Reviews of Persepolis

Persepolis

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 7 October 2008 10:00 (A review of Persepolis)

This wonderful adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel follows her from a childhood spent as witness to revolution, war, dictatorship and death in Iran through a coming of age in Vienna and on to adulthood. The film is by turn...(read more) s tragic and funny. Thanks to the endearing and honestly portrayed protagonist who spends the film striving to discover and embrace her true self, the film is also very relatable. The painstaking hand-drawn animation lends strength and beauty to an already fascinating story.

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Pure art and an emotional Journey

Posted : 3 months ago on 1 September 2008 05:14 (A review of Persepolis)

''In this life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's their own stupidity that makes them act that way. That will keep you from responding to their meanness. There's nothing worse in this world than bitterness and revenge. Hold your head up and stay true to yourself.''


Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

Chiara Mastroianni: Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi, as a teenager and a woman (voice)

Gabrielle Lopes: Marjane as a child (voice)

Persepolis is not only just an animated film or indeed a comic but one that captures one girl growing up. In the same vein as Grave of the Fireflies this film is not for children like it's cartoony looks would suggest.

What we get from Persepolis is Marjana Satrapi's vision of a life consisting of struggle, control and the freedom for women to do anything scarily non existent. Captivating that the 80s and 90s are depicted in Iran in such a way of death, of war and of propaganda and ideology that I felt that this world was so backward. Marjane's way of life felt like it was stuck in a bygone era like the early 1920s to 1940s. Her imagination and creativity are brought to life and cleverly Persepolis uses black and white to convey the immense desperation, the depressed state of society in Iran and the lack of free rights of suppressed, controlled women.

Animation has the advantage of permitting a pace that allows a lot to be included into a simply and honestly told story, particularly in early childhood and adolescence. Very thought inducing in seeing how atrocities and cruelties are perceived through little childrens eyes, particularly little kids growing up in an environment where these acts are a normal way of life.

As a teenager looking for punk music in the black market, Marjane walks through a throng of peddlers trying to sell her an assortment of trendy videos, including disguising Micheal Jackson as Jichael Mackson is genius.

Communism is crushed, propaganda cast away and bloody fighting and martyrs frequently being produced. Marjane's life growing up as Persepolis shows us is a hard one full of strife. Yet for all its seriousness there is humour there also.
Throughout the movie a sense of humour that is at times very sarcastic, yet very amusing.
Be it sequences where she talks to God in his cloud or as a girl pestering her Uncle about his ideals and Communist past and life. Be it her making the transition from girl to woman in a very amusing sequence that shows all the joys of getting older. Sarcasm of my own there in case you failed to notice.

Persepolis ends with a beautiful rendition of her grandmother and her smelling of luscious flowers put into her bra area. This for me really does show a sense of how great life can be whatever trouble there is, good is always lurking somewhere, waiting to break free.
Whether it be Marjane's ill fated relationships or defiance of a teacher, or even men telling the women to cover up more and Marjane standing up to them, there are so many sides to this story Persepolis has to offer.
Thus becoming in my eyes a definite masterpiece of emotion, feeling and capturing the plight and suffering not just of one woman but also of a whole nation.

Simply breathtaking, Persepolis is nothing short of greatness and told in a medium bordering on simplicity yet emerging as genius.

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A Life in Animation

Posted : 9 months, 1 week ago on 25 February 2008 07:27 (A review of Persepolis)

Persepolis is the story of a young, spunky girl who grows up in Teheran during the turbulence of the last 30 years. It was originally a graphic novel, and has been turned into a stylistic animated movie. The graphics are lovely, and the characters very likable. I'm hoping that when it goes into wide release they'll actually dub it into English. I usually abhor dubbing, but animation should make it easy, and reading subtitles makes it hard to enjoy the artistry of the movie. And as the movie mainly takes place in Iran, but everyone speaks French, it's not exactly true to history anyway. As a true story, it sometimes lags, and the ending is a bit flat. But then that's how life actually goes, you don't have true endings, just segues into other parts of your life.

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