Twenty years after its release, Patrick Suskinds first novel “Perfume - The Story of a Murderer” is being made into a movie.
This is a fascinating tale of an orphan John-Baptiste Grenouille on the streets of Paris, who has a highly sharp sense of smell. People feel distinctly uncomfortable around him all through out his life, because ironically he did not happen to have any body odour.
He is thus a loner lost in his world of smells in the 18th century Paris society. He then decides to make the greatest perfume of the world and in turn find great esteem and love from the world.
On this quest he kills many virgins for their natural scents.
Hence starting as a very peculiar story on the sorry state of a orphan it leads to a horrifying murder tale. It got a lot of attention worldwide when it was released.
Finally, after all this time Suskind’s friend Bernd Eichinger succeeded in making the movie.
It is a DreamWorks Picture and Constantin Film presentation, produced by Bernd Eichinger. Andrew Birkin (”The Name of the Rose” fame) and Tom Tykwer (”Run Lola Run” fame) share screenwriting credits with Eichinger. Tykwer is also the director of the movie.
For the cast which mainly comprises of a male lead to play Grenouille, a fresh face and a talented actor was required. After a lot of searching they found Ben Wishaw who had recently graduated from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Other actors include Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman.
It is hoped that the movie generates a lot of new readers for the book. It has been released in most of Europe. It is slated to release in US and Britain on 21st December and subsequently in Australia and then in Japan.
Ref: Official Movie site
Source: Herald Tribune
