Persepolis Movie vs. Book

On Wednesday when we were about to start the film I thought that it was going to be a full out movie with like real actors and actresses.  To my surprise it was in basically the same format that the book was in, except all the voices were in French and you had to read subtitles.  I was not upset that there were subtitles because I am used to reading them due to having to watch lots of movies in my French class in high school.  In a way I thought it added to the movie because you got to see a different side of Marjane, her cultural French side, then we saw in the book.   At first I thought the comic scenes were stupid because it was basically the same thing we just did, but as the movie continued I found myself liking it more and more.  Although they left out some scenes, for the most part the major scenes were included.

Unlike the book, during the film you did not really have time to reflect on what happens.  When reading the book you got to read the words, look at the pictures, then reflect, but in the movie it was like a ton of information just bombarded you all at once.  Also in the movie I feel that it is choppy and just random scenes from the book placed into motion picture format.  The transitions are probably the part that would need the most work on because when they decide to move on from one scene it is like a small pause instead of a smooth transition.

Although the movie has some flaws, I think that overall it gives us a better picture of what is going on in Iran.  Now, instead of reading and imaging what is going on, we actually get to grasp more then what we got from just looking at the pictures.  For instance, we see actually how bratty Marjane is and how cruel the environment is during the war period.  Instead of imagining what Marjane sounded like, now I have better description that helps connect my book thoughts of her to what I see in the movie.  I don't think I would have liked the movie as much as I do, if I hadn't read the book before.  I think reading the book before we watched a movie was a great idea because we got to understand what was going on and get out own vision of everything.  The movie then was just to further our knowledge and give us a motion vision instead of just pictures.  I am now really interested in the film and am excited for us to finish it tomorrow.  In a way I am hoping it paints a better picture in my mind of the ending because after reading the ending in the book I was disappointed.  Who knows, maybe the movie will leave me on a better note then the book.