Spidersecu
Don't Believe the Hype
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Candida
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
cjaramillo6943
Worth to see. I've seen it 3 times, this movie shows us another point of view about Iran, the point of view of an Iranian who's also suffering all the massive effects of the Iranian Revolution. The media isn't showing what some Iranians have done to escape from the revolution
ElMaruecan82
Marjane Satrapi's animated biopic deliver a powerful message to the world about the struggles of Iranian people, which can be extended to any people from what the "western civilization" pompously designate as "third world" country... and it does so with a movie that hit a more universal chord than any Farhadi's masterpiece simply by using the animation as a medium.Yes, it doesn't have the whole tech-zaz-wow-schaboom of Dreamworks or Pixar, or the delicacy and poetic imagery of Miyazaki (or does it?), yes, it's all in Black and White and drawings that can't fool you with their simplicity... but behind that sober and gloomy façade, you go through dynamite of emotions, of humors and tears, and you end up realizing deep in your head "hey, these Iranian people aren't so different from us, after all". Well maybe Donald and Bibi should watch this film before deciding some day to nuke Persepolis out of the map.As a matter of fact, the film doesn't even imply that the Revolution brought anything good to Iran giving how hellish and liberticidal the post-Revolution Iran turned out to be... but the film isn't about a regime. it's about the people who lived under the tyrannical end of the stick and had threats of whipping, jailing, hanging or raping-before-hanging pending over their head if they had one 'obscene' glimpse too many, one breath of alcohol, too much hair unveiled or too much lipstick. And if you count the the arrests, the repressions and the infamous war with Irak and the rest, there's no family that didn't probably paid a dowry to that revolution in the name of some fanatic reading of religion... there's no right to point an accusing finger of these population... especially since the movie reminds of the role the British played in the throning of the first Shah and the way the "West" provided weapons to both Iran and Iraq during the war, some details that movies like "Not Without My Daughter" forgot to cover. So I guess the merit of this adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic comic-book, is to expose to the world the torments a whole population went through, by focusing on little Marjane, a young girl who like any other girl in the world loved to wear sneakers, imitate her idols, listen to music and change the world, a girl who was all smile and joy, craving from models to admire, to be able to say that she's related to a hero of the revolution when it was announcing a new era. There's something in the initial scenes that reminded me of "The Pianist" when you looked at crucial events from the perspective of a family. Yes, they're obviously from an upper class, westernized and open-minded, even the scene-stealing grandmother is feisty and has a few juicy lines that reveal that she cares more about the perfume of her brassiere than any sanctimonious, but the point is that there are aspects of the western culture that are indeed universally appealing in the sense that people would rather have fun and enjoy an access to knowledge, art and music than just drown in the darkest abysses of religious fanaticism... except if they come from average classes or aren't instructed enough to know what they miss. Like the majority actually.And just when you think little Marjie would fit like a fish in the water in Austria, where she's sent at the age of 14, the film goes for a huger cultural clash, so mind-boggling it might even make a Westerner consider what kind of values he inherited from his own history. While Iranians fought for freedom and democracy and had all these aspects of civilization being smuggled like drugs ... blasé Austrian youth take these aspects as cultural items that hardly hide the superficiality of a world that's not even worth fighting for, anarchists group spend their day smoking joints and basically, everyone acts as a spoiled child of democracy.The gap is too huge for Marjie who, after a few romantic failures, decide to go back to Iran, she's an adult then and misses her family. but the situation has worsened to surrealistic extents and... she even came close to a suicide. All this looks rather gloomy and poignant, but the film is full of inspirational energy, of moments of humor from Tex Avery-like slapstick to ingenuous storytelling, and when you look at Marjane Satrapi in real-life, you see the same woman who probably inherited her grandmother's spirit, tobacco addiction... and desire of freedom.I don't know what feminism means but if anyone tells me "women shouldn't do or be allowed to do this" then count me in. The film is full of moments where Marjie or her mother puts one of these bearded moral guardians in their place, where they confront the laws to their contradictions and their double standards, a few mini-triumphs that can't hide the fact that the best option is to get the hell out and be free. Indeed, "Persepolis" is an exhilaration of freedom, the real one, that you can taste after having lived under restrictions, no one born free can understand.And that's why the world needs foreign cinema, Hollywood can't grasp some things. It can win Oscars though with "Ratatouille" getting it for Best Animated Feature, but the most important thing is that you have a story that can speak to each of us. Marjie doesn't have any power or any fighting skills, but the way she gets through her predicaments is powerful enough to count her as a modern-day heroine and an inspiration to the world (especially in the "Eye of Tiger" scene), as she said: "The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same..." What can you say after that?
