Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

When Grenouille meets the perfumer, at his house/laboratory, he knows where all the substances are, although he has never been there before.

He is able to do this due to his heightened sense of smell, he is able to work out where specific substances are by the scent they give off.

Midway through the movie a whore appears with a Pekingese dog.

The Pekingese were not formally introduced into Europe until midway through the 19th Century when Britain and France "sacked" the Chinese Empire (circa 1860).

The Pekingese were kept exclusively in the Chinese Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) until then and maintained by eunuchs.

The movie takes place in the mid 18th Century.

While it may be possible British or French royalty could have had a Pekingese (although extremely unlikely), a French harlot owning a Pekingese in the 1700's is an impossibility.

The lavender fields are clearly Lavendula intermedia, natural hybrid of Lavendula angustifolia (the true lavender used in perfumery) and Lavendula latifolia.

Lavendula intermedia was discovered only at the end of 19th century and cultivated from the 1930's.

Its flower is bigger (and the visual aspect more suitable for a movie) than Lavendula angustifolia but its natural essence is less fine.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, Jean-Baptiste enters town and sees a carriage with two women inside, one holding a Pomeranian.

According to the American Pomeranian Club, "When (Pomeranians) first came to notice in Britain in the middle of the 19th century, some specimens were said to weigh as much as thirty pounds and to resemble the German wolf Spitz in size, coat and color.

" The film takes place in the mid-seventeen hundreds (the 18th century).

The Pomeranian, as we know it today, would not have existed as depicted in the film.

In the scene in which the body of the prostitute that Grenouille kills is taken away you can see some of her hair, but earlier in the movie Grenouille removed all of her hair.

At one of the very first scenes of Jean-Baptiste execution, right before crowd starts fighting for the best place to see it, an antenna can be seen next to the balcony where the authorities and Laura's father are standing.

It is easily identifiable as the peak of Calatrava Telecommunications Tower at Montuich mountain at Barcelona, which is quite near the building where the scene was shot.

While Grenouille is hanging heads down above the water filled barrel his hair changes from dripping wet to dry to dripping wet.

The method of enfleurage that Grenouille is first seen practicing is called cold enfleurage - placing live botanicals in a layer of lard or tallow set in a frame.

However, this method of enfleurage was not developed until the 1800's.

The movie is set in the mid 1700's.

I don't know why, but the title sounded to me like something based on a true story, it is fact based on a novel, thought to be "unfilmable" for a film adaptation, but it happened and this is the result, directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, The International, Cloud Atlas). Basically Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Skyfall's Ben Whishaw) was abandoned in a French fish market at birth, he was raised in an orphanage and grew up a strange detached boy, he has a superhuman sense of smell and revels in new odours.

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer, does a very good job of doing justice to what is a very interesting and original book, but certainly not an easy thing to turn into a script and then a film.It would be a huge spoiler to even touch on the story, so I will not.

Other movies make me moved by the story or empathy, but this movie do by hate beauty of image or sound or smell. Although after watching it, my heart wasn't fulfilled with anything, i like it.

The movie is set in 18th century France. It opens with the shadowed face of a man with the spotlight specifically on his nose.

I had high hopes for this movie and, yes, tried my best to like it. The main reason: I love Patrick Süskind's novel, have read it numerous times and occasionally still give it a gander on audio-book (if you're familiar with German, I do recommend the version read by Gert Westphal).

Of course, (mercifully) we cannot smell what the Perfumer smells. In compensation we have hy per-real imagery, using stunning macro shots that are extreme close-ups in startling detail - the tiny hairs on a nose, the explosive s plash of a single drop of essence falling into a pool.

I think I am lost as to what the critics didn't like about this. It was stunningly shot, completely visceral.

What a real pity... What could have been an excellent movie was totally ruined during the last 20 or so minutes...

This film is absolutely terrible.I won't bother to summarize the plot, since you can read that elsewhere, but all you really need to know is that this movie is laugh-out-loud absolutely dreadful.