Abby Schaffer
English 1106
18 February 2009

Persepolis Movie Review

Before watching Persepolis, I expected it to be different then what it turned out to be. It was a really good idea to read the graphic novel version before watching the film because if you didn’t, I do not think you would have received the full effect. The movie could easily be considered a very condensed version of the graphic novel. Including the important scenes from the book, the movie actually went further into the life of Marjane Satrapi. I thought that we were going to see the same ideas and plots that the book contained, but when they moved on to what Marjane’s life was after her parents sent her away, I felt like it was a really good addition. If you are like me and felt that you were just left hanging when the book ended, then the movie would be very beneficial to you.
When reading the graphic novel I felt that Marjane did an excellent job portraying the characters, but it was not until I saw the movie where I felt I actually knew the characters personally. Instead of imagining what Marjane, her parents, her grandmother, friends, neighbors, etc. sounded like, we heard them for ourselves and were able to compare what we heard to what we previously thought. For instance during the film we actually saw how bratty Marjane was, which was perfectly portrayed in scenes such as when she tried to attack the young boy with screws. Another aspect we were able to see was how Marjane felt she knew everything about the war. It was funny to listen to her explanations about the war because she did not really know all the facts, so she just restated everything she heard, even if it wasn’t right.
By visualizing the characters and hearing them instead of looking at them on a piece of paper it allowed you to picture everything better. The cool thing was that this entire movie took place in French, resulting in sub-titles, which isn’t as bad as you think it would be. I did not mind that I had to read subtitles because if I didn’t hear the characters in Marjane’s natural language I think it would have taken away from her real experience.
The special effects for this movie worked perfectly. By choosing a black and white, animated theme the directors chose a path that related to the graphic novel. If they were to choose real actors, I think that the point of the movie would have been ruined. Other critics would say that too many special effects would ruin the film, but the special effects are not the typical ones that you would expect. Instead of hydraulics and fireworks, the special effects in this movie were more on the animated side. The fact that the entire movie was in black and white besides the few scenes in the airport proves a point that they are trying to make it more and more like a comic book. One problem that I had was the transitions that occurred. During the entire movie I felt like it was choppy and not smooth. The poor transitions occurred more often in the beginning, but when it happened it was blatantly obvious. Once a scene was over it seemed like they would just pause for a split second then move on. It could just be my perception, but I felt like these poor transitions happened for a good majority of the movie.
If asked if the movie portrayed the book well, I would agree. It wasn’t like a lot of movies that were made based on books that didn’t follow the books storyline very well, but of course it did leave some things out. A movie is maximum of about two and a half hours long: a short time span to fit a lot of information in. For the most part I thought that the directors picked the correct scenes to portray, and filmed them almost exactly like how the book illustrated them. Unlike some of the other movies that were made from comic books, Persepolis stayed true to the original graphic novel. Everything from the characters to specific instances that occurred in the book was visually correct in the movie. I thought it was cool how during the movie I saw almost exact pictures from the books, which again emphasized how well the movie worked off of the book.
Overall I feel that the movie version of Persepolis eventually worked up to the standards that I was expecting. If I needed to recommend it to someone I would say that it is unlike any other movie you saw that was based off of a comic book. If you are trying to get away from the action heroes and super powers that are considered the “interesting” comics, then Persepolis would be a great choice for you. Demonstrating all of the characteristics of a comic book, this movie correctly analyzes Marjane’s life during a war and will give you a viewpoint of the war that you never saw before.