pears and plums
My sister is raving about how a certain piece of clothing smells so much like a certain someone. Me, I smell like glazed pears. Victoria’s Secret Pear Glace, hah.
I like people who smell good. Or have distinct smells that aren’t repulsive. Smells can do a lot, really. In this guy’s case, he smelled so good PEOPLE ATE HIM.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The screen shot above is from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which I caught on a cable channel about a month ago. I wasn’t able to see the first 10 minutes of the movie, but the gorgeous set and cinematography captured my attention. I found out later on that this German film was directed by Tom Tykwer of the wunnderful Run Lola Run. This one’s in English though, so yey.
So I see this guy, greasy and all, chasing a girl by…sniffing, apparently. He finally catches her and sees her slicing plums. When other people arrive, he drags the girl to a dark corner, covers her mouth to keep her from screaming, and eventually suffocates her. He then sniffs her dead body, a look of both absolute pleasure and remorse on his face. I get annoyed and enthralled at the same time.
And then the narrator says something like, “from then on, he knew his life’s purpose was to make perfume.”
It sounded so ridiculous, but the set was so glorious, that I just HAD to finish it.
The main character is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an “olfactory genius” who dedicates his life to preserving divine human scent. To achieve the ultimate perfume, he kills 12 virgins. The story’s basically about that. It’s so macabre, ahlavet. The ultimate perfume is so perfect that when thousands of people set out to hang him for his murders, just one whiff of his perfumed handkerchief cause them to declare him innocent and engage in one huge orgy (not shown on cable, though) right then and there. Yes, you read that right. Think of the rowdy, shouting crowd in Gladiator all waking up next to each other.
Anyway, Jean-Baptiste eventually realizes that even though he can control the world with his perfume, he still can’t make anyone love him, so he goes back to his hometown, pours all the perfume upon himself, and they all eat him. Out of “love.”
Oh and by the way, the movie also stars Dustin Hoffman as a master perfumer/mentor…
…and Alan Rickman (you know him as Snape in the Harry Potter movies) as the last virgin’s dad.
The concept’s so beautifully out-of-this-world (I never thought of putting the words “perfume” and “murderer” in the same sentence), you have to watch it. Based on the novel “Perfume” or “Das Parfum” by German writer Patrick Suskind. Enthralling.
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All pictures from Rotten Tomatoes.
