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Persepolis (2007)

Director: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi

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6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

The original French version of this adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s sensitive and sharp autobiographical graphic novel picked up the Prix du Jury at last year’s Cannes and was nominated for the animated feature Oscar earlier this year. Now there’s an English-language version, with Sean Penn voicing Marjane’s sensible, caring father, Chiara Mastroianni reprising her role as Marjane, and Gena Rowlands stepping in as Marjane’s worldly wise grandmother with a great line in bitchy, conspiratorial put-downs. Iggy Pop even features as the voice of Marjane’s impressive, radical uncle.

It’s not the voices, though, that make Satrapi’s film so distinctive: that honour goes to her soft black-and-white drawings of characters and foregrounds and her charcoal backgrounds of Tehran or Vienna or Paris. Also distinctive is her precocious child-turned-reflective adult’s eye view of the people around her and the changing fortunes of Iran. Born in 1969, Satrapi’s passage from childhood to adulthood coincided with her country’s own passage from Shah through revolution to Islamic state. Outspoken and disruptive as a smart schoolgirl in the new Iran, Satrapi was sent to a school in Vienna, where she discovered music and men and struggled with the bourgeois apathy of her ‘anarchist’ schoolmates. She later settled in Paris, and it’s a series of inserts, in colour, of her as an adult at Charles de Gaulle airport, reflecting on the past, that gives the film its voiceover and sense of reminiscence.

‘Persepolis’ is realism seen through special eyes. Satrapi’s animation, with its stark monochrome palette and soft edges, allows her to stress the warmth of her family while suddenly lunging into the mood of claustrophobia caused by prying relatives, Iran’s moral police or leering men on the street. The shift from French subtitles, which suited the film’s roots in the graphic novel, to English voices (especially with the political undercurrents of Penn’s involvement) may jar a little with anyone who has seen the original, but that’s a minor quibble. This is a delightful, curious film that indulges in both the personal and the political and provides a potted history of modern Iran through one woman’s experience.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 1966 April 24-30, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Ian said...

Posted on Jun 15 2008 13:51 Sojournpasse said 'at least have the decency to read a bit about history and do some research...'. I dont know what work you do, but i get 3 hrs to write a 750 word article in my line. If the film reviewer is the same, i think there's a limit to the approach he can take ie time doesn't allow research into entire cultures!

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ka said...

Posted on May 29 2008 16:22 I absolutely adore this film. For me, it is about INTEGRITY and, as Usman put it 'the search for your own truth'. Thank you Usman for the most intelligent, impassioned and insightful review that I have read. It saddens me that, elsewhere, I read that some people feel it is 'anti' Iranian or 'pro' West. In a world full of battling '-isms', this opens eyes to what it is to be 'human'-in ourselves, in our families, in our communities and in the big wide world out there. With our eyes on keeping our dignity and integrity - what are we truly capable of? Thank you Marjane Satrapi. For in speaking for you, you speak for many who have yet to develop the courage to speak in their own voice.

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Andrew said...

Posted on May 20 2008 08:30 Thanks Usman for your analysis and the extra info at the end. However I'm not sure Marjane Satrapi takes such a cynical view of the experiences described in her story. To quote her interview on this website: "The vocation of the film is not to give answers. I never say: this is good, or this is not good. Things happen and the viewer can decide for him or herself. The people who give answers are preachers, and I hate preachers."

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usman said...

Posted on May 14 2008 17:57 Sojournposse said...
well said -i totally agree -with every word of your analysis of this review

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Sojournposse said...

Posted on May 12 2008 00:17 With an evident lack of knowledge of Persian art or culture, world politics, and even graphic design for that matter, Timeout reviewer Dave Calhoun tries his best to appreciate Satrapi's point of view by commenting on the obvious stuff that the audience can figure out themselves, such as the use of monochromatic palletes in the film (yawn), and the "bitchy, conspiratorial put-downs" of the Satrapi's grandmother, courtesy of Gena Rowlands' one liners.
Thank heavens for Web 2.0 and citizen journalism. I understand Calhoun is not from a Persian background, but for journalism's sake, at least have the decency to read a bit about history and do some research before falling back on the tired old technique of sarcasm and flippancy to make up for the lack of wisdom and knowledge.
And they wonder why the new media is killing paid journalism?

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 27 2008 08:31 a humourous satire on the global attitudes to race ,religion and politics and sparing no one --the east or the west -a must see -the personal account of an enlightened female within the context of war and revolution

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 27 2008 08:29 the privileged child of a pro communist teheran family tells her somewhat hedonistic and always veracious adventures in the backdrop of a war and revolution,the travesty becomes reality as she proceeds to her personal predicament ,a girl's transition to a woman in the context of preserving her bosom with jasmine flowers is both poetic and filled with pathos as she is destroyed almost by, a perfunctory western culture of drug and hard metal,her contempt of religious authority is only equalled by the patronising condescension of her western peers with their pseudo intellectual gibberish and selfishness,
yet she gives a horrific account of the terrible war wrought upon a newly freed iran by the american ally saddam ,the bilateral arming of the 2 oil rich nations by west,resulting in an unforgivable massacre is described appropriately .
the political comment even goes to claim the revolution could have donned another mantle if a weak iran had not been targeted by iraq at america's behest.
the coming of age in a french viennese school is a satire on the artifice and hypocrisy of the western claims to civilization ,the racial patronising as an iranian and her sexual coming of age with european men who use her as a portal to discover their homosexuality and later to buy cannabis is dark humour but pathetically predatory .
she wins ultimately as she discovers her intuitive strength as a woman who needs a man not for security but intellectual consumption ,her sojourn to paris after her obligatory marriage in iran is a liberation not from a regime ,which are all the same in their hierarchy and machiavellian political antics,but self-discovery.
she finds liberty with her wise granny who teaches that the only ugliness in the world is a lie and it is refreshing to see her critique of the hypocrisy of the attires assigned to male and women students in tehran university.
the movie is a poetic blend of verisimilitude and monochrome images juxtaposed with colour occassionally and always spellbinding to watch .
it spares no one -the bearded iranian revolutionaries ,the hypocrisy of catholic nuns -the predatory sex drug culture of the west or the political games of the superpowers which treat people as fodder for missiles .
but its inherent strength for me lies in a honest account of a disillusioned,spirited woman who becomes content when she is true to herself, not listening to bootlegged iron maiden and guzzling home-made wine.
her pride in being iranian is the key to understanding a personal account which is neither a mockery of mullahs nor a celebration of female emancipation ,but rather a search for your own truth .
marjane means a precious gem in farsi and persepolis was the ancient persian capital torched to ashes by alexander -the metaphor for the bombing of modern iran by western bombs is complete -time comes full circle.
usman khawaja
- jbz7879

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