Question:
Originally Posted by Renato Hi Russlan,
Never read the book? Actually, I'd never heard of it till you just showed it to me.
Oh well, I'll watch the movie and see what it's about.
Renato
Find the time to watch this movie, it's special. But the book's much better, as it often happens with adaptations.

Answer:
I saw the trailer when I watched "The Departed" last weekend. It's interesting. It's not showing here in Los Angeles yet but I remembered seeing it in the billboards when I visited Italy last month. I'll probably watch it just because I'd be interested in the historical aspects of it.

Answer:
Originally Posted by Russlan Find the time to watch this movie, it's special. But the book's much better, as it often happens with adaptations. I handle suspense, violence, and other people having horrid lives very poorly (got picked on too much as a kid), so after I read to about the point where the main character survives anthrax (?), I had to stop. I also had to find out what happened, so I read the final part.
This last bit appears to have been changed in the movie; a reviewer described its closing segment as "the orgy scene". This is rather different than my recollection of the book, and not, I imagine, an improvement. Perhaps, however, the reviewer misunderstood what she saw? What's the story? I am so intrgued by this, I have almost decided to see this movie, even if I wake up screaming for a couple of nights afterwards.

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I just read the book in two sittings, last night and this morning, (fortuitous that it fell into my hands on the weekend) and found it a substantial read. The language is voluptuous, wonderful throaty and nuanced descriptions of scents throughout the spectrum of scent, even if the subject matter is rather creepy...it reminds me of the story of Frankenstein, a gothic , dark , mysterious tale with monstrous protagonist. I do better with this type of story when it is somewhat removed from present day , this is set in Paris and its outskirts in the laste 1700's. I don't do well with horror or gratuitous violence, and I wouldn't classify this book as such. Definitely a page turner , not a cheery tale, but engaging, it was recommended to me by Mr. Good Life, and I pass on the recommendation. I can't believe it was written twenty years ago and I never heard of it.
I do wonder how a film could do justice to the language of the book, however. The book brings you so much into the mind and sense impressions of the protagonist it is quite a unique work.

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I just saw this, and... WAU!! WAAAY MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED!!!!
SUPERB MOVIE!!! A MASTERPIECE!!!!!

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Originally Posted by PigeonMurderer I just saw this, and... WAU!! WAAAY MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED!!!!
SUPERB MOVIE!!! A MASTERPIECE!!!!! love loves to love love ....

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To be just a little bit more precise:
- Amazing acting. Just amazing.
- Great music.
- And to my great suprise; a perfect ending!!
Overall a great job from the director, considering how difficult the book was to process.

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Originally Posted by PigeonMurderer
Overall a great job from the director, considering how difficult the book was to process. My thoughts precisely

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Well, that was one weird movie - oddly compelling, however.
I kept wondering if the protaganist really had a thing for pheromones as opposed to an actual intrinsic scent.
Is there any movie in which Alan Rickman appears that is not automatically made compelling by his presence?
Renato

Answer:
I just read the book and also found it to be an excellent page-turner. It's very dark, and the premise of the story is, though very original and compelling, pretty creepy. I don't want to give it away, but I wanted to give people some idea of what they're getting in for. Someone who's looking for, say, a romantic type of story will be pretty shocked. It starts right in with how gruesome life was in the streets of Paris at that time.
It will be interesting to see how the movie portrays the book. I do remember how well the atmosphere of the time and place was captured in Girl With a Pearl Earring, and I hope they do just as good as job in this film. A lot of Perfume (the book) involves the internal thoughts of the main protagonist, always a challenge for a filmmaker.
Many passages dazzled me. I don't think I'm giving much away when I say that there's a sort of Salieri-like figure (think of Mozart's "rivalry" with Salieri in that film) who enleashes an amazing diatribe that beautifully encapsulates the age-old resistance to progress and anything new. And then there are the great scenes of the almost feverish creative process that are full of the perfume minutiae that we all love. I'm guessing that much of the enjoyable perfume-making details will not make it to the movie - I think they may baffle the average viewer, but not BN'ers, of course!