klieu
The following story is my imagined encounter I had a dream that would be feasible for a Stalinist version of Persepolis, since the only people who would be biking, skating, or inline skate street sport partakers in California would be a young person who is probably educated with a Common Core that is close to French abstract studies. It is highly possible as a eclipsed review since the only person that would be forgiven passively for their imagining that Persepolis or the war in Tehran, Iran in the years depicted in the war movie would have top be someone who feels their life is in a war to stay in a dreamily state they perceive as real, so in that state, they could even imagine that the war was made up and that they are a person who was drafted into some sort of war just in order to realize they were the female narrator in the story who merely yearned to receive their university education: I was in a pit bull-riven area of San Leandro, CA and I got so afraid I would be mulled by one but it turns out that there was one fence that looked closed but it was open and two large borzoi dogs who look very smart, private and caring after each other, and were deep black/brown redhead dog couple they used their nose to pry the open fence a bit more open but then the one closest to the outside of the fence used it's nose to hold the fence a hinge close except for a ruler length and it didn't attack me, or the couple borzoi did not because they saw I was a woman who was skateboarding and who had stopped and I didn't go forward so I am holding at my mercy a few skateboarders and inline skaters in my neighborhood since I won't go back to where the dogs are and on top of that, they may just be stupid youth who will be mauled by the dog(s) in that area instead, and so because the universe knows that, the spirits in them that are good and want to be a body that will survive because they know they will be at a higher chance of getting killed by their body master's depression after they get pulled apart by the dogs for not being me... so I'm trying to see if I can suck the spirits out of them have a better body or master or whatever u call it.Sun 8:31pm I lied I made that up because I had a nightmare that Tehran of Persepolis in the Iranian war was a made up event called Stalinism since it could be that a person could have just made up Tehran of that year that they as a man got drafted and the main character in Persepolis got to study in France! Since it would make since that if a person who is in a neighborhood with dogs, at the beginning of Persepolis they release dogs to run after the dude and so he gets attacked but in my lie I just told you I am a ghost that always haunts and taunts the person who is imagining a made up Tehran of Iran in the war years, since only a person who is unconscious is not guilty of thinking that their reality is made up to any extent or brink that would somehow manufacture to their brain that they are still in the real world and their fantasy a real reality they live in real life and the person who saw the two borzoi and was spared, well they keep taunting this poor person hooked up to a ventilator since, if it was just one memory of their being mauled apart by pit bulls then, technically that vision of the smart borzoi would be their saving grace in an alternate universe where they were not mauled and left in a coma for the rest of their life.
Artimidor Federkiel
If you want to see light at the horizon of the adult cartoon world, Iranian born Marjane Satrapi's animated autobiographical feature "Persepolis" should be one of your first stops. The daughter of a wealthy progressive family in Tehran, expatriate Satrapi recounts her coming-of-age tale, beginning with her childhood days growing up under the western orientated Shah, then witnessing revolution, the subsequent repression of the totalitarian regime, war, followed by her on-and-off escape from her homeland. Satrapi doesn't tell you what to think of her story, she just relays her confusing impressions as a young girl and the outlook on life that goes with it, all brought to the screen via the perfect medium for such a purpose: animation. The fascinating, primarily monochrome look adds realism and weight to the portrayed subject matter, counterbalanced with a lot of charm and humor working splendidly against the dire circumstances that abound. The animation approach also helps to maintain a strong bond with the protagonist through all the stages of the young developing life, formed partly by experiences caused by political turmoil, partly by disorientation as a human being - and due to the intense personal take on the events it stays believable, especially as Satrapi mainly shows aspects in her life to which Westerners can relate. "Persepolis" oscillates between a young kid's floating on clouds in admiration for idols like Bruce Lee and Michael Jackson, the harsh socio-political reality on the ground and the consequential estrangement from life, the universe and everything. And still, remarkably, this girl made her way.Satrapi would follow up her adventure into the movie world with "Chicken with Plums", this time using real actors and focusing on a side of Satrapi that "Persepolis" neglected: the artist. While that story stands on its own, the disenchantment of the protagonist nevertheless connects thematically strongly with "Persepolis". To those interested this very quirky romantic picture is warmly recommended as well. It looks stupendously French, but is all about that beautiful girl of back then, the one who bears the name Irâne.
