your tragedy

Pedro 2022-03-19 09:01:03

I’ve read the original book and watched the movie, I always feel weird, I can’t help comparing it, I’m a bit picky~ But the movie is still good, the narration is very flavorful, and it feels like “Dog Town”~

Back to the topic~ The

protagonist Grenouille What kind of existence is it? I think what he has been looking for is actually the discovery of self and the

story of identification. Using smell as "currency" (sorry, I study economics~), the good and evil of life in this world can be transformed For "smell" this medium. People's status, wealth, knowledge, everything is the external manifestation of smell. It can be said that smell is people's ID card and social value label.

However, our Grenouille has no smell, he can walk in the crowd without anyone noticing. It's a metaphor, Grenouille has no identity in this world, no one cares about him, his life is insignificant to others, he's afraid of being ignored, overwhelmed, as if he doesn't exist. His talent was more of a curse than a godsend.

The plot of Grenouille's seclusion in the valley in the film is a turning point. Before that, all Grenouille wanted was pure smell. But when Grenouille realized that he had no scent, he found another meaning in life: to put scent on himself.

That's one of the things we can see Grenouille doing since then. This move can be interpreted as Grenouille's consciously or unconsciously seeking social value recognition. Grenouille set foot on Grasse, where he not only had to tell the world that he existed, he was important and exceptional.

However, this effort failed. Because when he was finally matched with a perfume that stunned the world and made humans crawl madly, Grenouille found that he did not identify with himself. In the last chapter of the book it says, "Although he appears to the world as God through his perfume, he cannot smell himself, so he never knows who he is, so he is to the world, to himself, to the His perfume doesn't care."

Grenouille had won the world, he could go to Versailles if he wanted to, have the king kiss his feet, he could write a perfumed letter to the Pope, announcing himself as the new savior, and he could do whatever he wanted. This power in his hands is stronger than money, fear, or death. There is only one thing that perfume can't do. When Grenouille stood in the middle of the square in Grasse, watching the mad people have sex, he realized that this perfume will never make him enjoy love and be loved like ordinary people. , unable to make him get real identity, in this world, Grenouille is always an outsider. Grenouille's self-salvation finally ended with such a tragic ending.

This film is alluding to such a group of people who have no self-identity, do not know who they are, but hope to use social identity to make up for their emptiness, and use fragrance (prestige, status, wealth) to reshape themselves. Although they may succeed in the end, they also have no soul of their own.

Grenouille's tragedy is your tragedy

View more about Perfume: The Story of a Murderer reviews

Extended Reading
  • Lennie 2022-03-17 09:01:03

    Although "Perfume" tells a story full of magic, but the seemingly absurd and uninhibited plot is full of deep fear. At the end, Grenouille used perfume to make countless onlookers in the square intoxicated and insane, ranging from high officials and nobles to civilians. In fact, as long as the perfume is regarded as a symbol, it is not difficult to find that similar situations have been repeated in human history time and time again. Perfume can be speech, it can be temptation, it can be religion, it can even be doctrine. Just a few decades ago, we did not have a historical moment when millions of passionate young people cheered, shouted, stomped their feet, and shed tears in front of one person. So it's not just the fragrant perfume that hypnotizes people's spirits, there are many great or evil things that can drive us crazy, and all these real existences are not just absurd stories. Of course the director of this one, Tom Tykwer, is a German, and this nation has a very deep understanding of this, and we may be close to it now.

  • Teagan 2022-03-21 09:01:30

    My idol, for the things he likes, constantly pursue, unscrupulously. With dedication, learning, and progress, I finally become the king of a field!

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer quotes

  • Jean-Baptiste Grenouille: What's a legend?

  • Narrator: He still had enough perfume left to enslave the whole world if he so chose. He could walk to Versailles and have the king kiss his feet. He could write the pope a perfumed letter and reveal himself as the new Messiah. He could do all this, and more, if he wanted to. He possessed a power stronger than the power of money, or terror, or death - the invincible power to command the love of man kind. There was only one thing the perfume could not do. It could not turn him into a person who could love and be loved like everyone else. So, to hell with it he thought. To hell with the world. With the perfume. With himself.