Overview
A haunting tale of obsession and the quest for identity through scent.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Graphic
- brooding
- eerie
- visceral
- dark movie night
- literary adaptation marathon
What critics said
Critics broadly agreed that the adaptation is visually sumptuous and kinetically directed, but found its morally repellent antihero and uneven screenplay difficult to embrace.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Grenouille's extraordinary sense of smell governs his alienation, career, and homicidal quest for the perfect fragrance.
The film repeatedly renders odors, perfumes, bodies, and crowded eighteenth-century streets through lush, heightened imagery.
Grenouille is gifted and socially isolated, while the narrative follows his inability to relate to others except as sources of scent.
The depiction of eighteenth-century France emphasizes squalor, class hierarchy, commerce, and institutional brutality.
Films like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and why
The Silence of the Lambs
shares a historical setting, obsessive antihero, serial-killer subject matter, and psychologically disturbing atmosphere
Bram Stoker's Dracula
shares baroque visual spectacle, period crime, moral depravity, and an unsettling fascination with bodily sensation
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
shares a grotesque historical setting, stylized murder mystery, and alienated outsider pursuing an extreme personal compulsion
Movie Details
- Director
- Tom Tykwer
- Release Date
- 2006-09-13
- Runtime
- 147 min
- Rating
- 7.4 / 10 (5178)
Cast
- Ben Whishaw
- Alan Rickman
- Rachel Hurd-Wood
- Dustin Hoffman
- John Hurt
- Karoline Herfurth
- David Calder
- Simon Chandler
- Sian Thomas
- Jessica Schwarz
Where to watch in United States
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer about?
- An olfactory genius in eighteenth-century France turns perfume-making into a murderous quest for an essence that can command human love.
- What is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer as graphic.
- What did critics think of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?
- Critics broadly agreed that the adaptation is visually sumptuous and kinetically directed, but found its morally repellent antihero and uneven screenplay difficult to embrace.
- Which films are like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?
- Films with a similar feel include The Silence of the Lambs, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
- How long is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer runs 147 minutes.
- Where can I watch Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?
- In United States, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is available to rent or buy from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home.
