PERFUME FILM ATTRACTS WOMEN WITH ITS SCENT

Perfume:The Story of a Murderer director discusses why the film is so powerful for women to see.

Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer takes on Perfume: The Story of a Murderer based on the best selling book which was a must read especially in Europe. The creepy story set in Victorian England is about a peasant who is obsessed with the scent of a woman, and will commit the most outrageous crime to capture it.

Tom talks about why the film is so intoxicating for women to watch.

“There is something about this story that I believe, I don’t know maybe women understand it a tiny bit more even about the power of fragrances. And the idea of how to be seductive and how to manipulate people by your own scent. How convincing the concept is of somebody who’s trying to design a perfume for himself that will make people fall in love with him, and totally fall in love with him and adore him. It’s probably something that men find a little bit difficult to understand but they all should know because they are the classical victims.”

Men might be attracted to a woman’s smell but in the film it’s just the opposite when the perfumer played by Ben Whishaw creates a scent so powerful an orgy occurs. Tom talks about shooting the sensual scene with hundreds of extras.

“There was actually a paper that they had to sign that they knew in advance but of course at the same time we did lots of rehearsals of course. You can’t just invite people and say OK now get undressed I mean especially if there’s hundreds of them. There were days where we had more than 800. We really had to meet in a sports hall for days and days before and we slowly discover the process of this whole sequence and then when it ultimately came to the shooting they all were used to it and they didn’t mind.”

Next Tom is taking a breather from romance, murder and mystery to make a political thriller set in present day.