Why It Was 'Unfilmable': Discounting smell-o-vision - because you should always discount smell-o-vision - there probably didn't seem like many viable options to satisfyingly bring Patrick Suskind's Perfume to the big screen. Suskind's novel is all about the sense of smell, using its 'olfactory genius' protagonist/antagonist Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to explore themes of religion, desire and identity. The story is also uncompromisingly dark: Grenouille a serial killer that murders women and bottles their aroma, in the search of a mythical 'perfect scent.' Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick all showed an interest in directing at one point or another. But as a period epic set in 18th century France, it would require a larger-than-average budget, which no producer was readily stumping up. It also didn't help that Suskind refused to sell the rights to his book for years. How It Got Made: Suskind did eventually sell the rights (for a purported 10 million), and a 50 million budget - one of the highest ever for a German film - was secured. The director of the eventual Perfume film, Tom Tykwer, solved the problem of conveying the various smells of the Parisian streets with a most simple method; said cinematographer Frank Griebe: "people see the fish market full of raw, bloody fish, and they know it stinks; they see a field of lavender and know it smells wonderful." They also cast the complex Grenouille after a year-long search, eventually settling on the then-largely unknown Ben Whishaw. A gamble, but so is taking on any 'unfilmable' project, hm? Like this article? Let us know in the comments section below.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
