The story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who committed a series of brutal murders to achieve the cherished dream - the creation of spirits of love.
“In the eighteenth century in France there lived a man who belonged to the most brilliant and most disgusting figures of this era, so rich in brilliant and disgusting figures. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouil. ”
18 century. France. Paris. In the summer, in a terrible stench and stuffiness of the city, Jean-Baptiste Grenouil is born. His mother Grenoia gave birth to him under a table of a fish shop, among fish heads. The mother is accused of infanticide and executed, and the police gives the newborn a certain nurse. A woman refuses to care for a child because, according to her, he “does not smell like other children” and is obsessed with the devil. Then they send him to the shelter of Madame Gaillard. Here Grenouille lives up to eight years old, children shun him, and besides, he is ugly. No one suspects that he has a keen sense of smell. Then Madame Gaillard gives him as a laborer to a tanner. Grenui works in difficult conditions, suffers all diseases. Nothing can break it. The only joy for him is the study of new odors. Once on the street he feels a pleasant aroma, he attracts him. The source of the fragrance is a young girl. Grenui is intoxicated by her aroma, strangles the girl, enjoying her smell, and then hides unnoticed. He is not tormented by conscience, he is under the control of aroma.
Once he comes as a messenger to the perfumer Baldini, brings him the skin that he ordered. Baldini is a perfumer who is no longer as popular as his competitor. He is trying to understand the formula of the spirits of his competitor. Grenui, by great chance, enters the Baldini laboratory and, obeying his instinct, mixes the ingredients and reproduces those very perfumes. Baldini is surprised. Since then, Grenouille becomes a student of Baldini, he teaches Grenouille how to extract aroma from various colors using sublimation. Now Grenuy, having mastered this skill, learned to create perfumes according to the rules, but became desperate to learn that not all smells can be enclosed in a bottle.
Next, Grenui enters the cave and lives there for several years. He understands that he does not smell and wants to invent perfumes, so that people cease to shun him and take him for an ordinary person. After leaving his shelter, Grenoui falls under the auspices of the Marquis Tayad Espinassa, the creator of the "fluid theory", then leaves the Marquise and gets to Grasse, where he enters the apprentice to Madame Arnulfi, the widow of the perfumer. Suddenly, next to someone's garden, he again feels a fragrance, even more luxurious than the fragrance of a girl who had once strangled him. This is the smell of young Laura Rishi, who plays in the garden, and Grenouil decides that he has found the pinnacle of future spirits, his main creation in life: the aroma of absolute beauty. For two years, he comprehends the science of collecting odors and makes sure that the smell of the skin and hair of a beautiful woman is best absorbed by tissue treated with an odorless fat. A wave of strange murders begins in the city, young girls become victims. This Grenouil collects smells, shaving their victims and greasing them with fat.
People cannot understand the motives of the killer. It was established that the girls were not subjected to sexual violence. Only one person in Grasse is so perceptive that he begins to see the true motives of the killer. This is Laura’s father, consul of Rishi. He sees that all the victims are beautiful and begins to fear for his beautiful daughter. He secretly takes Laura away. But Grenouille finds her by the intoxicating aroma of her, kills, spreads with fat, cuts her hair and carries her fragrance with her. Now, having a sufficient number of aromas, he mixes them and creates the perfect perfume. But he is finally found and arrested.
Grenui sentenced to death. But no one found out that he created perfumes. Before execution, Grenouil secretly inflicts these spirits on himself. Once on the scaffold, the guards released Grenouille, and the executioner dropped his hands. The spirits were so beautiful that people instantly fell in love with Grenouille and forgot that he was a killer. The spectators who came to see the execution have a carnal passion for each other. A crazy orgy begins. He looks at all this and, taking advantage of general madness, disappears. After the dope passes the next day, people find themselves naked and, embarrassed to dress, tacitly decide to forget what happened. Instead of Grenouin, the innocent is executed.
Grenuy is free. But he is unhappy. He understands that people will not be able to appreciate his creation. He returns to Paris, goes to the cemetery, sees thieves and vagrants gathered around the fire. Grenouille spills his perfumes from head to toe, thieves and tramps attack him, captivated by aroma, tear him to pieces and ... devour the remains of the great perfumer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.
