Good things come to those who take their sweet-ass time. Tom Tykwer’s kinetic wonderland of a film, Run Lola Run ranks way up there on the list of all-time greatest influences on li’l old me, right up there with Manhattan, The Thin Man and Koogle. The Princess & The Warrior, Tykwer’s follow-up, was as intriguing as it was ultimately empty and Heaven served only to make us wish that Krzysztof Kieslowski were still alive. But Perfume: Story Of A Murderer I found immensely satisfying.
It’s too late in the game to bloviate about the film and its merits and/or flaws. I’m late to that particular party, and I’m certain I don’t get along with many of its guests. But since I gravitate to all things musical, I thought I’d share a bit of the score, which was once again put together by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, the kids responsible for Lola’s musical pulse. And in this film’s peculiar and oddly moving climax, their music is what, for me, keeps the film from tipping into an failed sort of lunacy.
Heil, Klimek and Tykwer – “The Perfume”
on the web: ebert’s praise for the film, Radar article on the composers
