The Scent of Perfection: Perfume (Tom Tykwer, 2006): Germany | France | Spain | USA

Paper by Danielle Philips. Viewed on DVD.

The French Revolution marked the upheaval of the feudal system, dismantled the rigid class system, and as R.R. Palmer points out in the preface of The Coming of the French Revolution “liberated the individual” (v). Although Tom Tykwer’s movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer does not directly deal with the French Revolution, it is set during the eighteenth century in France and it explores ideas of the collapse of the social structure and the liberation of people not from an oppressive monarchy, but from the social standards that restrict their inner desires. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with an extraordinary sense of smell that allows him to detect scents that are indiscernible to most humans. Tragically, Jean-Baptiste does not have a scent of his own, which causes him to be a cipher in his own society, unable to truly connect with human beings. To remedy this situation, Jean-Baptiste executes a murderous plan to create the perfect scent comprised of the essences of thirteen beautiful women. This movie presents several characters that are confined in their situations by external forces, which are represented visually through the mise-en-scene and use of closed framing. The scent of a person is like a mirror into their soul, and Jean-Baptiste is depicted as the knowing prophet who can see all, but in the end must suffer because he is apart from society.

Tykwer makes use of closed framing throughout this movie, drawing attention to the physical features of the characters and meticulously arranged mise-en-scene. In the opening scene, Jean-Baptiste’s sentence for torture and execution is read in front of a large crowd. In an extreme long shot, hundreds of people are shown cast in low-key lighting. They seem sinister, but most notably they are blocked in on all sides by buildings. Even in their immensity they are as trapped in their situation as Jean-Baptiste is by his shackles. These people know of Jean-Baptiste’s crimes: thirteen counts of murder. Tykwer however, argues that they have committed a crime too: they have failed to accept Jean-Baptiste as a human being. In the eerie light, the filth of the townspeople is visible in a series of medium shots; rotting teeth, faces smudged with dirt, and greasy hair. You can almost smell the stench which indicates their inner rot. As the camera tracks in on Jean-Baptiste’s nose, the cries of the people become more distant and Jean-Baptiste’s calm demeanor in the light of his pending sentence becomes the first clue to his separation from society.

In the exposition, the viewer is presented with a series of intimate yet repugnant shots of fish guts, decaying human teeth, grubs, and a severed umbilical cord. These shots are all extreme close-ups, and shock the viewer by demanding attention to things that are often disregarded, looked over, or concealed. Here in the fish markets of 18th century France, the filth of the town is fully visible and is a reflection of people’s diminished capacity to conceal their inner rot. Jean-Baptiste’s mother leaves him for dead in a pile of gutted fish because most of her births have been stillborn. As if in protest to the smell of the garbage in which he was left to die, Jean-Baptiste begins to scream. The shot in which Jean-Baptiste is lying amongst the fish guts with his umbilical cord still attached is perhaps one of the most disturbing of the whole film. Jean-Baptiste is deprived of his mother’s affection, thrown to the fringes of the society and regarded as trash from the very beginning of his existence. The town’s response to a mother who tried to end the life of her own baby is to take her life. The proximity of the shots in which the baby is found amongst the fish, and the mother’s execution depicts an unfeeling and rigid system in which human life is a trivial factor. We never hear this woman’s story or for that matter her voice ,as the only thing she utters is grunts and moans during Jean-Baptiste’s birth.

Jean-Baptiste takes a turn for murder when he meets and becomes infatuated by a girl who sells plums. Before seeing or speaking to the girl, Jean-Baptiste is intimately aware of her through his superior olfactory sense. Shots of Jean-Baptiste reveling in her scent are juxtaposed with extreme close-ups of her neck, tendrils of her fire red hair, her ample bosom, and her slightly bent arms. Jean-Baptiste’s sense of smell allows him to experience this woman in a way not possible for normal human beings, although he is not equipped to actually speak to her and make a real connection. Jean-Baptiste follows the girl to her home where she is halving her plums, and continues to smell her undetected. When she finally notices him, he accidentally suffocates the girl to death by trying to keep her from screaming. Tortured, Jean-Baptiste tries to inhale the dissipating aroma of the plum girl’s essence. The aroma is lost in her death, just as in death her body is separated from her soul.

