Content Analysis of a Recent Film Compared to 1934 Production Code
The film, Perfume, which directed by Tom Tykwer and released in 2006, was rated R because of its restricted scenes. Back to the 1930 to 1968 the United States, such a film like Perfume may have difficult in being released based on the Production Code. Production Code was an industry censorship guideline that governed most of United States motion picture. It has 3 General Principles which stated the films could not lower the audiences’ moral standards, should contain the correct standards of life and not be ridiculed. According to the Production Code, Perfume will have 3 main problems, Crimes against the Law, Sex and Costume.
Perfume has a subtitle called the Story of A Murderer. Obviously, it describes a story of crime. However, in the film, there are so many directly bloody, crucial scenes about murder, which are violation of the first rule in Production Code, Crime against the Law. For example, at the beginning of the film, when the main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was a baby, he was sent to the orphanage. While other orphans wanted to suffocate him with a pillow in order to keep their own possession. In this scene, the director showed the whole process of killing, which is against the rule that indicates brutal killings are not to be presented in detail. As the same, there are also brutal scenes about the old woman being cut the throat as well as Jean’s mother and the scapegoat of the murder being hung to death. All these scenes are clearly projected without any editing.
Besides the violation of the Production Code of Crime against the Law, there are also restricted scenes about Sex. For instance, one of these scenes is the birth of Jean. The director shot the whole process of the mother giving birth to Jean, even included her cutting umbilical. It must be against the rule of Sex that stated scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be presented. What is more, in the end of the film, when Jean was about to be killed in
Perfume has a subtitle called the Story of A Murderer. Obviously, it describes a story of crime. However, in the film, there are so many directly bloody, crucial scenes about murder, which are violation of the first rule in Production Code, Crime against the Law. For example, at the beginning of the film, when the main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was a baby, he was sent to the orphanage. While other orphans wanted to suffocate him with a pillow in order to keep their own possession. In this scene, the director showed the whole process of killing, which is against the rule that indicates brutal killings are not to be presented in detail. As the same, there are also brutal scenes about the old woman being cut the throat as well as Jean’s mother and the scapegoat of the murder being hung to death. All these scenes are clearly projected without any editing.
Besides the violation of the Production Code of Crime against the Law, there are also restricted scenes about Sex. For instance, one of these scenes is the birth of Jean. The director shot the whole process of the mother giving birth to Jean, even included her cutting umbilical. It must be against the rule of Sex that stated scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be presented. What is more, in the end of the film, when Jean was about to be killed in