Tom Tykwer____
The boyishly handsome Tom Tykwer ( 'Tic-vur' ) —with his spiky black hair, black clothes and heavy German accent—is exhausted after four years of non-stop work as director, co-screenwriter and co-composer of the music score for his new film, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. But the exhaustion was forgotten the moment he started talking about the mesmerizing film.
Tykwer, previously known best to American audiences for Run Lola Run, will see that change after the film's release on Jan. 5.
Windy City Times: I think this is one of the best movies of the year. Have you been hearing that a lot? It's an astonishing piece of work.
Tom Tykwer: [ Delighted ] Thank you. You know what? I need to hear that. I'm dying to hear this. Can I not talk and you just tell me about it?
WCT: Sure.
TT: [ Laughs ] I'm just kidding.
WCT: The complexity of the design of the production is so dense it has a stunning impact.
TT: I wanted to make a film that feels completely modern and contemporary and, at the same time, catapults you back into that period—to make it a bit like a cinema vérité experience of the 18th century. That was the ambition and, at the same time, it is kind of crazy, because psychologically you sometimes get nuts about it.
WCT: This movie looked like it had a $200 million dollar budget.
TT: It was a little less than $60 million.
WCT: And so the final result has to be due to the elaborate preparation. You don't have the budget to make mistakes.
TT: Yes. It was a sustained shoot. Every day was 16 hours long and everyone was extreme in their belief in the film. Nobody was really paid particularly well. It all went to put it on the screen. That was the idea. We had to make it look so overwhelmingly rich and detailed and multilayered because this guy encounters the world through detail—so we needed to have detail everywhere and have this throwaway attitude towards background. We had to have it just there as if we were in a time machine with a camera and we're running around in the 18th century and we really didn't care about showing something; we're following the character and the background is what it is.
WCT: All that planning—all those years. Are you happy with the finished result?
TT: I think it's the best thing I've ever done and it's a bit embarrassing to say so maybe [ Laughs ] but I actually know it is and anybody who disagrees with that—I disagree with his disagreement! [ Both laugh ]
WCT: The hell with them! Okay, here's a gay-related question: I was thinking John Waters had 'Odorama' for Polyester and wondered, since this is a film about a guy with an unusually large olfactory sense—did you ever think about doing a scratch-n-sniff card for the film?
TT: I think it would have been the most fantasy-less, ridiculous, stupid idea that ever sailed the seven seas. [ Both laugh ]
WCT: Gee, we had a great conversation up to this point, eh?
TT: [ Laughs ] Yes—and now this insult! Actually, to give you a quick story: I used to work in a cinema that played Polyester for six months. I was the guy who had to screen the movie and then go into the empty theatre and pick up all these bloody cards that smelled like hell and the whole place was like a stinking mess and I thought, 'This is the most uninspired idea that ever has reached cinema.'
WCT: I'm sure you were thinking, 'When I make my film about odors, it's going to smell good!'
TT: Yes!
