Netflix’s ‘The Perfumier’ (also known as ‘Der Parfumeur’) is a German crime thriller film
directed by Nils Willbrandt. The film opens with Sunny, a female detective describing
her life as she does not possess the ability to smell scents. As a result, Sunny feels she is
missing out on the essence of life and wants her sense of smell back. Sunny is in a relationship
with her colleague Juro, who is married. One day, their whirlwind affair ends after
Juro decides to leave Sunny and return to his wife, Rosa, and kids, leaving Sunny heartbroken.
Meanwhile, Sunny finds a corpse without sweat glands and skin. Sunny deduces that this was done
to harvest the body’s scent. The detective starts an investigation, and after a few similar murders,
she concludes that a local criminal, Rex, is behind the murders. While apprehending Rex,
Sunny realizes Rex is helping Dorian, a perfume maker who creates scents from the dead bodies.
Dorian was attempting to create the perfect scent that could make people fall in love. However,
Dorian’s experiment fails as the scent induces sexual desires instead of love.
Rex is arrested and contained in a psychiatric ward while Sunny keeps the perfume vial for
herself. Sunny uses the perfume to rekindle her romance with Juro and becomes pregnant
with his child. Sunny is haunted by the fear of being unable to smell her baby.
Desperate to regain her sense of smell, she tracks down Dorian and finds him at
a bunker. She requests his help regaining her sense of smell in exchange for helping
Dorian complete his love perfume. However, Sunny continues to hold Dorian hostage.
Dorian’s experimentation with the six basic fragrances turns out to be unsuccessful. As
a result, he seeks answers about the origin of Sunny’s loss. Dorian learns that Sunny lost her
sense at age seven due to neglect from her mother. However, instead of helping Sunny,
Dorian attacks her, and she loses consciousness. When she wakes up, Sunny regains her sense of
smell. After escaping from Sunny, Dorian restarts his quest to make the love perfume and frees Rex
from jail. Dorian believes that Sunny, who he refers to as the “pearl,” is crucial to the
success of his formula. Rex arrives at Sunny’s countryside house to reclaim the vial of the sex
perfume. Sunny uses the remaining perfume to cause an overdose resulting in Rex’s death. As a result,
Sunny and Dorian prepare to face each other in a showdown that will determine their fates.
The Perfumier Ending: Does Sunny Save Her Child? After regaining her sense of smell, Sunny lives
a quiet life and also successfully fends off Rex. Meanwhile, she welcomes Stefan, her abused
teenage neighbor, and his new girlfriend, Jacki, to live with her at her country house. However,
unbeknownst to Sunny, Dorian keeps an eye on her every move. After Sunny destroys
his “temple,” the makeshift lab where Dorina practiced making perfumes, and Rex’s death,
Dorian decides to take a step back and formulates a new plan to complete his love perfume.
Dorian realizes that the “pearl,” the heart of the formula, is not Sunny but her unborn baby.
Earlier in the film, Sunny exclaims that Dorian does not know what love is. Hence,
he will never be able to make the perfume. Nonetheless, Dorian continues his quest after
deducing that a mother’s love for her son is one of the purest forms of love. As a result,
Dorian plans to use Sunny’s baby and extract its essence to complete his love perfume.
Dorian kidnaps and seemingly kills Stefan and Jackie to lure Sunny to his hideout.
At the hideout, Sunny realizes that Dorian is after her baby. Sunny never
trusted Dorian and knew he would turn on her. Hence, she carries a vial of a toxic,
odorless substance with her at all times. In the end, Sunny exposes Dorian to the substance,
taking away his ability to smell. As a result, Sunny saves her baby and returns home. The
final scene depicts Sunny with her baby away from the chaos and threats caused by Dorian.
Is Dorian Dead? Does He Make the Love Perfume? As the narrative progresses, viewers learn about
Dorian’s past and obsession with creating the love perfume. While searching for Dorian’s motivations,
Sunny meets his father and learns about the expert perfume maker’s past. Dorian’s father reveals that
his son was born with an unforgettable stench. Flashbacks reveal that the bad smell repelled
people from Dorian, and even his own mother found it difficult to love Dorian. As a result,
Dorian grew up shunned and lonely. He learned the art of making perfumes and became obsessed
with making a perfume that would make people fall in love with him. However,
because Dorain has never experienced love, his experiments fail miserably.
On the other hand, Sunny’s journey is diametrically opposite to Dorian’s. While
Sunny loves Juro, she realizes he cannot be with her because of his family. Nonetheless,
Sunny’s pregnancy results in her love for her baby, which drives her to stop Dorian.
The perfume maker’s obsession has caused several deaths, and he refuses to accept defeat. Hence,
it is likely that the only way to stop Dorian is to kill him. However,
Sunny finds a way to end Dorian’s misguided quest for love by taking away his sense of
smell. In the climax, Dorian loses his ability to smell. Therefore,
he will be unable to make any more perfumes, thereby ending his trail of murders.
Ultimately, Dorian is alive but finds himself in the state that he first met Sunny in,
without the ability to smell. His quest to craft the love perfume fails again. Nonetheless,
the final shot of Dorian implies that he won’t be giving up easily. as a result,
Dorian’s quest seems far from over. Moreover,
Sunny letting Dorain escape alive may prove to be a fatal mistake. On the other hand,
Sunny’s love for her baby drives her to reclaim her sense of smell. Moreover, it is the same
love that helps Sunny stop Dorian. In the end, Dorian fails to find love while Sunny succeeds,
implying that Dorian’s quest for obtaining love through perfume will forever remain incomplete.