an essay on Persepolis
I want to start off by saying I'm amazed that no one has reviewed this movie yet for BYT. It should, by miles, take the Oscar for best foreign film. Instead, it's up against Ratatouille for best animated film. I know, it's animated, but come on! It was the best foreign film of 2007. Period.
All right, let me start again by saying that the Iranian middle class must be one of the most unfortunate peoples in the modern world. Zimbabweans, Kosovar Albanians, East Timorese, Burmese (Myanmarinians?), Iraqis, Argentinians, Chileans – all have gone through national nightmares in the same time frame. But no one, it seems to me, has fallen from a higher perch to a lower position of abject suck-hood, with no prospect of amelioration, than a middle-class, educated, aspirational Tehranian (Tehranite?) born in about 1970. Think of it – born in a bustling city, with a fairly high percentage of cosmopolitan, globe-trotting, multi-lingual and relatively well-educated, well-off fellow citizens, finally coming to the forefront of a ten-year, popular revolution against an
increasingly cruel monarch, only to be dumped into a ten-year war, concurrent with coming up on twenty years (and counting) of the most reactionary, oppressive and utterly shit theocratic government the world has ever seen. Everyone you know who has a brain has either emigrated, died in the wars or been executed by the government. The occasional winds of change and liberalization and hope are immediately followed by crackdowns, each more bizarre and horrifying than the last.
Welcome to the framework of Persepolis, one of the finest cartoons I have ever seen. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud collaborated on this blinder of a brilliant film from the graphic novel of the life of Satrapi. The female voice-cast alone should set off alarm bells from their myriad film awards as they cross through security at LAX: Catherine Deneuve as the mother, Chiara Mastroianni (the real-life daughter of Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni) as Marjane (when she's an older) and Danielle Darrieux as the grandmother. Note that Darrieux is 90 and voices the beating heart of the film – AND that she was the brilliant beating heart of the Earrings of Madame de…, which, as I've noted before, is one of the greatest films of all time – top three, easy.
Once you've seen Persepolis, let me say one word to you: Jasmine. Okay.
Now, I would like you to note that according to Salon, Persepolis will be re-released in a mall-friendly, English-dubbed version, with Gena Rowlands, Sean Penn, and Iggy Pop, very, very soon. Just typing that sentence almost made me vomit all over my screen and keyboard.
The movie follows Marjane's life from the wide-eyed joys of youth, through her college years in Vienna in the late 80s/early 90s, through her return, and then her eventual permanent exile in Paris. It is the early years where the movie shines with brilliance, pace and spirit that is unmatched in animated films. I mean, I enjoyed Ratatouille. I did. Unashamedly. Ratatouille is an almost insultingly slight film compared to the first three-quarters of Persepolis. The young, precocious, whip-smart and charming Marjane is a delight to watch, and the animated asides into her mind are a joy to behold. The bright, bracing movement of the movie, even tinged with the approaching darkness of revolution, is simply astounding. One moment, when Marjane, infatuated with Bruce Lee, confronts her parents with mighty karate moves, only to be checked and forced into retreat, will remain indelibly in my mental gallery of unalloyed cinematic joys. The fact 99% of the film is simple line-art in black and white was lost on me.
To me, this was Technicolor joy. Just as Marjane began her love affair with a young Austrian, I honestly considered texting all my
contacts in my mobile phone with the irrational demand that they join me to see the movie again as soon as it finished. Fortunately, I did not.
For at this point, the movie lost direction, drive and verve, and seemingly sinks into the same depression as the main character. After her relationship with her boyfriend collapses, Marjane is bereft, lost, penniless and alone, wandering Vienna with no will to live. The last quarter of the film depicts her shame-filled return to Iran, her disastrous first marriage, and eventual retreat from the country she clearly loves – though I really have no idea why. This section of the movie – it' not bad – and it's necessary. However, it's a startling come-down after the unabashed joy of the first three-quarters of the film. Increasingly, the viewer is confronted with a number of uncomfortable truths. To wit – what's the bloody framing story all about? Does Marjane go back to Paris-Orly Airport from time to time to contemplate returning to Tehran? Is this framing episode in color just one particular time when she tried and failed to return home? I really don't know and I don't think it makes any bloody sense.
