Carlos Reig-Plaza Movies
- 2006
- R
- Add Perfume: The Story of a Murderer to QueueAdd Perfume: The Story of a Murderer to top of Queue
An obsessive French perfumer with a highly developed olfactory sense and an all-consuming drive to capture the essence of love eventually resorts to murder in his unrepentant quest to find the key ingredient for his recipe in director Tom Tykwer's adaptation of author Patrick Suskind's best-selling 1985 novel. Born in a fetid fish market and raised in a dilapidated orphanage, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) toiled his childhood away in a rank tannery run by the thuggish Grimal (Sam Douglas). Subsequently obsessed by smell, Grenouille's keen olfactory sense becomes so finely tuned that it eventually overpowers such human qualities as love and compassion. Though he has indeed discovered the unmistakable scent of a woman, Grenouille finds it impossible to connect with the fairer sex on any sort of meaningful level. Roaming the streets of Paris late one night, Grenouille catches the scent of a young girl selling plums and impulsively strangles her, later sniffing her nude corpse in a twisted attempt to preserve the distinctive scent in his memory. After persuading legendary perfumer Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) to take him on as an apprentice, Grenouille travels to the town of Grasse in Southern France in order to learn the art of enfleurage at a firm run by the highly respected Mme. Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch). It is there that Grenouille becomes dangerously drawn to the vestal aroma of the young and beautiful Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), the daughter of widower merchant Antione Richis (Alan Rickman). Soon driven to madness by such a pure scent, the spellbound Grenouille continues to claim the lives of the numerous young girls in a tragic attempt to bottle the impossibly elusive smell of virginal womanhood. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Whishaw, Alan Rickman, (more)
An adopted girl returns to her homeland of Russia to explore the dilapidated mountain farm she has recently inherited, only to discover that it harbors a deadly secret in the feature debut from Aftermath director Nacho Cerdà . Shortly after the mysterious death of her birth mother, young Marie was adopted and brought to live in the United States. When Marie receives word that she has inherited an isolated farm in her native Russia, she soon sets out to explore the vast estate and peel away the thick gauze obscuring her secret-shrouded past. Confounded by the local's refusal to show her to the "damned" locale and determined not to give up after coming this far, Marie convinces a man to take her there only to discover that he has inexplicably vanished shortly after arrival. As Marie sets out to explore the ominous and expansive property alone, a surprise encounter with a man named Boris, who claims to have been lured to the house under similar circumstances, sets into motion a chilling series of events in which the ghosts of the past -- as well as deceased doppelgangers of both Marie and Boris -- prevent the frightened pair from leaving. In the terrifying hours that follow, both of these tormented lost souls will find that sometimes the past is best left forgotten. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anastasia Hille, Karel Roden, (more)
