Saw this killer movie, Perfume (download torrent). Heard mixed review but from the beginning it was solid. The first scene is a fetid 17th century fishmarket, the filth on the floor mixed with the blood of a baby just popped. And that’s the hero, until you see. The film is about smell and thus the film making is enfused with sensuality – plums, flowers, shit, the maggots stirring inside a rat. Mostly darkness and stank, cause the kid has a hard life, but his talent for smell is amazing and compelling. So I liked him, admired for him, hoped for him – until he started killing and pickling virgins in the street. And then, aghast, I still kinda liked him. So it was a good, twitchy, beautiful film.

The women in the film, the dead virgins, were absolute stunners. Not my type, but real beauties. The character reminded me of the modern Grendel in Beowulf (YouTube) – the unwitting demon, sympathetic in that – fundamentally – he just don’t know. This boy just has such an amazing sense of smell which you can feel – especially in the cinematic portrayal of the stanky squalor of 17th century France compared to oasis of the perfumerie.

At the same time, however, this talented and handsome lead is totally psychopathic. It’s a nice mix. I mean, one likes the extremes, to be appalled, but the splendor and art of scent is also compelling, in the opposite direction. I mean most of the people we enjoy watching on screen are murderers or criminals, though the guy in Perfume is a proper disturbing serial killer. But pretty. Good times, good times.

Perfume also has, by far, the best orgy scene I’ve ever witnessed.

Posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 in Art, Movies, Video.