Movie review - Persepolis

I love animated movies. I love French language and, for the most part, French language movies. And despite all the mindless dross that I've seen and reviewed...er, and enjoyed...over the past few years that I've been writing this blog, I also love a good thinking movie. So what did I think of Persepolis, nominated for the Best Animated Feature at the 2007 Oscars, where it eventually lost out to Ratatouille (which I still haven't seen *shifty eyes*)?

Based on the autobiographical bande desinée (graphic novel) by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis follows her experiences growing up in post-revolution Iran. The daughter of upper-class intellectuals, Satrapi's family is initially jubilant at the change in regime as they believe it will be a change for the good and various family members and friends are released from jail. Of course history tells us otherwise and we follow Satrapi's problems while she grows up and her struggles against an increasingly oppressive and misogynistic regime.

Now I don't know if that sounds particularly interesting to anyone other than a select group of movie-goers but seriously, go see this movie. One would expect it to be all doom and gloom, in actuality there is a lot of humour in Persepolis and the political and religious commentary never feels like preaching. The world is seen through Satrapi's eyes as a child (voice of Gabrielle Lopes) through to her teens and early 20s (Chiara Mastroianni) as through we are reading her journal and so each stage is told with a corresponding maturity. We see her as the bratty kid happy to repeat revolutionary chants, the teen experiencing first-love, to the alienated and depressed adult. It also features one of the best and worst training montages featuring Eye of the Tiger. That alone is worth the entry fee. And Grandma (Danielle Darrieux) is the coolest person in the world.


Although the movie has a pro-Western feel for the most part, the movie also shows that nothing is clear cut. While Satrapi is sent to Vienna to escape persecution after speaking up in class, she finds herself surrounded by people who make no effort to understand or help her acclimatise and falls in with a gang of students who find it *cool* that she has lived through a revolution without realising the personal cost. The role of a Western (the British) government in setting up the Pahlavi Shah in 1925 is also depicted. In addition, it shows that while she abhors the limitations on women, it was easy it was for Satrapi herself to use the regime for her own revenge in having a man arrested by falsely claiming he had insulted her.


The black and white animation is beautiful. On face value, it is so stylised to appear deceptively simple, however there were points when I marvelled at the ink effects to depict a variety of things such as a conversations with God, the aftermath of a bombing, and the spread of blood. It was also particularly effective in using stick puppetry to show the child Marjane's understanding of history. While lacking the whizz-bang visual wow factor of Kung Fu Panda or Horton, its comparative simplicity and stylisation is a plus in delineating passage of time, flights of fancy, and the gamut of emotions.

Highly recommended to all, especially for lovers of animation, political/migrant commentary, and French-language films. Persepolis was totally worthy of its nomination. Now I just have to see if Ratatouille was worthy of beating it.
8.5/10
(pictures from rottentomatoes.com)