Persepolis review

Hope it is not too long...

Persepolis is a movie based on the life of an Iranian woman, tracing her life as a little girl to a woman. The story also includes some of the history of her country. Tracing regime changes, the suppression by religious extremist, and her shocking life on the streets, this movie gives the audience a perception of Iranians that often goes overlooked. This movie is based on a graphic novel with the same title. For the most part, the movie follows the story that is based off of, but still has some differences that are fairly obvious.
When we first start watching Persepolis, there is one thing I notice immediately. While the graphic novel seems like it flows together into one smooth story, the movie does the opposite. The movie feels like it starts and stop, over and over. For a minute we are seeing one event that happens to Marji, and then skip to another part of her life, though it was not as bad later in the movie. However, looking back at the graphic novel, I realized it does the same thing, talking about one event, then moving to the next. Looking at the McCloud reading, I see why this happens. Since McCloud is a graphic novel, it’s a little hard to quote, but to paraphrase little; a basic difference between comics and movies is time. Comics are a juxtaposed art form, meaning you have to look at the words, the picture and then move to the next section, and repeat. The reason this flows in the graphic novel and not in the movie is because reading takes longer than watching it. In a movie, you are told the scene, there is nothing to imagine or read, and the scenes of Persepolis seem to fly by. The pro of being true to the graphic novel is the story does not stray from the underlying purpose. The con is the movie feels choppy because the way the chapters are set up in Persepolis there is a lot of time that passes between chapters.
Even though the movie follows the graphic novel fairly closely, I was disappointed that they had to cut one scene that I feel was very important for the story. This is the scene where the Iranian police locked the doors of the burning movie theater. The pictures alone of the people dying, burning and running in the fire where enough to disturbed me how bad life was under the Shah. Besides for this small discrepancy, the movie definitely follows the source it was based off of better then a lot of other movies that are out.
I feel like the movie was portrayed in a fashion that is appropriate for the graphic novel. The drawings in the graphic novel are extremely simple. I f the movie had used real people; it would not be as good. Even if they used a more detailed cartoon, they still would not be able to pull it off. When you first think about this, it does not make any sense. Why can some graphic novels, like Watchmen, V For Vendetta, Spiderman and Batman use actors to play the roles of the characters, but Persepolis cannot? The reason comes from McCloud once again. To paraphrase, the more cartoony the picture, the more we picture ourselves in that role, which is what Majane wants us to do in the graphic novel and the movie. It is putting the audience in this situation that we can connect to Marjane and her story. Put it this way, if Angelina Jolie played Marjane, would you be able to relate to the story as well? She wants us to be there with her, feel what she feels, and get something out of the story.
I feel the comedic value of the graphic novel is not lost in the transfer to the big screen. As the story covers some dark parts of Majane’s life, a little comedy is needed to make sure the reader does not get totally depressed. In the graphic novel, the pictures are often funny depiction of what she is doing at the time. However, during a serious part, the drawings are just as serious. The same hold true in the movie. Funny scenes like Majane pretending to be a ninja are very funny, and actually embrace and use the animation as an advantage for the story. During serious parts it is all business, and again uses the animations to further illustrate a point. The story is using a different medium, so as a result, it must embrace the passage of time, which a comic lacks.
This movie is a great depiction of its source. Persepolis, the movie does not lose much, if any, value in the transfer between mediums, and as a result is a great movie. Sure there are some differences, but this is bound to happen, and most of the changes complement the story. Persepolis is a great movie and graphic novel that both a causal and passionate watcher/readers alike.