Süskind's novel "Perfume" and its film adaptation

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Comparison of the beginning

3. The Narrator

4. The world of fragrances

5. Grenouille

6. Comparison of the ending

7. General differences between book and film

8. Reception

9. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

In 1985 the novel "Das Parfum" by Patrick Süskind was published. Highly praised by the press, it was on bestseller lists (not only in Germany) for years. It has been translated into 46 languages and sold over 15 million copies.

Such a successful book literally cried out to be made into a film. But actually Grenouille doesn't correspond to the typical cinema hero.

Süskind resisted for a long time to release his script.¹ Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg showed interest in the film version alongside Bernd Eichinger. However, the author, according to rumors, hoped that Stanley Kubrick would film his novel.

In 2001 Eichinger finally receives the rights to "Das Parfum". It is said that they cost him EUR 10 million.

Due to the popularity of the novel, the filming of the material was eagerly awaited.

In the following, I will compare the novel in some points with the film version.² and to address difficulties in the implementation of the book (representation of the smells, the protagonist, etc.). Furthermore, I would like to deal with some film reviews in order to be able to draw my own summary of the cinematic world of Grenouille from the lessons learned at the end.

"Genius and madness are closely linked."

(Edgar Allen Poe)

2. Comparison of the beginning

2.1 The beginning of the book

Süskind begins his novel with the description of the place, according to which the reader is in 18th century France. And it is precisely in this setting that the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille took place, who is introduced right at the beginning as one of the ingenious horrors of this time. His name was only forgotten because he had left no traces, as he had dealt with the fleeting "Reich der Gerüche"³ have dealt.

After the narrator has clarified this, he follows a detailed description of both pictorial and olfactory description of Paris in the time described. Thus, the beginning of the first chapter of the book can be characterized as a prehistory and overture at the same time⁴.

From a film-philosophical point of view, the narrator here uses a total directed at that country for the introduction, in order to then begin zooming⁵. First of all, the location is limited, before the camera now gets closer to a single motif and describes it more precisely, so that the reader is all of a moment in the middle of the stench of Paris' market. Once this part is completed, the narrator returns to the main character of his story, more precisely to its birth and the consequences thereof, so that the story already takes its course.

2.2 The beginning of the film

The film, on the other hand, begins medias in res, pretty much at the end of the plot. The viewer is first shown grenouille in a dungeon and the raging crowd outside, demanding his death. Only then is the "actual" beginning, as it can be found in the book, presented.

The first thing the audience is presented with is an opening credits with music. When this falls silent, a completely black picture appears, in which one seems to gradually guess outlines. The seconds-long silence is interrupted shortly afterwards by a smelling sound of a nose, which can now also be seen, as a ray of light rests alone on it.

A short time later, several men rush towards the dungeon, which is now only now recognizable as such, and bring out the prisoner, of whom only his nose and a rear view have been recognized until now, and drag him along a corridor, so that he falls. But he is still being pulled violently, so that he has to get up again and continue walking with his iron shackles around his neck, hands and feet.

After this sequence, a cut is made so that one perceives what is happening at the gates of the building. It is easy to guess a wild raging and hitting the gates pack.

The prisoner is taken up a flight of stairs to other men who are presumably the board of this city or very influential people, which can easily be seen in their clothes. The viewer hears the words "no mercy" from their mouths, so that he already has a rough insight into what is happening. It seems as if the story takes place around the 18th century. The main character has done something that makes her imprisoned and threatens a trial that will take place without any mercy.

The next moment, she is taken out onto a large balcony of the building to show her to the raging crowd that demands their death.

During all these events, the protagonist was only seen from behind. When he is now at this point, the camera position changes. She has now captured an image of the balcony in a wide shot, as if looking directly at this situation from another building. The camera is now zooming closer and closer, so that we can now see the face of the presumed protagonist for the first time.

Then the verdict on him is announced, whereby the viewer learns that it is a man named Jean Baptiste Grenouille, who is a journeyman perfumer. But now he is to be executed in a cruel way within two days, whereupon the crowd rages joyfully.

This first part of the beginning, which does not appear at this point in the book, was probably prefaced in the film by the establishment of the tension building and the increase of interest on the part of the viewer. After this beginning, the viewer simply has to know what happened there and how the whole situation ends. Perhaps this young man has been unjustly convicted for something he did not do? All such questions are invisibly woven into the plot in this first section for the viewer. But soon he will learn more about the person of Grenouille.

Still standing on the balcony, his face is zoomed closer and closer by the camera until it fills the whole picture. It is precisely at this moment that a narrator's voice sets in, which reports on him in the following. Meanwhile, the camera moves closer and closer to his nose until it makes a small pan in the direction of the nostrils and makes the image end black, so that you get the feeling of being absorbed by the nose.

