The Perfumier

Welcome to a world of scents or is it a world of nonsense?

Here we have another edition of Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer which Tom Tykwer adapted in 2006. That film version starred Ben Whishaw with a narration by John Hurt and dealt with the life of an 18th-century French perfumer looking for the ultimate scent. Süskind’s novel sold over twenty million copies worldwide and he thought that only a talented film director such as a Stanley Kubrick or a Milos Forman could do it justice. Eventually he allowed his friend, producer Bernd Eichinger, to secure the film rights, the film was made, was a great success and won many awards.

If Süskind approved of Tykwer's version of his story, it is unlikely that he would give his blessing to the latest version from the German director and co-writer Nils Willbrandt. A follow-up to the Netflix TV series of 2018, it tells a rather turgid tale about a female police officer, Sunny (Emilia Schule) and her ongoing relationship with colleague Juro (Robert Finster), a man with a wife and family. Ironically enough, Sunny is assigned to seek out a serial killer who murders women in order to collect their scent glands in a search for the ultimate ‘perfume of love’. The irony is that Sunny herself suffers from anosmia, the lack of a sense of smell.

The perpetrators are Carlotta Konig, aka Rex (Anne Müller) and her partner in crime Dorian (Ludwig Simon). Finding the two together, Sunny and Juro apprehend Rex but Dorian escapes, leaving behind a bottle of the aromas he has so far collected from his murdered victims. The pregnant Sunny is miserable because she cannot enjoy even the aroma of Juro’s body sweat, and is dismayed that when her baby is born she will not be able to smell her own child. So, off she goes in pursuit of a sense of smell while still trying to capture Dorian in his efforts to find the ultimate perfume. Two characters in search of similar objectives might have made a reasonable film, but this is not it.

As the book was such a huge success, I cannot imagine that Süskind’s novel was anything like this latest film version which does the book no favours at all. It is actually more of a conventional horror film than a subtle exploration of an unusual theme, the search for a true love potion. Instead it is all surface shocks most of which are gratuitously over the top and tricked out with meretricious visual effects with no real depth. It’s as if it wants to be The Exorcist, but it fails miserably. For a real sense of reality, just read the original book or catch up with Tom Tykwer’s film.

Original title: Der Parfumeur.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Emilia Schule, Ludwig Simon, Robert Finster, Sólveig Arnarsdóttir, Anne Müller, August Diehl, Luna Baptiste Schaller, Cornelia Heyse.

Dir Nils Willbrandt, Pro Tim Greve, Screenplay Nils Willbrandt and Kim Zimmermann, based on the novel by Patrick Süskind, Ph Frank Küpper, Art Dir Marcin Busko, Ed Mona Bräuer and Jan Hille, Music Richard Ruzicka, Costumes Heike Hütt, Visual Effects Marta Zdanowicz.

Constantin Television/MOOVIE-Netflix.
96 mins. Germany. 2022. UK and US Rel: 21 September 2022. Cert. 15.