REVIEW -- Persepolis

The Director’s Choice this year was the animated feature “Persepolis.” It’s essentially a biopic that follows the life of Marjane Satrapi, a young Iranian girl born into a progressive family during tumultuous times in Iran (the fall of the Shah, the reign of the Ayatolla and the Iran - Iraq war). Marjane goes off to Germany as a teenager to study abroad, but finds trouble ingratiating herself with other more carefree teens because she cannot escape the guilt of being away while her family and friends suffer back in Iran.

“Persepolis” is actually an adaptation of Satrapi’s graphic novel of the same name. Fortunately, the style of the film stays close to the aesthetic of the graphic novel. It’s very refreshing to see something that didn’t directly come from a 3-D computer animation program. The subject matter is obviously pretty heavy handed for an animated movie, and as other serio-animated movies like “Cool World” and “Heavy Metal” have shown us, these kinds of movies are hard to market. I personally like the fact that they are willing to take the risk to make a serious animated movie. And when I say they, I mean the French, and as we all know, those French people love to make “art.”

Oftentimes the pacing felt pretty slow, and I feel that has to do with the fact that American audiences usually associate animation with more plot-driven adventure tales rather than character-driven stories about relationships and historical tragedy. The most outwardly enjoyable scenes were the ones that used the animation to break reality, something that could never have been done as effectively in live action.

Writer/Directors Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud have combined comedy and tragedy into a nice little piece of nostalgia. The only part about the writing that did not seem necessary was the fact that the entire movie was essentially a flashback. The first scene is Marjane at the end of the story, and we only go back to the present a few times, but we never learn any new information. The movie ends with her at the present, but does not go on from there. So what’s the point of doing this, to give the narration a line of reasoning? I feel that these pointless transitions back into the “present” only break the rhythm that the other scenes have going for them.

So, don’t go see “Persepolis” expecting an animated movie. Go to the movie and expect a great little character-driven biopic that happens to use animation to a good effect.

By Evan Watkins
Staff Writer, District