Perfume : The Story of a Murderer
Plot
Set in
18th century France, the film tells the story of a
misanthropic,
olfactory genius, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (
Ben Whishaw) and his homicidal quest for the perfect scent.
The film begins with the sentencing of Grenouille, a notorious murderer. Between the reading of the sentence and the execution, the story of his life is told in
flashback, beginning with his abandonment at birth in a French
fish market. Raised in an orphanage, Grenouille grows into a strangely detached boy with a superhuman sense to smell. After growing to maturity as a
tanner's apprentice, he makes his first delivery to
Paris, where he revels in the new odors. He focuses on a girl selling plums and startles her with his behavior. To prevent her from crying out, he covers the girl's mouth and unintentionally
suffocates her. After realizing that she is dead, he strips her body naked and smells her until the scent fades. Afterwards, Grenouille becomes haunted by the desire to preserve scents forever.
After making a delivery to a
perfume shop, Grenouille amazes the owner, Giuseppe Baldini (
Dustin Hoffman), with his ability to create fragrances. He revitalizes the perfumer's career with new formulas, demanding only that Baldini teach him how to convert scents into perfume. Baldini explains that all perfumes are harmonies of twelve individual scents, and may contain a theoretical thirteenth scent. He also tells a story about a perfume discovered in an Egyptian tomb that was so perfect that it affected the entire world the moment the bottle was opened. However, when Grenouille discovers that Baldini's method will not capture all scents, he becomes depressed and leaves to learn superior methods in
Grasse. En route to Grasse, Grenouille realizes that he has no scent of his own, and is therefore a cipher. He decides that creating the perfect smell will prove his worth.
Grenouille stands alone amongst the orgy his perfume has created.
Grenouille finds work in Grasse assisting with perfumes. After some experimenting, he succeeds in preserving the scent of a woman by cutting her hair, covering her in animal fat, and then
distilling the fat. To force the woman to undergo the procedure, however, he must kill her. Grenouille embarks on a killing spree, murdering beautiful
virgins and capturing their scents. He dumps the girls' naked corpses around the city, creating an uproar that threatens to tear the city apart. Nearing completion, Grenouille selects a beautiful young lady, Laura (
Rachel Hurd-Wood), for his thirteenth scent, the lynchpin of his perfect perfume. Laura's wealthy father, Antoine Richis (
Alan Rickman) realizes the danger and attempts to flee the city with his daughter. Grenouille tracks her scent to a roadside inn and sneaks into her room that night. The next morning, Richis discovers Laura lying dead in her bed.
Soldiers capture Grenouille moments after he finishes his perfume. On the day of his execution, he applies a drop of the perfume to himself. The
executioner and the crowd in attendance are overwhelmed by the beauty of the perfume. They declare Grenouille innocent before falling into an
orgy. Walking out of Grasse unscathed, Grenouille has enough perfume to rule the world, but has discovered that it will not allow him to love or be loved like a normal person. He returns to the fish market where he was born and empties his perfume bottle over his head. Overcome by the scent, the nearby crowd
devours him.
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