Review of Persepolis (2007) by Uttiyo S — 14 Jun 2013

Persepolis- 4/5.

Co-Director's Marjene Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis was my first experience of a foreign language animated film, and I must reveal how amazed I felt after watching Persepolis which is a dark portrayal of how a rebellious and outspoken girl deals with the continuous problems with her narrow-minded society and all the components of the story are really wonderfully presented by the Director's. Dark, Beautiful and filled with examples of the distraught state of Iran in the period shown( especially dealing with Women), Persepolis is a really subtle and beautiful portrayal of how a rebellious and outspoken Iranian Girl deals with the continuous social and personal problems faced by herself, it has superbly shown the Post-War Iran and the limitations and humiliation that Women have to face there and in Persepolis Co-Director's Marjene Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud have made a really beautiful yet Dark Animated movie which is filled with funny and sad elements and with some really brilliant visuals, some great voice-acting and a harsh but realistic story, Persepolis has to be one of the most unique Animated Feature Films ever made which will keep you devoted to the film from the beginning to the end.

The Story of the Movie is based on the comic written by Marjene Satrapi and it revolves around the world of Marjene Satrapi(Chiara Mastroianni) growing in Iran, and the story starts when Iran is at war with Iraq. This results in changes in the life of Satrapi and her family, where she meets her Uncle Anouche(Francis Jerosme) who is a huge inspiration for her, she realizes how women are oppressed in her city, and after the war ends she is sent to Vienna due to the distraught state of Iran. She lands at Vienna as a child and grows up there developing an outspoken attitude and learning about the disadvantages and humiliation of being an Iranian and she meets some friends, and after she reaches the age of 18, some personal adultery problems such as drugs and smoking causes a real problem for her and she decides to return to her family at Iran, only to see that the state of Iran is worse than what she had experienced leaving some years and her rebellious and outspoken attitude leads to some problems and finally she realizes that whatever she may do, women like her will always stay in an oppressed state.

Persopolis contains some really dazzling visual effects and some brilliant animation. The Animation may not be as realisitic and wow-like as nowadays but as it is it's quite brilliant and the black and white animation maintained throughout the flashback parts of the movie are really well detailed and some of the shape shifting and reactions of the character's are really well shown in the movie and the animation team really deserves a lot of credit for such brilliant spectacles. The Voice-acting in the movie is quite spot on as well, as the whole cast has portrayed and voiced there respective characters convincingly. Chiara Mastroianni has done a splendid job in voicing and narrating the story of our Protagonist Marjene Satrapi and her distressed voice in presenting the grown up Marjene was quite brilliant, also she did a splendid job in voicing the Teenager Marjene.

Co-Directors Marjene Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud took a bold decision in making an animation film with a controversial and harsh script such as this, but they made the film in such a beautiful way that even though it focuses the oppression of women in Iran and how they're underlooked outside Iran. Even though it deals with some harshly realistic social problems, the moments of comedy and fun along with the brash moments of the Outspoken and rebellious Marjene give the public a piece are so wonderfully presented that it prevents this movie to become a distressing drama which would've been horrible for an animated film. They picked a brilliant crew and some really good actor's for voicing the character's and they picked a super visual effects and animation team which ensured that this movie will not fail on the visual parts. All In All in Persopolis they've made a unique animated film which in a beautiful way presents the social problems faced by the narrator during her life at Iran and also outside it.

One can only assume that the comic written by Marjene Satrapi is on her own life and growing up at Iran, so it is quite bold to make such a comic on such a controversial topic so all credits to her for creating a comic which was brilliantly adapted into a script by co-director Vincent Paronnaud in a way which will keep the audience interested and with moments of sarcastic comedy and fun moments, he makes sure to keep the magic of an animated feature ticking in the film. He created a really good script with suitable dialogues which all we're delivered superbly by the actor's and all credit goes to both Satrapi and Paronnaud to create such a script of Persopolis.

Background music is quite vital for any animated feature film in my opinion, and the music in Persepolis is quite superb throughout the course of the movie. The Variations of music used in this movie is quite marvelous, many type's of different music are presented in Persepolis and the variations of the music on the different sequences are quite outstanding. Be it a comedy scene, a depressing one of a scene shown the outspoken attitude of the protagonist, the music throughout the movie is quite superb and really helps the audience and the movie both alike. Olivier Bernet deserves a lot of praise for delivering such beautiful music in this film. The editing of the film was quite well done as the movie was quite perfect for an animated movie and the editor also Stéphane Roche deserves praise for her contribution to this film.

Persepolis is a different kind of an animated film which might not be liked by everyone and its quite a unique animated film, with a story explaining the difficulties faced by the narrator during the course of her teenage and adult life, and although moments of fun and comedy do make the movie entertaining and fun, the point which Co Directors have wanted to show are shown quite superbly and there hard work in making a beautiful yet dark movie as Persepolis results it in becoming one of the most unique and best animated film I've ever seen and a really good start to foreign language animated films.