Perfume:Story of a Murderer, the latest film by German director Tom Tykwer (written colaboratively with Andrew Birkin and Bernd Eichinger) is an instant classic. Tykwer weaves the story of a serial killer using a sultry color palette, dreamy music, and gentle humor. Set against the backdrop of 18th Century France, the director utilizes rich imagery to show the relationship between flowering life and rotting filth. The ideas are not as much juxtaposed, as one mught assume, but more likened in the main character's obsession with all scents good and bad. The viewer takes in the exquisite beauty of maggot ridden meat in nearly the same breath as a field of lavendar in ful bloom. Where the difference between good and evil was as clear as the difference between hideousness and beauty, Tykwer has blurred the line. Ben Whishaw lays out a sympathetic performance as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, that leaves the viewer demanding justice but wishing for mercy. Also at the top of their game were Dustin Hoffman and Donald Sutherland, playing victim to Grenouille's charms and perversions. While I do not find it neccesary to like all of the characters in a story in order to enjoy it, the relatability of Twyker and his partners' characters really drew me in. Perfume truly made the grotesque beautiful.
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