Giuseppe Baldini is an old perfumer past his prime who becomes Jean-Baptiste’s portal into the world of perfume. Baldini first appears comically asleep in his empty shop surrounded by an immense array of bottles and other clutter behind a counter. Baldini is overwhelmingly trapped in his own world and refuses to see that he is no longer a force in the world of perfume. His powdered wig and rouged cheeks stand out as an indication of his artificiality: he is trying to mask his inadequacy and promote his pseudo-prominence, just as people who buy perfume try to mask their unpleasant odors. When Jean-Baptiste and Baldini first meet, Baldini is depicted from a low angle, and Jean-Baptiste from a high angle. Societal tenets dictate that Jean-Baptiste must adhere to his lower class even though he will prove to be superior in talents to Baldini. In a scene that depicts skillfully the first power shift in favor of Jean-Baptiste, Baldini takes a seat and watches dumbfounded as Jean-Baptiste mixes ingredients he knows only by smell, in a flurry of divine concentration. Jean Baptiste is shot from a low angle, which depicts his growing power over Baldini who sits in his chair. Baldini seems vulnerable, stripped of his protective armor and expectations of decorum. Jean-Baptiste, in ignorance of the world of perfume, shakes to the core the accepted practices which seem to trap people like Baldini in a cycle of meaningless ritual and procedure.

Jean-Baptiste sets out for the city of Grasse to learn how to capture human scent because he firmly believes, “The soul of beings is their scent” (Perfume). In a beautiful setting of mountains and fields, Jean-Baptiste nearly forgets his quest as he revels in the calm and clean smells of pure nature. His nose is not assailed by the stench of his city, and he is able to truly rest peacefully. The uncluttered views of mountains, bare rock, and fields of grass are visually relaxing compared to the cramped filthy quarters of France and one can almost smell the pure air. However, even in the open space, Jean-Baptiste is repeatedly depicted as traveling on a solitary road. He deviates from it to revel in the pureness of a cave, but he returns when he begins again on his journey. In the setting created by Tykwer, Jean-Baptiste seems to have only one choice, one destiny.

To create the perfect scent, Jean-Baptiste chooses, kills, and combines the essences of, thirteen beautiful women, all from different social strata whose status is reflected in their clothing. Amongst the girls Jean-Baptiste kills are a prostitute, a nun, two wealthy twins, and his thirteenth and most important is the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in Grasse, Laura Richis. The murders of these girls and combination of their scent represent the collapse of society, which fits in with the revolutionary sentiments growing during that time. In Perfume, the clothes of the lower class women were simple, muted grey or brown in color, tattered and smeared with dirt. Laura, the symbol of an upper class woman, wore elegant clothes fringed with vibrantly colored lace and ribbon. As the thirteen chosen women are found naked and shaved, their identities are suddenly stripped, and they look remarkably similar. The beauty of these women is inherent and does not depend on the materialistic mores of society.

The scene in which Jean Baptiste is to be executed is loaded with religious undertones projecting him as a persecuted prophet. On the platform, the executioner is stationed near a cross, which is a direct reference to the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Jean-Baptiste is seen here as a martyr and not as an evil murderer. His costume is changed from his dirt-smeared work clothes to a soft blue velvet gold-lined suit fit for royalty. Immediately, when he puts some perfume on himself, people declare that he is an angel. When he lets his handkerchief fly into the crowd laden with the heavenly scent, the people are stripped of the last vestiges of proper decorum, and give into their most base desires as they descend into orgy. Even the bishop engages in the sexual orgy, commenting on the fact that the clergy who ruled over men from their elevated position of holiness is subject to the same human desires as the common man. It is painfully obvious that Jean-Baptiste is separated from these people, as he stands alone on the platform. He will never be able to love and be loved because the perfume is only a mask for what he will always lack. When Antoine Richis, the father of Laura, approaches Jean-Baptiste and shouts that he will not be fooled ,Jean-Baptiste raises his arm and slants his head to the side in resignation, a reference to Jesus on the cross. Antoine however falls to his knees and asks Jean-Baptiste to, “Forgive me my son” (Perfume),

Today, images of celebrities living the American dream are splashed across the television and are constant motivators for people to strive for money and fame. Often these same celebrities succumb to alcoholism, depression, and pointless partying to ease the emptiness of their life. On some level, the viewer already knows Jean-Baptiste. He is Heath Ledger who dies at his prime because of drug experimentation; he is Britney Spears, who constantly delivers public displays of erratic behavior because of her deep depression; he is the stunt man from Jackass who seems to have endless fun but submits himself into rehab. Like Jean-Baptiste, these people seem to have everything, but it still is not enough. Human beings search constantly to love and be loved. To do this however, they need to be a part of the society in which they function. These celebrities reach such levels of fame that they are isolated. Jean-Baptiste could not stand to be isolated and allowed himself to be eaten by grime-covered people from his birthplace rather than reach the full potential of his power. Even in their filth and deterioration, these people are able to be free and happy in a way that he can never be because they did something “purely out of love” (Perfume).

Works Cited:

Lefebvre, Georges. The Coming of the French Revolution. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Dir. Tom Tykwer. Perf. Ben Wishaw and Dustin Hoffman. Constantin Film Produktion, 2006.