Perfume, or sewage?

My Frankfurt-based friend Cathy has already watched Tom Tykwer's much anticipated new film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Patrick Suskind.

I have read the novel but may have to wait months to watch the film. When Cathy suggested reading a longish Spiegel article on the film, I hesitated. Like the case of Tony Takitani, sometimes it's hard to give due justice to a film adapted from a well-known novel, if the viewer has read the novel and known too much background about how the film is made. (See my two blog entries on Tony Takitani in Chinese: 觀影讀書流水賬 24/9 and 《東尼瀧谷》基本上是「演述」原作)

Still, I couldn't resist the temptation of having a quick look at the article. One paragraph caught my eyes:

Tykwer's fondness for expressive images gives the film energy and style and a sort of ornamental bravura, but the fact that Tykwer has to struggle with its weightiness is a result of the constraints imposed by the need to remain true to the original literary work. There are too many instances where images parading past in a succession of fireworks illustrates piecemeal what the booming voice of the narrator (Otto Sander) then brings into context. As a result, the production rarely manages to liberate itself from the constraints of someone else's fantasy.

So, it seems like the filmed version of Perfume is having more or less the same problem as Tony Takitani!

I'll have to "wait and see" though.