The story about the genious and lethal perfumier Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was originally released in 1985, and since then Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume: Story of a Murderer (original german title: Das Parfüm) has sold over 12 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 42 different languages. In 2001, german producer Bernd Eichinger (The Never Ending Story, The Name of the Rose, Downfall, Resident Evil, Fantastic Four) successfully acquired the rights to the film adaptation, which he subsequently laid into the hands of the talented german director Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run, Heaven). Together they managed to attach an array of international actors to the project, including Dustin Hoffman (as Guiseppe Baldini), Alan Rickman (as Antoine), Rachel Hurd-Wood (as Laure Richis; Hurd-Wood played Wendy in 2003’s Peter Pan) and UK born Ben Wishaw (as Grenouille; Wishaw might be known to some for his role as Sidney in Layer Cake).

The story is set in the south of France in mid 18th century. The boy Jean-Baptise Grenouille grows up in an orphanage after his mother is hanged for trying to dispose of her unwanted child. Jean-Baptiste can barely speak, but he is gifted with an extraordinary olfactory sense. At the age of thirteen he is sold to a tannery where he works under the harshest conditions, growing into a young man in the midst of stinking chloride-filled basins. During his first visit to Paris, he is attracted to a perfume sales woman. But because he cannot articulate himself, and because he feels disturbed by the passing people, he covers her mouth with his hands and unwantingly suffocates her. His initial sense of joy over smelling her lovely perfume is thus soon replaced by the realization that he cannot hold on to that scent. This premise leads to Grenouille’s gruesome quest of trying to create the irrisistable scent, by distilling the scent of living things and preserving it into an essence.

One of the major concerns over the film adaptation regards its ability to convey the importance of scents in the book onto the screen. Constantin Film has now released the first teaser trailer for the film which, in an adequately creepy fashion, captures the focus on smells quite impressively. You can judge for yourself by downloading the file via the following link:

Perfume: Story of a Murderer - Teaser Trailer (Quicktime, 5.8MB)

In addition to this, you can also view the first official movie still below (click on the image to load a bigger sized version):

Perfume: Story of a Murderer is scheduled to premiere in Germany in September later this year, from where it will expand to neighbouring European countries within the following two months. The film will likely start its global theatrical run by the end of the year.

Posted by Tai in Commentary, Movies • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg