Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Tom Tykwer is very inventive and has a head full of ideas, which he throws at the viewer with an unprecedented force, and he managed to adapt “Perfume” to the movie screen as well as possible. If we add great actors and the truly beautiful visuals, the occasional plot gaps and excessive running time can be forgiven. A truly unique story, a truly unique film. (25/05/2008)

This couldn't have been filmed better! Tom Tykwer took Süskind's seemingly unfilmable story and retold it. Like the author, with his colorful descriptions, the director also uses visual finesse to convey a subliminal sensation that the film medium deprives us of, and which leads the viewer's senses into a state of their own dubious confusion. With this film, there is no point in arguing about the strong implausibility of logic, etc. For the first time since Run Lola Run, Tykwer proves that brilliant craftsmanship can say (almost) everything. (11/03/2007)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a film that everyone must form their own opinion about. It cannot be summed up in just one sentence. Tom Tykwer is an interesting director who made a name for himself in the independent film industry and has a very unique style. Here, he had the resources of a large production company, and a decent budget, and created a captivating blockbuster with excellent casting and appropriate special effects and set design. For a significant part of the film, I was convinced that five stars were not enough, because Paris looked more convincing than I could have ever imagined. The filth of the streets literally crawled off the screen, I could smell the sewers and the fish market directly from the individual shots, and the editing and cinematography were so great that they characterized the individual characters within a few moments. The strong story of an individual rejected by society on the outskirts, raised without love and in poverty, yet equipped with extraordinary talent, was very suggestive, and the visual aspect of the film was so excellent that if I had visited that period, I would probably have been disappointed by reality. However, I simply missed the point of the story, and even if I consider it a metaphor, I still couldn't swallow it. The miracle at the execution site simply bothered me, plain and simple. And even though I understand what the screenwriter wanted to say, I would have chosen a completely different ending. So in the end, I only give it three stars and an overall impression of 65%, which is really a shame for such a film. (01/04/2008)

Four stars, but a weaker four stars. If it weren't for Hoffman and Rickman, I'd give it a three, especially for the cinematography, which gives you a really unreal feeling of being "right there". I haven't read the book, so I don't know why, but I was bothered by the ending, which was so very bland. Moreover, films in which the viewer is supposed to root for the real asshole (whatever his motives for doing what he does) are always harder for me. (06/11/2009)

If anyone should have adapted the book "Perfume", it was probably only Tykwer, because a book with such a reputation requires a director of his caliber. It's a slight mindfuck in places, but I think it sufficiently rehabilitates the good aspects of modern German culture. Ben Whishaw is properly disgusting, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman ensured the general public's attention and Corinna Harfouch and Karoline Herfurth added their inimitable faces to the whole. (05/06/2017)