Grenouille is a genius. The concept of genius is simple, a person is gifted in some way. This talent belongs to him is the sense of smell, which is the human sense after sight, hearing, and taste, and before touch. The sense of smell is relatively abstract and very empty. Humans, on the other hand, have always been inexorable in their pursuit of the void. Thus, the profession of perfumer is only a parasite of this genius. Because genius acts are often irrelevant to social life. Genius, has the weight to subvert the limit and the heat that is hard to bear. Unfortunately, many geniuses have also made many idiots. Compared to their developed talents, they are almost the opposite of the concept of genius in terms of human nature. It's not Grenouille's fault that God made man like this. He just lives by his own rules, his temperament, and does what he wants to do. Director Tom Tykeway showed Grenoye's soul, a combination of a devil and an angel, with his evil, ruthless but pure and firm eyes in the dark and his nose that moved out of the darkness. How did this genius of alternating black and white and confusing audio-visual come to a conclusion?
Perfume, a commodity materialized from spiritual needs, is the representative of human material and spiritual needs. It can be both a luxury item and a daily necessities. It is a higher level than wearing a hat, because the user's heart makes this commodity more materialized by spiritual needs. Grenouille's perfume, which is made with the scent of a girl's body, is shown three times in the film, which is amazing. The unintentionally revealed semi-finished products can make the dark and wretched people become harmonious and upright; a few drops deliberately pointed out can make all living beings be intoxicated and oblivious to their emotions; all the swaying will result in crazy torture, and there will be no bones left. The sense of smell that Grenouille is good at is abstract and difficult to control. Humans have no way of developing their sense of taste. Therefore, the origin of the use of perfume as a murder weapon in the original novel has another meaning. Perfume is a product with materialized properties. For the pursuit of material things, human beings never tire of it. Thus, the value of the material is suggested along with Grenouille's perfume. A little substance can maintain normality and even save the soul; deliberately excessive substances can make people lose their nature, and lust is some hidden feature of human nature; and a thorough flood of substances directly brings destruction and death. Grenouille mastered the essence of matter, but was still drowned in darkness. Such a perfume not only destroys Grenouille itself, but also destroys others. Therefore, behind the strange story brought by "Perfume", the power and depth of material desire are more intuitively displayed. Matter itself is beautiful, and in the hallucination, the ruthless Grenouille seemed to have not accidentally killed the fruit-selling girl. This feeling of redemption is brought about by perfume (substance). Therefore, matter itself is not at fault, it is only a matter of quantity that is at fault.
The genius of Grenouille and perfume together constitute evil, and fate together constitutes the world. Just like the filthiest Paris in the 18th century that the director vividly shows, the world may often create an evil living environment. The several people who grew up with Grenouille all share the same characteristics, which uniformly extract the available value of this perfumer. The biological mother abandoned him because she thought she was worthless, the trafficker abandoned him because he was a commodity, the fur owner abandoned him is a common sense of profit, and the perfumer abandoned him completely squeezed his residual value. The small boss of the flavor workshop is a different matter. He is a victim of the already strong Grenouille, but he has never seen the talented Grenouille as a person before. All these people who lived with Grenouille died in an unfortunate way, as if the sky had eyes. Because, in the eyes of the original author, the formation of this perfume demon is directly related to their behavior. In fact, in the eyes of these people, Grenouille is just a half-stupid chip that can be discarded or used at any time, just because of the ugly and low-mindedness of Grenouille. In the survival system described in the film, human beings do not retain the good side, but survive with the system, following the cruel philosophy of survival of the fittest. This law of living space and growth acts on Grenouille himself, borrowing the low civilization of the Middle Ages to show the inferiority of human beings. The system and unsound civilization will help this kind of atmosphere to multiply and become a climate. After the original author was powerless, he could only let these people suffer from heaven. Because the evil created by Grenouille's ego is even more terrifying.
Having had such experiences and encounters, Grenouille, who was already low, turned into an alien. One side is innocent and the other is evil, like a mixture of devil and genius. Geniuses and demons have the same thing in common, that is, their nature is simple and persistent. In the eyes of the audience, Grenouille belongs to the typical alternation of beauty and ugliness, black and white. The fate of being abandoned cannot be added, and his heart must be as hopeless as ashes, and he has a deep hatred for others. However, Grenouille is a genius, with energy that ordinary people do not have. His sense of smell gave him magic and charm, and his weakness gave him sympathy and compassion. However, the transition between good and evil does not change because of human feelings. Grenouille's actions turned himself into a devil because he ignored the feelings of others. And this evil disregard is the gift of entrusting him to grow up. God gave him the nose he was born with, and the system gave him the mind to act recklessly. A genius obsessed with talent is beautiful, an idiot obsessed with being recognized is dangerous. In his lives covered up, Grenouille's purpose is to obtain the value he needs, and the nature of his behavior has been equal to those who abandoned him or used him. Even though, this ruthless killer finally faced his cherished love and let the weapon stay for a while. But the purpose of achieving extraordinary achievements was still under the influence of nature and experience that made him choose to kill.
Tom Tykwer's "Perfume" is not about dissatisfaction with the system, but about the bad roots of human nature. In the film, all the characters are deprived of the truth, goodness and beauty of human beings and live in ugliness. Grenouille's tragic encounter implies a negative process of human transformation. In the process of making the supreme perfume, all the ugliness is revealed. Ignorance, hypocrisy, ignorance, weakness, greed, etc., and in Grenouille the evil is highlighted. Big evil always seems to make sense and make sense at first. Just as the audience will be blinded by this magical perfume, as all the brutality glorified by the director. This kind of treatment is extremely realistic, as real as broad daylight. The bottle of perfume that was exchanged for evil brought people to the peak of desire, because it was powerful and made people hopeful, and the life of the perfume maker made people speechless. In fact, "Perfume" is a fable that thoroughly understands the eternal weaknesses of human beings. At the last moment, Grenouille poured the invincible perfume on his head in the stench of the place of birth, and all the dust returned to dust and disappeared. The director used the texture of European classical oil painting to express the influence of perfume flavor, and used a soft strong circle to cover the crowd in the dark. In that moment, Tom Tykwer fully revealed the heart of the work. When the dust settles, the darkness still shrouds over, people are the same as yesterday, and the weakness and ugliness in human nature are still the same.
When the pure and perfect material appears, the ugliness in human nature intensifies. When the beauty dissipates, the ugly part of human nature controls the darkness. Because even a genius cannot escape a life that is both beautiful and ugly. "Perfume" just uses an aesthetic context to describe the dark side of human nature.
View more about Perfume: The Story of a Murderer reviews