Also, this movie, coupled with my recent foray into Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, raises the question in my mind as to why
educated Iranians (yes, Persian Diaspora, I'm looking at you) seem so unwilling to acknowledge, confront and defeat the monstrous evil that is the Mullahs. In Reading, Nafisi again and again rationalizes her own (incredibly lucky) dodging of the iron axe of imprisonment and execution while her students die – without acknowledging her responsibility. Marjane, less culpable for others' fates (except in one unforgettable scene where Grandma reads her – and by implication all Iranians – the riot act) is unspeakably lucky to be wealthy enough to leave the country, seemingly at will, to never return, if she chooses. But what about the millions of Iranians left behind? What about the oppressors and the oppressed? When the credits roll (and Nafisi's book ends), the question hangs in the air like an unacknowledged scent of gastric distress at a wonderful party.
I'm so glad both of you were able to escape. Too bad about the other 71 million. Ah well, you'll always have Paris!
God loves a cheerful giver.
I loved the book Persepolis. The movie is a carbon copy of it. And since I don't speak French and had to rely on the subtitles, I found myself in the absurd situation of paying $20 (plus $15 per hour for a babysitter) to read a book that I have already read twice before. I guess I was paying for the snippets of Iron Maiden.
Actually, most educated Iranians in Diaspora are very willing to acknowledge the evil that is the Mullahs. But confronting and defeating them is a different story. How would an Persian in the United States do this when our country doesn't even have diplomatic relations with Iran?
I think that you have a bit of a romanticized view of middle-class people who've been driven out of their homes and forced to go abroad. It's hard to maintain a relationship with a "home" that has changed so radically. And it's even harder for their children to establish deep ties with something continues to bewilder their parents.
And finally, I object to the following quote:
"Zimbabweans, Kosovar Albanians, East Timorese, Burmese (Myanmarinians?), Iraqis, Argentinians, Chileans – all have gone through national nightmares in the same time frame."
I find it absurd that you've chosen include White Rhodesians among true suffering peoples Kosovar Albanians and Chileans. If by suffering you mean the inevitable collapse of the illegitimate, racist, Apartheid government that was supported by the white middle class, then ok, fine. But Whites in Zimbabwe propped up an injust system, and in turn created suffering for their African countrymen.Kosovar Albanians and Chileans didn't create suffering. They suffered.
i had really looked foward to seeing this, i felt it might parallel reading lolita in tehran and your inclusion of it in the review cements that to me, but yes i must agree- where is the responsibility to one's fellows?
Why would you have a problem with this movie being re-dubbed with English actors? It's not like you'd be losing the power of the original performances like you would with a film. In fact, wouldn't a dubbed version be closer to the experience its director intended? Or do you think they designed the look of the animation to constantly be ignored so that people could read white English script on the bottom of the screen? I don't mean to be snippy, but that comment seemed a bit like knee-jerk snobbery.
I think he was referring to all Zimbabweans, Patrick, not just middle class, white Rhodesians. I don't even know why you are trying to argue that tip, it makes you sound like a know-it-all. Zimbabweans, black and white, have it pretty suck under Mugabe. Everyone there is suffering.
I think you miss (and in missing, illustrate) one of the larger points of Persepolis-- the dangers of people who believe they know how the world should be and then force other people to follow those beliefs. The character of Marjane (and even the author herself, if you hear her talk) just wants to live her life-- but the Mullahs and the Americans want her to be a political symbol.
Also, "In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs" is a pretty interesting book about Iran.
I was making a point about Zimbabwe in 1979-1982, not Zimbabwe today, which is a mess for everyone black and white.
Free Iran
(So I can hit that shit)
what do you have against subtitles? the best movies out there are foreign and you are forced to read if you want to cross cultural boundaries. the english dub will most certainly take away from the movie's charm.
Patrick - interesting points on Iran. The reason the Iranian dilemma hits me so hard is the very existential question it poses - at what point does oppression become intolerable? My experience is limited to fiction and memoirs, it's true. But even in this country, we've had the question - at what point do we slip from freedom to tyranny, and, at that point, what do we do? Flee? The movie brought home for me the fact that more than two generations of the best and brightest Iranians are dead or fled, so who's left to effect change? We saw in Iraq the value(lessness) of exiles to save your country.
As to Zimbabwe, (thank you Jeff) okay, glad you clarified that. Jeff and I are incensed over the 2000-present changes - not the earlier convulsion. I'm sure you know, but over the past eight years, Robert Mugabe has gone utterly insane and destroyed his economy, making more than 700,000 homeless, untold hundreds of thousands refugees and hundreds of thousands more dead from starvation. We're talking mismanagement, meglomaniacal tyranny and oppression worthy of the despots of the 20th Century. In his utterly bullshit quest to "right past wrongs," he's rolled around like a pig in the shit of his own corruption. It's like Apocalypse Now - King Leopold is back - with extra homophobia and race-baiting and the scapegoating of all their old demons. Bad stuff.
