Perfume (2006)

2012-04-21

The impression from the first viewing:

The disgusting scenery and painful story found in this one-of-a-kind movie reminds me of Delicatessen, only amplified, and treated with far superior skill, and a more engaging storyline. The sort of emotion this sort of movie instilled in me is quite rare, and has similar intensity to what is found in Apocalypto. The costume design is perhaps even better than what can be seen in the (lesser) Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

The impression from a revisit:

Perfume remains magnificent but got a few warts (sleep-inducing, disorganised and overlong storyline, smallish events which don't serve the story, a very uninteresting Alan Rickman and an unconvincing daughter) which can't effectively be hidden by its strengths (an original story, superb costume design and direction, superb lead performer, great cast).

As we all know, each repeat viewing of a movie is a different experience, and in the case of this movie, each revisit proves I've overrated the movie the previous time. In this case, for example, I didn't find the costumes that great, the lead performance so super, the direction so laudable, nor the cast so great. Sure it remains way better than your average movie, but the novelty just wears off.