Plot: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man completely lacking in humanity but possessing a heightened sense of smell, wreaks havoc on the world around him as he endeavors to capture the very essence of human beings. Grenouille is basically a vampire who thirsts after scents rather than blood and in attempting to capture various scents to create one perfect, beautiful scent, he leaves a trail of bodies behind him.
Primary Differences Between Book and Film: Plotwise, the differences between the two are minimal and largely the result of the film having to compress the timeline. A small subplot involving Grenouille's experience as a scientific oddity is cut completely and not particularly missed. In terms of characterization, the character of Grenouille is fairly significantly changed. In the book Grenouille is a very conniving character, very calculating and overtly aware of the ways in which he's manipulating people. The film version of Grenouille seems somewhat less aware of how his actions affect those around him and though he's not innocent in a general sense, he seems innocent in the sense that he doesn't seem to understand the full impact of his actions because he doesn't understand what it means to be human.
For The Book: The story is very much an interior one, relying very heavily on the psychological experience derived from the sense of smell. Some of the book's most memorable passages involve breaking down and describing the combination of scents that intoxicate and drive Grenouille, which really can't be translated to film. Further, the book gets deep, deep into Grenouille's head and since he's a character of few spoken words, that means that the film version is going to seem a little shallow in comparison.
For The Film: It sounds impossible, but director Tom Tykwer is able to translate Grenouille's aromatic experiences into a completely visual tableau. This is an expertly adapted film that truly captures the spirit of the source work and runs with it, creating a film that is entirely enthralling. Ben Wishaw stars as Grenouille and renders a surprisingly sympathetic performance, and there are nice supporting performances from Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman.
Winner: Film. I like the book a lot and highly recommend it, but the film absolutely blew me away. For a story about a vile creature committing a series of horrible acts, it's amazing how beautiful the film is. Major kudos to cinematographer Frank Griebe for his wonderful work. The book is good, but the film is a masterpiece.
5 comments:
Interesting view, but I beg to differ. The book is a masterpiece and the film is a good one. Ironically enough, I think that the movie is too visual. And, how about the ridiculous orgies in the end? In my humble opinion, we can't talk about a masterpiece about any movie with a weak ending...
I've been meaning to see this movie for ages, but for some reason haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for the great post- it has inspired me to finally see this movie! I think I even have a copy of it somewhere...
@Claude: Agree to disagree, however I'm note sure I understand your objection to the film's ending since it's exactly (orgy and all) the same as the ending of the book, save and except for the omission of a brief scene between Grenouille and Richis.
@Alex: Definitely see it - it's so worth it.
@norma: As far as I remember, in the book the orgy is described in two lines and Twyker transformed it in 10 minutes of unnecessary(in my opinion) visual exhibitionism. Anyway, the affirmation that the book is merely "good" while the movie is "a masterpiece" it's what really bothers me.
On another note, you have a very nice blog.
@claude: *shrug* I just preferred the movie.
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