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Persepolis
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic material including violent images, sexual references, language and brief drug content
Starring Catherine Deneuve, and Chiara Mastroianni
Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of the precocious and outspoken 9-year-old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power--forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, Marjane outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA, and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable. (Sony Classics)
| GENRE(S): | Animation | Drama |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Marjane Satrapi (novel, comic & screenplay)
Vincent Paronnaud |
| DIRECTED BY: |
Vincent Paronnaud
Marjane Satrapi |
| RELEASE DATE: | Theatrical: December 25, 2007 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 95 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | France / USA |
| LANGUAGE(S): | French / English / Persian / German |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John B. gave it a10:
Persepolis is so full of ideas. It might not be groundbreaking in animation but there was a lot of creativity put into this. Of course, you can't help but get tied into the struggle of Marjame because we are shown such a realistic character. Marjame's interpretation of the world around her is put to the forefront instead of the political struggles in Iran. I would agree that it felt a bit like a series of diary entries but thankfully introspection is kept to a minimum and we are allowed to simply witness the events in her life more. It was a good mix between being on the outside looking in at Marjame's struggles and being on the inside looking out. The moral here is that no one when presented obstacles in life is perfect and there is nothing you can do to make things better. It may have been a typical coming of age story in some aspects but it was also this realization that no matter what, you can never truly identify with a world that can't really identify you. More likely, you will have to fabricate your own identity like Marjane had to. This is not one to miss. It couldn't have been better presented.
Maryam B. gave it a10:
Excellent movie containing the best plot, best animation, best content, and worth to see.
Nick A. gave it a10:
'Persepolis', a wonderfully visualized gem, manages a multitude of on-screen miracles, though its most accomplished feat is interfusing frivolous humor with a remarkably distressing, yet equally inspirational coming-of-age story. Based on director Marjane Satrapi’s own graphic novel, Persepolis bulges out of the screen with style and wit that scream with originality and heart, making it an epochal work, in addition to being an immensely enjoyable, creatively unparalleled one. An autobiographical account of Satrapi’s life leading up to her early-twenties, this film depicts the dawdling growth of its protagonist, her family, and their Central Eurasian country of Iran during the time of the Islamic Revolution, whereupon women were forced to wear veils to cover their heads and countless citizens were taken captive for no lesser reason than to force upon their country oppression. Marjane is a rowdy 9-year-old Iranian girl, whose parents’ desire for political change is shared by Marjane’s uncle, Anouche, a Communist leader against the dictatorship of Iran’s monarch, the Shah, whose rule would cease in 1979 and later be replaced by a republic. After being freed from prison in the early ‘70s, Anouche visits Marjane’s parents and later obliges Marjane’s eager wish to hear all about his political activism; and he tells her of the proletariat for which he fought and a period in which he fled Iran for Moscow, where he studied for self-betterment. Yet, sooner than later, Islamic fundamentalists arrest him and sentence him to death. Devastated by the news, Marjane’s only source of solace comes when Anouche chooses her to appear as the single prison visitor he is granted before his execution. Over the years, that minimal feeling of comfort outlines everything in her life, leading her into a rebellious rage that amounts to her public insubordination of the Islamic regime’s laws—she frequently takes off her veil or replaces it with a headscarf; she wears Adidas rather than that which is allowed; and she sports a leather jacket with “Punk Is Not Ded” embroidered on the back. In addition to her outlandish individual behavior, Marjane develops an ear for “insurgent” music from bands such as The Bee Gees and, eventually, Iron Maiden (which wonderfully caps a truly memorable set of scenes). When the danger of the Iran/Iraq war reaches alarming heights, Marjane is sent to Vienna from Tehran, where she had been schooling. As a teenage Iranian girl in Austria, she becomes the target for much racial intolerance, which slowly chips away at the slight comfort she felt when she last saw her uncle, Anouche. Feeling rejected by her peers, her government, and even her parents, Marjane stoops to lower grounds, as she builds friendships with