence in support of a possible Tykwer fetish?  You know what, never mind.  I'm running out today at lunch to get the book.  This film makes my top 5 of '06 easily.

[picolas]

spoils

i thought this was going to be great from the first few minutes and it just kind of got worse and worse. but it started from such a height that it was still pretty good up until around hoffman leaving. i think the thing that threw off most of the movie was i didn't like the main character or the performance.. he was totally unaware of anyone other than himself. just flat-out psychopathic. so he wasn't interesting to me. the crowd sex and rickman apologizing wasn't believable in any way despite the set-up/myth. i could see it working on paper but not here...

non-spoils

visually it's wonderful, though. and it's worth a rental for the first.. hour i suppose. and i agree it made me smell things which is fairly unique/deserves extreme kudos.