I first encountered Persepolis as a graphic novel - an excerpt was included in one of the textbooks I use for teaching composition. The drawing style was pretty simple and stark; the story was told in a similar way, with bursts of quirky humor mixed in with the deliberately understated tale of the horrors of Iran’s recent history. So when I saw a preview for the movie I was pretty excited.
There was an article in the Chicago Reader about how Sony decided not to release a dubbed version, and how that had effectively doomed Persepolis to be limited to artsy theaters and select audiences. I’m sure that the subtitles will scare some people off, but personally I’m glad they decided to scrap the dubbed version - IME, dubs usually suck. Unless they make the time and effort to find really good voice actors. And I can definitely think of at least one scene where a lot of humor would have been lost had it been dubbed. (The “puppet show” scene where the Englishman is telling the Shah’s father how he could become emperor, for those of you who’ve already seen the movie.)
Anyway, I wasn’t disappointed at all with the movie. It was beautifully drawn, and I found myself crying at several points - they manage to make you tear up without being overly horrifying or tragic. The sheer simplicity of the drawings and the dialogue manages to be more effective, I think, than if they were to overdo it all. At the same time there were a lot of funny moments mixed in - like when the main character goes out into the street and guys in black trenchcoats are hawking illegal copies of Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden like they were crack.
It’s an entertaining and touching movie, but it’s also a very informative (for me, anyway; I went in knowing next to nothing about Iran and its recent history) and sobering one. I seriously think it’s the best movie I’ve seen in a long time.
Not having seen the movie, but being familiar with how things get bastardized betwixt here and there, if the movie as it was created moved you, then you will probably be disappointed with a full translation. Case in point: I speak little German, but used the subtitles in Das Boot as only a guideline to the movie. Were I to watch The Boat, the dubbed version, I know I would find knowing precisely what the actors were saying to be a distraction, rather than allowing their expressions and actions to carry the film. In either dubbed or subtitled form, Persepolis would appeal to a small audience, so accept it for what it is.
Unfortunately, that screws the less literate, and more susceptible to the inducements of on-campus recruiters, who cannot read subtitles fast enough to follow the action.
I haven’t seen this yet, but there was a big stink the other day when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scienes released a shortlist of 9 Foreign-Language films, 5 of which will be chosen for the Oscar nomination, and Persepolis wasn’t on it, Nor was a highly-acclaimed Romanian film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. So, when the Oscar noms come out and you don’t see it on the Foreign-Language list, that’s why.
It should, however, be nominated for Best Animated Film, which is something. It’ll lose to Ratatouille, but at least it’ll get some attention.
I haven’t seen the movie, but the graphic novel is fantastic…and oddly enough is near the story of one of my high school girlfriends who left Iran after the Shah fell leaving her parents behind - so it really hit home for me.
The movie opens here on February 1, so I don’t get to see it until then - but I can’t wait.
I read Persepolis 1 for an event at my former place of work, then read the second. I"m looking forward to the movie, and I’m glad that it’s not dubbed - I’d rather read the subtitles than deal with poor dubbing.
Argh. That is such bullshit. I’m sure Ratatouille is a great film, but it’s about a COOKING RAT. :smack: And it’s easy to make movies interesting if you have sophsticated and colorful graphics.* Persepolis * is elegant in its simplicity.
Mind you, I’m not dissing Ratatouille, just grumbling over the fact that Persepolis is not going to get the praise it more than deserves.
I really thought this was an excellent movie. I knew practically nothing about it going in, not even that it was animated. All I knew was that it was about a girl and Iran, and was based on a graphic novel.
I was completely wrapped up in the film. It was odd, it felt much longer than it was, but I was disappointed when it ended. I wanted far more than I got.
I felt the animation was also a great way to release the story from itself. I found myself tearing up and laughing like a manic more than once, but I never lost the thread of the film. Had it been live action or incredibly intense CGI, I would have been overwhelmed by some of the moments.
I also found the animation to be useful for getting into Marijane’s head. The scenes with her “banal love story” were amazing and had far more impact for their near caricaturization than I think they would have in a live action flick. I not only felt I was seeing inside her head, but in overhearing the men next to me as I left, I realized everyone was far more able to take away from it something informed by their own experiences than I think would have been possibly otherwise. (Obviously, we thought those scenes meant two different things.)
