Voices: Chiara Mastronianni, Gabriella Lopes, Catherine Deneuve, Dannielle Darrieux, and Simon Abkarian
Writer/Director: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud

Persepolis is a comic book movie that delivers the closest interpretation of the original comic to the big screen. It is a story that is universal about a woman who could never fit in. Creator Marjane Satrapi tells her life story in a beautifully animated manner where the level of clarity of story and translation is delivered that may make Persepolis the most faithful translation in the history of comics to film.

Persepolis is an autobiographical work about how creator Marjane Satrapi grew up a very happy child in Iran in the 1970’s. But when the Iranian revolution of 1979 occurs what was once fun becomes verboten. The story talks about the nature of war on a human level and what occurred when Satrapi wanted to be herself. The road to defining her identity becomes a journey that goes to Austria and back to Iran before a final departure to France. There is pain, racism, resignation, fear, and ultimately rebirth. Satrapi’s story is very personal in its nature and how she tried to reconcile her history defined by geography and family with her inner voice that searched for the truth and joy of life. This inner voice is what drives Persepolis. The story demands that the viewer comes with an open mind and an ability to think about the nature of man and how ignorance will be the most destructive weapon against the world.

The sound of Persepolis is very lyrical. The inflection of characters voices vary from cheerful to matter of fact, this is helpful for an audience because it helps bring context to many a scene to allow it a sense of gravity. The music of the film delivers a dreamlike effect that allows the viewer to see the tale as Satrapi imagined in her head.

Artistically, no animated picture will look as good as Persepolis. By going for 2D animation over the overtly sculpted computer animation, Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud give a movie that looks like it was drawn from Satapi’s hand to the screen. It also allows a viewer the ability to read the comics and not feel out of place after seeing the film. Satrapi’s style is such that it draws you in by using a line style that communicates the human experience broadly in order to pull the viewer in to a universal tale of identity. The greyscale tones used for the flashbacks that take up the majority of the film are so simple and expressive; they deliver the emotion for the scene in a beautiful manner. The color scenes in the present loses a bit of the expressive nature in the line, but this use of color helps express the sadness that Satrapi has in reminiscence.

So, the bar has been raised for movies based on comics and graphic novels and in portraying Satrapi’s vision, it helps elevate and evolve the discourse of art. This is perfect filmmaking of a tale that entertains and demands audience thought.

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