In a moment of relative solitude, Marjane Satrapi, in simple drab colors, sits in a row of chairs at an airport in Paris. She wears a tired, worn expression as she lights up a cigarette, staring through the passersby. When she exhales, little puffs of smoke clouds plume playfully across the screen, creating a visual distraction for the audience. This could easily be the real Marjane Satrapi, but it’s not–this girl is animated.
Iranian splendor
In a moment of relative solitude, Marjane Satrapi, in simple drab colors, sits in a row of chairs at an airport in Paris. She wears a tired, worn expression as she lights up a cigarette, staring through the passersby. When she exhales, little puffs of smoke clouds plume playfully across the screen, creating a visual distraction for the audience. This could easily be the real Marjane Satrapi, but it’s not–this girl is animated.
Yes, Persepolis is an animated film. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taken seriously. The subject matter is momentous enough: It’s about a little girl growing up against the background of the Iranian revolution. Based on a series of graphic novels of the same name, which Satrapi wrote and illustrated, Persepolis is more or less her animated autobiography.
Told through a series of generally chronological vignettes, the bulk of the film is animated in black and white, with a simple, clean style that lends itself well to balancing the twists and turns of Marjane’s story.
But as much as Persepolis is a film about revolution, it is just as much about Marjane and storytelling as it is about war. As Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor has shown, comics can tell funny, true-to-life stories. Persepolis succeeds here, and although it is a bit more heavy-handed than Pekar’s work, there is much humor and whimsy to be had throughout, true to the film’s original source material.
Stylistically, this is where Persepolis really shines. Drawing on the narrative strengths of the comics, the film often uses wild, comically exaggerated visuals to flesh out stories, give emphasis or show Marjane’s emotional reactions to events in her life.
Everything from a bad breakup to a series of moves across Vienna is brought to life as a comic montage. There’s even a short dance number set to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” and a conversation between God and Karl Marx. Despite its war-torn backdrop, Persepolis is funny.
Thankfully, the artistic sensibilities of Satrapi’s comics are intact in the film. Sony Pictures Classics also decided to first release Persepolis in its original French (an English-language version has apparently been made, as well). In the comic, Marjane explains that before the revolution, she attended a French-language lycee in Tehran, giving the film an extra layer of realism and personality.
And though the art has been softened and looks a bit more like old francophone comics of the 1930s than its original source material, it still looks a lot like Satrapi’s original drawings. Persepolis sticks close to its birthright–the versatility of the art lends itself well both to the humor and tragedy of Marjane’s story, which would likely have been lost in translation if the film were shot in live-action.
But focusing solely on the revolutionary aspects of the film would make the film unfocused. Although life in Tehran (and later in Europe) is depicted as hard and cruel after the fall of the Shah, Marjane, along with her family and friends, all lead relatively normal lives.
As she gets older, Marjane experiences typical teenage rebellion, going to parties (drinking was illegal after the revolution), wearing western clothes in public and telling off her teachers. In one particularly funny scene, she even buys an Iron Maiden tape from a row of street-corner black-market merchants. If it weren’t for the bombing attacks and Gestapo-esque police, Persepolis could be set almost anywhere.
The film’s lens remains largely focused on Marjane passing through events, culture and history, while staying fixed on her life story.
As with any adaptation, Persepolis leaves out some back-story explored further in the comics. To the film’s credit, there are probably too many characters in the source material to be able to cover in a 90-minute film, but the episodic nature of the work occasionally introduces too many characters, too quickly, only to have them disappear almost instantaneously.
The resolution at the end of the film is a little bit of a letdown as well. After everything Marjane has struggled through, the lasting feel of the final scene is seemingly almost one of melancholy rather than hope for the future.
However, the important relationships–namely Marjane’s relationships with her parents and her witty, acerbic grandmother–are firmly grounded in Persepolis‘ story. Marjane’s relationship with her granny is particularly well used (perhaps even more so than in the comic), as she more or less becomes the figurehead of integrity for Marjane, guiding her through life’s various ups and downs, while offering her own smart, opinionated take on things.
At the end of the day, Persepolis may be discounted for being a cartoon, or largely ignored because it’s both a limited release and a foreign film, but that shouldn’t matter. It proves once again that comics and animated films can be used to tell interesting, adult stories. Marjane’s is no exception. And if for no other reason than that, it’s worth a look.