I am truly sorry to hear it wasn’t shortlisted for the Foreign Language film catagory, as I thought it was amazing and moving. But I am generally not in touch with any movies, foreign or otherwise, so I cannot know the competition.
I did see Ratatouille, and agree with HazelNutCoffee that there’s no comparison between the two. Hopefully others will see that it’s a lot harder to tell an extremely compelling story with simplicity than when you’ve gone out of your way to make something more complex.
I thought this and “Surf’s Up” were, by far, the best animated films of 2007. But this is overshadowed by the Disney powerhouse and the fact that people want to see funny animals over real-life drama in an animated film. And I believe “Surf’s Up”, not only one of the best animated films but one of the best films of 2007, was over-looked by many because, even though it was a funny animal animated film, it was yet another penguin movie, a crowded field in recent years.
The movie Ratatatoiulle freaked me out, because when it was in Production I actually busted Patton’s balls on another message board that he frequents, and he responded. I am a foodie and I relate to bothe the Ratatataouille and Linguini. It was quite heartening and beautiful. like you.
I saw Persepolis today; it’s definitely one of the best films of the year.
With the right talent, I think an English-dubbed version could have been pulled off; dubbing isn’t usually as distracting in animation as in live-action. While I probably would have preferred the subtitled version, I do agree with JR Jones (Chicago Reader) that the abscence of a dubbed version means that fewer people will have the opportunity to experience Ms. Satrapi’s story.
I went in thinking that I knew more about Iranian history than I actually did; I learned a lot myself.
Heh, the wife of my best friend is Iranian (and upper-class Iranian), she fled with her family some years after the revolution and she is almost exactly the same age as the authour of Persepolis.
I gave her a copy of the graphic novel one day, and she was very amused by the drawing on the cover, of a young girl looking unhappy in the ‘traditional’ outfit. She ran to her box of memorabilia, dug around in it a bit, and came back with an envelope full of black and white photos of herself as a kid in Iran - and one was, I kid you not a dead ringer for the drawing on the cover, posture, expression and all!
Damn fine movie. I just saw it tonight. One of the more moving and thought-provoking animated films you are apt to see. (And funny. Did I mention funny?)
The bombing of Tehran was pretty stark.
As for humorous bits, I particularly enjoyed the two different perspectives on her Vienna boyfriend.
We saw *Persepolis * today. It just opened in Bangkok, at a small art-house theater. It had been included in the lineup of the 2007 Bangkok Film Festival, but the Iranian Embassy complained, and so it was removed. (That’s a crappy film festival anyway.)
The wife and I have two questions. 1. Why the name Persepolis? It’s not set in Persepolis. What’s the connection. 2. At the very beginning of the film, it looks like she’s preparing to fly out of Paris back to Iran. But at the end, it’s clear she’s gone to Paris for good. What was up at the very beginning?
Well, at the very beginning it did look like she was returning to Iran. But I think the end made it clear that she was sighing over the fact that she was now never going to return to Iran. She wants to be with her family, but she can never go back. I think the end ties in with the beginning in that she’s just arrived at the airport, and is looking back. I think the whole movie is a set of memories, including the beginning and end color scenes.
This is all going off my memory of some months ago, but I remember the lightbulb feeling when the movie ended of, “Holy crap, she’s not leaving Paris, she’s just arrived!”
Alexander the Great handed over Persepolis to his troops for plunder after his conquest of Persia, and then he burned the city.
I think the title is a symbolic reference to the long-running conflict between Persia/Iran and the West, and probably a commentary that the West is still trying to plunder and destroy Persia.
I suppose she sees Tehran as the modern Persepolis. The West (in her view) looted its oil for years, and then (with Saddam as a proxy) bombed the place.
If anyone in Hollywood wanted to do something actually productive about the war-protesting effort, besides appearing in commercials, they could make a film like this one.
Support for war depends on dehumanizing your enemy. If most of the country actually knew the people getting bombed daily in Iraq, they would be much more pissed off about the war than they are now. If only Hollywood, a powerful agent of public perception, could assist in the effort against the government and attempt to make the middle east look more human.
Well, I just saw the dubbed version, which was done very well - and Surprise, Surprise - Sean Penn was one of the featured voices (along with Catherine Deneuve and Iggy Pop).