Book and Film Information
Title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Author: Patrick Süskind
Publication year: 1985
Publisher: Bunshun Bunko
Film title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (original title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)
Release year: 2006
Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman
In eighteenth-century France, there lived a certain man. He was a man of genius, and a horrifying man. In an age that produced no small number of such figures, he was exceptionally gifted and utterly horrifying. Let us now begin his story. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Unlike those other monstrous geniuses of the France of his day, the Marquis de Sade, the revolutionary Saint-Just, the extraordinarily shrewd Fouché, or Napoleon Bonaparte, his name has been completely forgotten. (Passage omitted.) This was because his genius and ambition were confined to one particular domain: the fleeting kingdom of scent, something that ultimately vanishes without leaving a single trace in this world.
From Perfume
Book Review
Originating in Germany, this is a bestselling novel that has been translated into 46 languages and sold 15 million copies worldwide since its publication in 1985.
This novel portrays the perfume-filled life of a protagonist born in eighteenth-century France, with an exceptionally gifted sense of smell, who is drawn to scent and becomes obsessed with it. Its skillful language brings the descriptions so vividly to life that the scents seem to be right in front of you. Everyone imagines a scent they are destined to find. Encountering it feels as though it could change your life in an instant, making the world look different. After reading this book, will you be able to resist the magic of scent? Or will you shudder in fear?
Quite apart from being a book about perfume, it is an exceptionally accomplished novel and a compelling read in its own right. I would like everyone who loves novels, and anyone with an interest in perfume, to read it.
Film Review
The film is interesting not only because you can enjoy the story, but also because you can see a realistic depiction of enfleurage (cold fat extraction) (in Japanese).
In fact, the novel’s author, Süskind, was not involved in the screenplay. A friend of the author, film producer Bernd Eichinger, secured the film rights only after considerable effort. Its production budget of €50 million was the highest in Germany. The cast includes Ben Whishaw in the lead role, found after a year of searching (and later seen in Skyfall and The Zero Theorem), and Alan Rickman, who played Professor Snape in Harry Potter.
Above all, what makes the film compelling is its interplay of light and darkness: the protagonist’s pure-hearted attraction to the beauty of scent, set against a dark side so consumed by that attraction that he can commit horrifying acts without hesitation. Whether you love perfume or have never been interested in it, your curiosity about scent is sure to explode after watching this film.
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