Jean-Baptise Grenouille was his name. in the beginning i was paying attention to how the main character was shot. his nose (other parts of his face in shade). his head and neck from above. dragged, his bony back. then his chained legs. i was a bit scared to see his face. if he’s good looking. because anyhow we will symphatize with him despite he is a ‘murderer’, enemy of the state, enemy of morality, enemy of humanity, enemy of life and love.
it is a good character building. how jean is born in the market, where all smells gathered and mixed. how he develops his, other see it as, brutality. how people who take advantage of him die.
so this guy has a great talent in recognizing smells, and his destiny is to be able to extract and preserve them. and he’s so obsessed with a girl’s odor (the look doesnt matter but somehow maybe it has something to do with red curly hair). but she’s dead. and the story is diverted to the quest of formulating perfume from women’s body. i dont know exactly why all the girls must be virgin or white or thin.
the inspired by the perfume of the pharaoh consisting of 13 elements, out of which 12 are identifiable and 1 is not till that date, our protagonist does his experiment. but then he is shown as angelic and messiah-like amid mass orgy, which overturn moral values that uphold the society. and he barely speaks.
the obsession with smell is taken to the extreme in this movie. our smell is our soul, our existence. well, the ending can be seen as tragic, or romantic. tragic as he is forgotten. romantic as it is unusual. it can be logical also, a consequence of not having his own odor. but i really love the setting. where else can a movie on parfume be set in a place other than france?
too bad we cannot digitalized smell. otherwise i would have really enjoyed watching this movie. in the end of the day, i am on his side as i love GOOD smells. i believe that feromon decides the person who we fall in love with.
then i learned that this movie was based on a novel. and the novel has even been translated into indonesian (with a good cover design indeed).
Picturesque Inda 