Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Based on the 1985 book by Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was claimed to be unfilmable. The author reportedly thought that only Stanley Kubrick and Miloš Forman could do the book justice and refused to let anyone else make a film adaptation of it.

The story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an olfactory genius on his homicidal quest for the perfect scent translates as a gorgeous movie that, despite many challenges and limitations—imagine trying to build an entire movie around the sense of smell—triumphs over nearly all of them. Using high-energy visuals and impeccable set design to convey every type of smell conceivable, the director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) is no novice when it comes to quick cuts and expressive film-making. Tykwer said that to him Perfume “was much more a film about the importance of smell in our life than a film that tries to be smelly.”