7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Based on the bestselling novel by Patrick Süskind, 'Perfume' is a story of murder and obsession set in 18th-century France. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has a unique talent for discerning the scents and smells that swirl around him, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. Strangely lacking any scent of his own, he becomes obsessed with capturing the irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood. As Grenouille's obsession turns deadly, twelve young girls are found murdered. Panic breaks out as people rush to protect their daughters, while an unrepentant and unrelenting Grenouille still lacks the final ingredient to complete his quest.
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Francesc Albiol, Gonzalo Cunill, Roger Salvany, Andrés HerreraThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, English SDH, French
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Patrick Süskind's maiden novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985) was first published in Switzerland and has gone on to become an international bestseller. The Los Angeles Times reported that after it was initially published in German, the book was translated in 45 languages and sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. (They may be a lot more since these figures were recorded when the movie adaptation came out in early 2007.) The film rights to the novel were pursued by such directors as Tim Burton and Stanley Kubrick, who ultimately regarded it as "unfilmable." Süskind was highly skeptical about how it'd be translated to the screen so he was very cautious about releasing the rights to anyone. Enter Bernd Eichinger, who reportedly adapted the novel into a play. Eichinger was instrumental in shepherding the film project, serving as producer and co-writing the script with two other scribes. Tom Tykwer states on the DreamWorks/Paramount featurette that he read Perfume in 1986 and had the exact opposite reaction of Kubrick about its cinematic capabilities.
Like the novel, the film is set in 1738 Paris where a fishmonger (Birgit Minichmayr) goes into labor on the cobblestones of a fish market. The woman has had some prior miscarriages and when it appears that she will attempt to do away with her newborn, Parisians present report her. She's later sent to the gallows for infanticide. Young Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (played by Alvaro Roque at age 5 and Franck Lefeuvre as an adolescent) is placed in a dreadful orphanage where kids are mean to him. As he grows into a young adult, Grenouille (now played by Ben Whishaw) gets a job working for a brutish man named Grimal (Sam Douglas) at a tannery. Ever since he was a boy, Grenouille recognized that he had a proboscis that gave him an extraordinary sense of smell. The irony is that Grenouille has no odor on his person. One evening he spots a pretty young lady (Karoline Herfurth) with auburn hair who has a pungent scent. The woman is a street vendor who carries a basket of persimmons, which she thinks Grenouille is interested in buying some. When they hear voices, Grenouille grabs her and covers her mouth firmly with his hand. Grenouille is not initially aware that he has asphyxiated her. He tears her clothes off and smells the scent on her sylphlike chest.
Paramount has given Perfume: The Story of a Murderer its US debut on Blu-ray on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 45.78 GB). Tywker's seventh feature film has been available on Blu-ray for many years across Europe and Asia. Why it took Paramount this long to deliver a physical HD release is unknown. Over five years ago, German-based label Constantin Film released a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray combo pack. Paramount presents the picture in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. DreamWorks Home Entertainment's DVD was reputed to be one of the strongest SD transfers but suffered from some video noise in some background shots. Thankfully, there's no such noise on Paramount's transfer. Overall, the movie is quite dark. The first half of the film is dominated by grays and desaturated colors (see frame grabs 6 and 19). Some of the compositions inside the perfume shops have a bright amber and gold look to them (see capture #9). When the action shifts to Provence/Grasse, the exteriors are quite bright, verdant, and purple (see Screenshot #s 17-18). The image is very clean while retaining grain. Paramount encodes the feature at a mean video bitrate of 31990 kbps.
Paramount has provided seventeen scene selections.
Paramount has supplied an English Dolby TrueHD Audio 5.1 Surround (4591 kbps, 24-bit) and a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround remix (640 kbps) dubbed in French. The sound tracks on the Constantin Film discs only boast a DTS-HD High Resolution 5.1 Surround mix in English or German (48kHz, 24-bit). The sound of Grenouille's shackles was immediately apparent to me as was the noise emanating from the massive crowds that bookend the movie. All dialogue is spoken in English. While range and pitch varies, it was comprehensible to me. Tykwer co-wrote the musical score with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil. It couldn't be more different than what the three composers crafted for Run Lola Run (1998). They have girl sopranos Chen Reiss and Melanie Mitrano sing a capella for several of the cues on the sound track and boy soprano Victor de Maiziere for one piece. The State Choir Latvija also performs for several tracks. The acoustics are akin to a church setting. The trio of composers came up with a string melody that's performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The other compositions remind me of Richard Robbins's scores for Merchant-Ivory Productions in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Paramount includes optional English and French subtitles as well as English SDH.
The sole extra, taken from DreamWorks' 2007 DVD, is a making-of featurette produced by Laurent Bouzareau. The Constantin Film 4K UHD/Blu-ray set contains three audio commentaries, a 54-minute making-of doc (which may very well be an expanded edition of the one found on this disc), and 38 minutes of interviews/additional featurettes. It seems that the commentary tracks with crew members are all in German while interviews with the actors are in English with some German dialect on the featurettes.
I was previously only familiar with Tykwer's Run Lola Run and nothing in it could have prepared me for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer except for the giant aerial camera swoops. I also wasn't expecting the climax the film delivered and it takes at least some suspension of belief. Ben Whishaw impresses as the toxic perfume maker. Paramount's transfer is excellent, if only to be eclipsed by the HDR on Constantin Film's 4K disc. I would perceive Paramount's Dolby TrueHD Audio 5.1 Surround to be an upgrade over C.F.'s DTS-HD HR 5.1 tracks, though. The English subs on the Paramount are an added bonus over C.F., which only has German subs. I wish the US release had the latter's supplements with English subs, though. For the adventurous cinephile, Paramount's edition of Perfume earns a STRONG RECOMMENDATION.
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