Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” and Tom Tykwer’s 2006 feature under the same title inventively harness techniques specific to, respectively, literature and film in order to create an array of synaesthetic associations. While Tykwer’s film is a faithful adaptation of the literary work, TV mini-series “Perfume / Parfum” (2018) produced for ZDFneo / Netflix updates the original plot by transposing the world of the 18th-century France into the modern day Lower Rhine Valley. My lecture investigates how re-interpreted stories and ideas create a dialogue between literature and moving image (cinema and television/streaming services).

Join us for a live lecture followed by the discussion on 9th September 19:00 (BST).

Dr Malgorzata Bugaj is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Open Learning. She teaches courses on 20th century avant-garde film, European cinema, film theory, female filmmakers, and cinema and the five senses. Her recent publications include journal articles and book chapters on synaesthesia in film, adaptations, intermediality, and auteurs of European cinema.

malgorzata.bugaj@ed.ac.uk

The international bestselling novel about a low-born Parisian orphan with a highly develop sense of smell, but no personal odour of his own, who begins an obsessive quest to preserve and possess the scents of young women.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is available as an audiobook from Hive, Audible and Google Play.

An adaptation of Patrick Süskind's novel and the most frequently discussed film when it comes to representing smells in cinema.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is available on BFI Player, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube Movies .

German TV crime series produced for ZDFneo / Netflix loosely based on, or rather inspired by, both Süskind’s book and Tykwer’s film.

Perfume is available on Netflix.