In terms of content, what the narrator now reports is what we learn at the beginning of Süskind's novel. However, at this point some details that declare the protagonist Grenouille, for example, to be abhorrent, have been omitted, as well as the comparison to other ingenious atrocities of this time (for more information on the creation of the main character, see chapter 5).

Now the main title appears on a black background.

Just a few seconds later, the narrator continues his story and we as viewers find ourselves in the middle of 18th-century Paris in a market where we are shown all the stench of this time in a pictorial way. This is done by means of several totals, half totals and close-ups. The camera is guided in such a way that the audience gets the feeling of walking through this crowd themselves and experiencing all this for themselves. In addition, we learn from the narrator that Grenouille was born in this very place.

In summary, it can be said that a later scene of the book was pulled forward here in order to build up tension and curiosity, in order to then stage the beginning of Süskind relatively close to the text and thus introduce the protagonist of the story and the time in which he lived.

3. The Narrator

3.1 Süskind's narrator in the book

The narrator begins to describe his story imperfectly and immediately brushes away possible doubts about the truth of those by naming other very well-known names of other "scheusals" and offering the reader an explanation as to why we no longer know the protagonist of his story. All this points to an auktorial narrative situation.

But to come back to the way of this introduction, it must be said that an old yet effective style is used here to tie the reader to the book. This is done by the narrator reporting that the reader will be highly moved⁶. He thus assumes the function of a confidant for the recipient.

Furthermore, the narrator seems to be a historically educated man, since he reports from a temporal distance very detailed and with a knowledge of the events of that time. So he presents himself ironically in the very first movement („…dieser an genialen und abscheulichen Gestalten nicht armen Epoche "⁷ ). However, he never takes on a writable form, although he is always present throughout the story and leaves his traces of storytelling visible to the reader.⁸. In addition, he only very rarely interferes in the events and he also does not use the technique of addressing the reader directly, as E.T.A. Hoffmann, for example, does in a traditional way. If he reflexes or interferes in intentional situations, he never uses the narrative "me", but falls back on the passive or the "we" ("Zu der Zeit, von der wir reden…"⁹ ).

For Grenouille, he sometimes takes on the role of translator¹⁰ because he has only rudimentary linguistic abilities and the reader should understand what he is giving of himself.

In addition, the narrator often describes the inner life of his characters. His narrative thus always remains monoperspectival and the plot thus single-stranded. As a result, Frizen sees epic distance¹¹, so that the reader sometimes gets the feeling of a panorma view.

Since the narrator intends to reproduce a complete biography, time jumps and time lapse are often used. Time coverage only comes about in a few scenes, namely where dialogue appears or a particularly "dramatic" scene is the focus.

On the basis of all these points, it can be conjectured that we are probably dealing with an omniscient (or at least approximately omniscient) narrator.

Throughout the novel, one has the feeling of being thrown back and forth between the belief in the truthfulness of this story and natural and modern skepticism. Frizen aptly describes the narrator's situation: " Er steht mit dem einen Bein in jenem, mit dem anderen in unserem Jahrhundert, lässt Wunder zu und tut doch wissenschaftlich."¹²

3.2 Tykwer's narrator in the film

Also in the cinematic staging of "The Perfume" a narrator is used. This starts roughly at the point where the narrator entered the book. However, these narrative sequences are presented in abridged and censored form.

He is always present when it requires an explanation or description by him. For example, he tells us about the time when Grenouille was a child. Through images and individual situations from his life, a summary of Grenouille's life in fast motion is created.

In this way, the narrator intervenes again and again and withdraws from the action shortly afterwards. Among other things, he comments on the time grenouille spends on the mountain far away from any civilization and falls silent when he goes to Grasse and then reappears only when the protagonist sets off back to Paris.

The function of this interplay lies in the fact that the narrator is supposed to convey the feeling of being told a true story. On the other hand, however, it also has something fairytale-like about it. In any case, however, this is how the frequent appearance of time lapses and jumps is justified.

[...]

¹ Information on the following details was taken from the article " Ein Frosch, der nach Millionen riecht " by Sandro Tiefenbrunner, published in Bücher Magazin issue 5/2006.

² The basis for the film-philosophical analysis is the work: Gast, Wolfgang: Film und Literatur, Grundbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1993.

³ Süskind, Patrick: Das Parfum, Die Geschichte eines Mörders, Zürich 1994, p.5.

⁴ cf. Frizen, Werner and Spancken, Marilies: Das Parfum, Interpretation, Munich 1998, p.116.

⁵ cf. Frizen, 1998, p.116.

⁶ cf. Frizen, 1998, p.121.

⁷ Süskind, 1994, p.5.

⁸ cf. Frizen, 1998, p.121.

⁹ Süskind, 1994, p.5.

¹⁰ cf. Reisner, Hanns-Peter: Lektürehilfen, Patrick Süskind "Das Parfum", Stuttgart 2005, p.83.

¹¹ cf. Frizen, 1998, p.121.

¹² Frizen, 1998, p.124.