Since 1996 |
  
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
|
|
Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
|
| Home
Subscribe About Us Features News Album
Reviews
|
Persepolis Voices of: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian, Gabrielle Lopes and Francoise Jerosme Directors/Scriptwriters: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud Animated Sony Classics Rating: PG 13 Running Length: 94 minutes Subtitled Awards: prize winner at Cannes and nominated for a 2007 Academy Award Persepolis, the movie comes from Persepolis the novels by Iranian writer and filmmaker, Marjean Satrapi. Marjean tells her own story, of growing up in Iran in the late 1970’s. The animation is done in black, white and gray, with a flat tone that is reminiscent of German cinema in the 1920’s. Color is used when Marjean is out of Iran. Marjean’s voice is done by Gabrielle Lopes when she is a girl and Chiara Mastroianni when she is an adult. The story begins when Marjean is pre-teen, going to a private school, and quite a handful at home. She is rebellious, self-centered and always manages to talk her way out of trouble with everyone, except her beloved Grandmother. Grandma is a bit of a rebel herself, but always quietly. There are amusing moments with banter between Marjean and her friends, but as years progress, we see the harshness of the political regimes in Iran in their treatment of women. This year you wear this and next year, you wear that. Women have nothing to say about it and much is made in the film of concealing a woman’s body with robes. Marjean gets into trouble by asking why men don’t conceal their bodies better from women? There are two interesting moments in Persepolis. One is at the beginning, where Marjean decides she wants to be a prophet. I didn't realize that there were women prophets in Islam. The second, is where a friend of Marjean's mother comes to visit the family and discuss the fate of her missing son. He is a teenager and probably a martyr. The promise was given to him with a plastic, gold key and this key would be then used to enter Paradise which had naked woman. The correct assumption of the recruiter is that a teenage boy would be interested in naked women. When Marjean is in her teens, the Shah is in power and an uncle is in prison. It’s at this time, Marjean’s parents sent her to Vienna and then Paris to live with friends. They think it is safer for her, but Marjean, as defiant and experimental as she is, falls in with the wrong crowd, learns about cigarettes and sex. Though she always considers herself an Iranian, there will be a decided Parisian influence in her life, too. Persepolis tells one person’s story and this person is someone I could not empathize with. Marjean is used to getting her way and though a keen observer of any situation, manages to get away whole. Her suffering is exile, but those left behind suffer. Without having read the novels, it appears to me that Persepolis skims the surface of Marjean’s life and gives us a pale viewpoint. Using animation to tell her story is a good idea and it keeps one’s interest with political information. It would appear that Islamic law can be interpreted in several ways and her way of observing it is that women get scant attention, while men are always in the forefront of a woman’s life. It makes the word “freedom” more than black, white and gray, but red, also, from the blood of those who fight for it. 
Copyright 2008 Marie Asner Submitted 2/7/08
|
Copyright © 1996 - 2008 The Phantom Tollbooth