a rough crowd that spends its nights at underground metal concerts and advocates anomalous, if not completely absent, social values. She quickly realizes that her place is not with the crowd that she’d been a part of, and returns to Iran to start over with the support of her family right next to her. She builds and strengthens her relationship with her parents and, more noticeably, her grandmother, a sweet, chipper, free spirit whom Marjane looks to for direction and tranquility. Despite having suffered a few disastrous love relationships, Marjane, now out of her teenage years, falls in love with a man whom she marries quickly. As that marriage snowballs into staleness (as would only be appropriate for the film’s continuity), it is again her grandmother who is there above all else, advising her to make a mature decision regarding the outcome of her and her husband’s marriage as an independent woman with integrity. She does; and, as long as it took, Marjane finds herself and finds happiness, ironically through a string of tragic events that culminate with the death of her grandmother and a plane trip to France. With the help of co-director Vincent Paronnaud, also a graphic novelist, Satrapi manages to make this painstaking story of hope lost and hope found one that gleams with symmetry and visual sublimity; and she does so using mostly shades of black and white. (Taking lessons from the school of Steven Spielberg, Satrapi and Paronnaud also use the color red, though do so limitedly and, like Spielberg, to astounding effect.) Moreover, the film’s narrative is both educational and enthusiastically delivered (Chiara Mastroianni brilliantly voices Marjane as a teenager and young adult), often concealing the gravity of the film’s sequential grimness, which, as a result, never feels as severe as it should. As a moviegoer, 'Persepolis' created within me a crushing feeling of ecstasy; it couldn’t have possibly been more perfect of a watch. In fact, 'Persepolis' is not just a film fit to stand the test of time, rather it’s one best suited to stand against time with the same thunderous defiance as its bright, spirited main character. This debut from both Paronnaud and Satrapi is anything but something to be taken lightly; it sings to the impossible pitch of true life transformed into the very truest art form, laced with inspiration beyond that of most films—or works of art—that one may ever have the thrilling opportunity to witness for oneself. 'Persepolis' is really one-of-a-kind; and as a recognized motion picture, that’s a crowning accomplishment.
Scott R. gave it a7:
Over-rated!!! This is a slow movie with too much history lesson. The trailer was lots of fun, the actual movie must have dragged on nearly 2 hours. In that 2 hours, we got fun and pensive stuff about 30%-40% of the time. Slow, slow slow. Think of it as a French movie, then your expectations won't get in your way. Wow, once more, I say it is OVER-rated by the critics...
Danny M. gave it a9:
The main issue with Persepolis is that it shows how things used to be in Iran, and then it shows how much it changed. The artwork is simplistic, but it's still damn good.
Paul C gave it a6:
I think it's a bit over-rated. The story and pacing are uneven, and the plot just peters out at the end. I would've liked more on living in Iran and less about how the character felt alienated from the world. Seriously, what makes you so special?
Chad S. gave it a10:
If 2-D animation is dead, then "Persepolis" is a dead man's party. While "Shrek" gorges himself on Bambi and all his forest critter friends, filmmakers like Satoshi Kon("Paprika", "Tokyo Godfathers") and Sylvain Chomet("Les Triplettes de Belleville") continue to work in the cel tradition. "Persepolis", however, could be said to have precious little, if any, of "Steamboat Willie['s]" DNA. Like Jessica Yu's "In the Realms of the Unreal"(the 2004 documentary about outsider artist Henry Darger), "Persepolis" takes static imagery(in this case; the illustrations from a graphic novel, in the Yu film; Darger's paintings) and transforms them into a meditation on kinesics. The results are truly startling; Iran and France rendered in a phantasmagorical world of black and white. The intermittent use of color is used to differentiate the past from the present, but it's also a commentary on how Marjane's life in her homeland and adopted home covered the full breadth of experiences in both geographical instances. Don't readily assume that Marjane's life in Iran was all bad, and her move to France was all good; only our president sees things in terms of black and white. Our president, our country, in which "Persepolis" sneakily characterizes as being the devil, and the devil's lair. Marjane(voiced by Chiara Mastroianni) listens to Iron Maiden, a band from Sheffield, England that purportedly worships the devil(well, they did release an album entitled "The Number of the Beast"). In other words, Great Britian is in cahoots with the United States, or, "the devil", as we are known to our international neighbors.
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