I passed Cartoons cinema here in Antwerp yesterday evening, and – ‘though I was 40 minutes late – went to see the remaining 90 minutes of Perfume, the new film by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run and Wintersleepers (which I had liked a lot)). My viewing pleasure was almost immediately ruined by seeing Dustin Hoffman and overall I thought that the movie was average.

Memorable was: the view of Paris with the buildings on the bridge (with the ensuing collapse); the views of rural France, the theory on how to extract odors from plants (distillation, maceration, enfleurage); the orgy scene (high mingles with low) and the producer of the film: Bernd Eichinger, who also produced The Name of the Rose (Eco), The Cement Garden (Mc Ewan), Die Unendliche Geschichte (Neverending Story by Michael Ende), Der Untergang, Elementary Particles (Houellebecq).

So Eichinger seems to have a passion for filming unfilmable novels.

On its [unerotic] nudity:

As in the original book, there is quite a bit of nudity, which is tastefully done, but I will be interested to see how this is swallowed in America – it will probably get an 18 rating or be cut down [it received and R-rating from the MPAA], which is a shame, it was given a 12 rating in Germany. — reviewer IJKMan on IMDb.

Grade: psychological realism: 5/10, feelgood factor: 7/10, oddity value: 7/10.