Though grand in its attempt, ‘Perfume’ proves to be unfilmable
By Joe Pudas | Jan. 28, 2007Creating an original, compelling film from scratch is hard enough, but adapting a popular novel into a successful movie brings its own unique set of complications. With the exception of books by authors like Elmore Leonard, who writes terse yet vivid prose that is naturally cinematic, it's impossible to perfectly replicate material from the page to the silver screen. Then there are those pesky books that, for one reason or another are deemed unfilmable,"" like ""Naked Lunch,"" ""A Confederacy of Dunces"" or anything by Kurt Vonnegut or Thomas Pynchon. Patrick Suskind's 1985 cult novel ""Perfume: The Story of Murderer"" was considered one of them after some notable filmmakers""such as Stanley Kubrick""tried and failed to adapt it. But now ""Run Lola Run"" director Tom Tykwer has done it, and while his ""Perfume"" is a visually astounding, well-paced effort, the results are certainly mixed.
