Best Hacks for Life

An obsessive French perfumer with a highly developed olfactory sense and an all-consuming drive to capture the essence of love eventually resorts to murder in his unrepentant quest to find the key ingredient for his recipe in director Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of author Patrick Suskind’s best-selling 1985 novel. Born in a fetid fish market and raised in a dilapidated orphanage, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) toiled his childhood away in a rank tannery run by the thuggish Grimal (Sam Douglas). Subsequently obsessed by smell, Grenouille’s keen olfactory sense becomes so finely tuned that it eventually overpowers such human qualities as love and compassion. Though he has indeed discovered the unmistakable scent of a woman, Grenouille finds it impossible to connect with the fairer sex on any sort of meaningful level. Roaming the streets of Paris late one night, Grenouille catches the scent of a young girl selling plums and impulsively strangles her, later sniffing her nude corpse in a twisted attempt to preserve the distinctive scent in his memory. After persuading legendary perfumer Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) to take him on as an apprentice, Grenouille travels to the town of Grasse in Southern France in order to learn the art of enfleurage at a firm run by the highly respected Mme. Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch). It is there that Grenouille becomes dangerously drawn to the vestal aroma of the young and beautiful Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), the daughter of widower merchant Antione Richis (Alan Rickman). Soon driven to madness by such a pure scent, the spellbound Grenouille continues to claim the lives of the numerous young girls in a tragic attempt to bottle the impossibly elusive smell of virginal womanhood.

When you think of perfume, you very rarely think about movies. One reason for this is that the two give you such different sensations. Perfume is an olfactory sensation – a smell. Movies give you both audible and visual sensations – images and sounds. It is almost implausible to think that these two sensory experiences could ever cross paths. But don’t tell that to the makers of Perfume:The Story of A Murderer, for they seem to think that even a film can omit a scent.

But before we go into whether Perfume comes out smelling like a rose or manure, it is necessary to understand what the film is all about. Perfume is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), a boy born with a highly superior olfactory sense who becomes obsessed with preserving all of the world’s smells. There to help him (and profit from his amazingly keen sense of smell) is Italian perfumer Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), who shows Grenouille how to turn scent into oil and make fine perfumes.

And it is up to this point that the film feels almost normal, at its worst just a dark fairy tale. That is, until Grenouille’s obsession takes a strange turn. He becomes so infatuated with making the perfect perfume that he travels to Grasse, a city filled with immaculate scents and beautiful young women, whose smell is also quite attractive to Grenouille. Incapable of just loving women like a normal 18th century Frenchman, Grenouille sets forth on a path of murder, slaying a dozen or so beautiful women so that he can use their scents to possibly make a perfume that would bring a man to his knees.

And from there on out the film is just one twisted, disturbing and yet whimsical twist after another, leading right up to one of the most jaw-dropping endings that I have seen in a while. You won’t drop your jaw because you didn’t see it coming, but you will think to yourself, “I can’t believe they actually did that.” It is a visual that you just have to experience for yourself.

As for giving a film the sensation of smell, director Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run) uses vibrant colors beautifully to enhance those items that plague Grenouille’s keen nose. From the bright red hair of a beautiful maiden to the lush grass in a meadow, some colors stand out for a reason – they make your mind create the sensation of smell out of sheer memory. It creates a third method of enjoyment right next to an intriguing story and a visual feast.

The performance of 26-year-old Brit Ben Whishaw (Layer Cake) is also a key to the film’s success. Whishaw has a deep, cold stare that speaks volumes for Grenouille, whose personality is less than appealing to the outside world. He also has the ability to use that coldness to make Grenouille one extremely creepy but lovable character, giving this twisted fairy tale its hero.

And while the hero does start killing people about halfway through the film, there is a certain lightheartedness to it. For some reason, we understand him, forgive him and then want him to win in the end. Perhaps it is great storytelling that allows us to disregard the moral implications of Grenouille’s killings, or perhaps it is just some subconscious human perversion. Either way, we keep watching right up until the end. And what do we get for our due diligence? A film that doesn’t necessarily smell perfect, but does smell interesting.

 

MANILA, Philippines – Asked about the rise of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte shrugged off the phenomenon, saying it’s the result of criminals killing off other criminals.

“You add more intrigues and then they kill each other, better. Criminals kill criminals, that is not my worry,” said Duterte on Friday, September 2, during a press conference in Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

The President said this purging of criminals by other criminals is the reaction of crime or drug syndicates to the “intrigue” begun by his “war on drugs,” which involves public naming of alleged drug suspects before any court process.

“It is the extrajudicial killing of people getting rid of the criminals by their own hands,” said Duterte.

He added that he “cannot control the criminal minds” if they decide to murder one another.

However, there have been incidents that appear to be drug-related where individuals, like a 5-year-old girl and college students, with no criminal record die.

Duterte previously said he claims full responsibility for deaths that occur during anti-drugs police operations but not the extrajudicial killings.

He, however, said he has ordered government agencies to investigate these mysterious killings. The Philippine National Police has said it is investigating around 900 such killings.

Duterte defended his controverial drug war by reminding media of the effect of drug addiction on families and young Filipinos.

“You must remember that, along the way, the drug crisis hurt so many people including parents who raised their children from childhood to college,” he said.

Menacingly, he added, “Just don’t fuck with the next Filipinos…. I said do not fuck my country.”

The result of President Duterte`s campaign was disturbing. But maybe its for the best. Many people die , its only sacrifice for the good of the country and its community. We can thank him later for what he have done in our country.