Persepolis
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Movie Reviews of Persepolis
Movie Review: "Bear the Unbearable"
Summary: 4 Stars
Forget your stereotypes of Iranians. `Persepolis' is an engagingly funny, sad, and poignant look at Merjane (Margie) (Chiara Mastrorianni) a girl who grows up in Tehran during the 1980's. Despite our possible preconceptions, Merjane surprisingly sports addidas sneakers, eats French fries, and yearns to shave her legs. The movie provides an absorbing history lesson, showing us the close up ramifications of people's lives behind the headlines, and tells a captivating story about a girl trying to belong and survive under dire circumstances.
Until all the world changing events, Merjane lets us know, "I led a peaceful, uneventful life as a child." Within the family, Merjan's uncle is kindly, yet communist. He's probably seen enough dictatorships and knows of only one way out. His ordeal is documented well enough. The most supportive in the family is Merjane's grandmother (Daniell Darrieux), whose affection and wisdom go a long way. Her parents (Catherine Deneuve and Simon Abkarian) are also good people who yearn for freedom, but know how to keep Merjane's best interests above their own.
During the time, we get a first person perspective on the Shah of Iran, his rise to power, the unrest that led to his exile, and his subsequent replacement by Ayatolla Kohmeni while Saddam Hussein rose to power in Iraq. From the narrative and the played out scenes, we get the pedestrian view of how these events came into fruition and their implications in everyday lives. Later, the Iran-Iraq War is particularly unsettling for her entire country. For her safety, Merjan flees her country and settles into Austria where she develops not so close friendships with the "Out" group, seeking refuge in the punk rock/alternative scene. With Merjane telling her story we get an intimate and often comic take on the angst of adolescence as well as what it's like to be a foreigner who's mostly misunderstood or ignored. She returns to her own country and her family, but the changes have made her an alien in her own neighborhood. Knowing the origin of this film, you can probably guess what happens next...
The animation is unique and interesting. Reminded that this film garnered a nomination for Best Animated Movie Oscar*, the extras show the French artists creating the film one frame (or picture) at a time. Done mostly in black and white, the backgrounds are stylish, but mostly stagnant with the characters remaining flowing for every scene. Oddly, it is only during the transportation scenes (like when she's waiting at the airport) when we are given the full color treatment. Inevitably, it must be that hope colors her consciousness every time there's a new transition in her life. I have one objection: I didn't like all the body fluids presented. I thought they kept it real enough without having to show all of that. Ironically, the blood made a difference. We need it as evidence; it provides an unflinching detail of the ordeal(s) at hand and respects all the people involved.
Our funny bones are tickled several times as our colorful rebel resorts to splendid retorts to zealous extremists ("Girls who reveal themselves will burn in hell," says one educator), and we are served some truly funny thoughts about her body changes during puberty and the fallout of dating. 'Persepolis' has many simple joys entailed upon its viewing: A fascinating first-person history lesson, an absorbing story, and a splendid protagonist.
(Not since Art Spiegelman's groundbreaking 'Maus' have I seen a similar graphic novel treatment give this much of a wollop.)
*`Ratatouille' won the Oscar for Best Animated Film from 2007.
Movie Review: graphic novel come to life
Summary: 4 Stars
Movies don't come much more boldly original or stylistically unique than the animated hit "Persepolis," an autobiographical tale of life under a totalitarian regime as seen through the eyes of a spirited Iranian girl named Marjane Satrapi, who, after immigrating to France, wrote the graphic novel upon which the film (co-directed by Satrapi herself) is based. Satrapi was a wide-eyed, inquisitive youngster when, in 1978, the Shah of Iran was toppled and a new era of freedom appeared to be dawning for that nation's people. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with revolutions, the new regime - in this case, the fundamentalist Islamic Republic led by the Ayatollah Khomeini- turned out to be even more cruel, dictatorial and repressive than the one that got overthrown.
As the central character in the movie, Marjane is both an observer of and a participant in the many events that play out in the story, as any number of her own relatives and neighbors fall victim to the systematic purging of all those who refuse to adhere to the present regime`s newly enacted draconian measures (women must go out in burkas and head scarves, lovers are not allowed to hold hands in public, etc.) - while those who remain behind live in constant fear that they will find themselves in jail or up in front of a firing squad for a simple, perhaps even inadvertent, code violation. Yet, despite all the bleakness and repression, hope and freedom of thought somehow miraculously flourish and prevail in the human heart, as exemplified by Marjane who refuses to yield her rebellious spirit (she buys bootleg Iron Maiden CDs from hawkers on the street) to the forces that would suppress and imprison it.