As to Chile, like Iran, certain foreign powers have a lot to answer for in what happened there. But, like every country with an evil dictator, the apparatus of state has to be manned by locals - even if they're trained abroad. Tyranny relies, in the end, on the acquiesence, complicity and participation of a large number of the people. It's sad what happened to Chile, but to blame it wholly on outside powers is to exculpate the thousands of criminals and evil bastards who participated in the corrupt regime and oppressed, robbed and killed their neighbors. Again, I don't seek to excuse the U.S. role there. What scares the shit out of me is there, like in so many other places, once the bad shit starts going down, it's neighbor on neighbor. The pimply kid from down the road is suddenly leading a rape-and-death squad. The janitor is leading an inquisition at the University. The nice old guy from up the road is leading a machete-wielding mob towards the crowd hiding in the old church. It's the participatory-quality of the violence that scares the crap out me. And it could happen, anywhere.
Pedro - The original was written in French. The author oversaw the movie in French. Preferring the original, as it was intended, done to perfection, ain't snobbery. Also, as I might have mentioned in my article, I happen to love the actresses in particular, but all the vocalizations are great. It's possible that a remake or a re-dub would be good. But for me, it's not necessary. I mean, I have the DVD of Akira. I don't speak a lick of Japanese. But for whatever reason, the movie has way more resonance for me in Japanese with subtitles than the dubbed English language version. In this latter case, maybe it is snobbery? Or maybe the alien nature of the Japanese language to me heightens the oddness of the story. Dunno. What can I say? I know what I like.
Stumpy - Good point. As I mentioned above, part of my problem with these stories is that I've overly-personalized their experiences based on the 2001-2006 flirtation we had in this country with the realization of the vision of the far right. See also my review of the book, The Ministry of Special Cases. Should I have fought personally against the Patriot Act? To what degree do we have our own Mullahs, bent on removing democracy and replacing it with a Fundamentalist Theocracy? Has the tide switched back now, and the danger passed? I don't know...
sorry to be defensive
but you don't know
yes, i'm a first generation Persian
full-blooded, parents and family
proud of it
Iran has problems that go back to before the Shahs, which the movie recounts well, then its citizens thinking it's bad under a regime like Bush or worse during the Shah's time, and asking for hell in return, thinking mullahs would give power back to the people, so naive, so stupid
then put in Carter, one of our worst presidents ever
declining to support one of the most advanced progressing countries in the Middle East at the time, Iran, just to get oil at a cheap price
then the whole Iran/Iraq war where the US was funding both sides to try to obliterate the two nations and swoop in for, yet again, oil rights
it's hard to change a nation in the face of superpowers playing with you like pawns, meanwhile you have pan-Arab Islam infiltrating your borders, and threatening you with guns in your face if your hair is showing and no freedom of speech whatsoever, what might be tolerated by the gov't today may be taken away tomorrow, law is not by the books, so how do you go about staying alive and showing your civil disobedience? you don't disobey, you stay alive
a few years ago, when Iran beat the US in the World Cup, i ran outside my father's house in Mt. Vernon, screaming Iran won! Iran won! then i realized Iran's own citizens couldn't do that, plus the Iran soccer team had to stay up all night praying under their gov'ts orders in order the play the game in the first place
if your country's greatest celebrities at the time don't have any power, how do you expect the citizens to rise up and fight? or immigrants who, under Iran's constitution, when they become citizens of another country, get only one legal trip back to Iran to get the rest of their stuff, and never to return b/c they're labeled traitors?
people, you really have no idea what kind of regime we're dealing with, they're not one of reason, they're one of power, so take them on like a more public form of Al Quada, and good luck trying to dismantle them
back to the movie
my beef with it was that it wasn't in Farsi
like other great Persian films directed by notable Iranians
if she was owning up to her Persian identity, why not use one of the most poetic endo-European languages in history? even sounds like French at times
I think Pedro has a point. When it comes to animated fare it's hard to make the choice between dubbed or original language, especially on initial viewing, when I don't want to miss any of the visuals, and especially when a considerable amount of effort is put into it (see: Spirited Away). The dubbing was actually of high quality on Persepolis and I don't think detracted from the experience at all (I tried both).