In terms of style, "Persepolis" relies on old-school cell drawings rather than computer graphics for its animation. The starkness of the times and of the setting is enhanced by the simple, "flat" look of the largely black-and-white drawings. Yet, the movie is a veritable cornucopia of visual delights, thanks to the animators' generous use of surrealism and magical realism throughout the picture. (If the movie reminds us of any one film, it is probably "Yellow Submarine").
In quick, bold strokes, director Satrapi, along with her co-director Vincent Paronnaud and their team of expert animators, chronicles not only her own experience but that of an entire nation as well.
Movie Review: Remain in Iran with its trials and tribulations or face the challenge of immigration?
Summary: 4 Stars
PERSEPOLIS is an animated adaptation by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud of Satrapi's critically acclaimed graphic novels which recount her upbringing in revolutionary-era Iran and difficult adaptation to Europe. The film combines both a historical presentation of Iran's tribulations with poignant observations of the immigrant experience.
PERSEPOLIS has a few twists and turns like every Bildungsroman, but its course is fairly simple. As the film opens, we see the last days of the Shah's regime and the hope for a new, free country. The release of political prisoners bring Marjane's communist uncle Mantoush home, who tries to instill a desire for justice in his niece. After Khomeini turns the country into a theocratic regime and Iran is mired in a long, pointless war with Iraq, Marjane is sent to a boarding school in Vienna. Here she becomes ashamed of her background, has a constant series of feuds with landlords, and eventually ends up homeless. After she collapses in the cold and is taken to hospital, she decides to return to Iran. But now she finds that instead of the homeland she missed, the country had become even more hardline and corrupt. At the end of the film, Marjane arrives in France, determined to make it in Europe while staying true to herself.
Though the tribulations of Satrapi's life were great, PERSEPOLIS is able to depict many things with humour. From Tehran's shady trenchcoat-clad sellers of forbidden music casettes to Marjane's ecstasy in a well-stocked European supermarket, there are a lot of laughs in the film. It sometimes feels a lightweight venture -- the presentation of Iran's history tends toward the didactic, while Marjane's experiences in Austria are never given as much depth as they might have been. Still, it's entertaining and often touching, and I'd recommend it.
I saw this film in the original French, so I cannot comment on the voice acting in the English-language version.
Movie Review: Beautifully animated
Summary: 4 Stars
I have mixed feelings about the film. I heard such raves about it when it came out in theaters that I was eager to see the DVD. I did find it very charming, due to the animation. I don't usually like animated films, even the ones that others like, so I was very pleasantly surprised at the tremendous charm of this. Frame by frame, the expressions on the faces of the characters, their body language, the wit and the sheer beauty of the drawings captured my attention and pulled me along.
The film is long and I broke it up into two settings. The ending was abrupt and left me hanging. This is where I look back at the structure of the story and find it wanting. It is actually a narrative of the events of a young Iranian girl as she watched the political regime change in her country, then her brief stay in Austria, her return home and then her flight to Paris. It's really an autobiography rather than a story and when viewed in that light, it's well done. But somehow there is a "so what?" left at the end.
We don't know what happens after the girl gets out of the taxi...Will she adapt better to French society than she did to Austrian? What happens to her parents? etc. There were some other questions that arose in my mind as I watched it. Why did she end up sleeping on the streets in Vienna, when it seemed that her parents had plenty of money?. Why did she refuse to contact them for two months and then refuse to tell them what she did there? Were there events that weren't shown?
So anyway, structurally, as a story it doesn't hold together for me. Its interest lies in the subject matter; it's wonderful to get a glimpse into the lives of real Iranians. It's main charm, though, is the wonderful animation and for that I do urge people to see it.
Movie Review: Sometimes A Single Voice Can Be Heard Where A Million Cannot
Summary: 4 Stars
For its trimmed-down storytelling and visually-appealing animation style, the sub-titled Persepolis is a smart, interesting, creative movie that I enjoyed right up to its last twenty minutes, when alas it fizzled. If it had had a better ending, or even a more definite ending, it'd be five-stars all the way. I have seen Persepolis several times since buying it last month and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes an imaginative story or who wants to learn more about the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, or the struggle for the stifled soul to breathe free inside a fundamentalist Islamic Republic. Persepolis does a grand job of putting faces onto Iranians of the extraordinary and mundane stripe, from a charming old grandmother, to a kindly uncle tragically murdered by revolutionaries, to everyday kids lethally persecuted for trying to have party. Above all Persepolis cracks many stereotypes and shows the uniqueness and goodness in everyone, even as it stares down those who would seek to crush the human spirit in the name of their God. It also irrefutably condemns the evils of Islamism, which is merely another guise for totalitarian of an all-too familiar order. Personally I enjoyed the segments of the movie set in Iran more than I did the forays into Europe, but those too served as nice contrasts, and overall this is a film that stands above most of what's out there lusting after your ever-dwindling entertainment dollar.
How about I call Persepolis four and a half stars and tell you you should see it?