PERSEPOLIS. 2007. BASED ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL BY MARJANE SATRAPI. SCREENPLAY/ DIRECTED BY MARJANE SATRAPI AND VINCENT PARONNAUD. STARRING CHIARA MASTROIANNI AND CATHERINE DENEUVE. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This is a truly gorgeous film. It's a French-Iranian-American animated movie, and it's based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. That's quite a mouthful, isn't it? Firstly, I love that the writer's autobiography is in graphic novel form, I think you'd have to be incredibly artistic to immortalize the story of your life in that way. I could just about manage a written record of my life and times, but pictures? No way, haha. That's not my area of expertise.
So, how did I hear about this film, especially given that animated movies wouldn't normally be in my line? Well, I recently went along to a screening of PERSEPOLIS in the magnificent Music Room of Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral as part of the Cathedral's Social Justice Movie Series.
PERSEPOLIS was one of four films shown, the other three being 12 ANGRY MEN (1957), CITIZENFOUR (2014) and Ken Loach's famous and controversial CATHY COME HOME (1966).
I was stifled with a cold at the time and I'm pretty sure my coughing drove the other viewers batty with irritation but, glass of wine in hand (yes, there was wine!), I was unabashed. The film was fantastic and the darkened Music Room, illuminated only by the red flicker of strategically-placed lanterns in the windows, was probably my favourite venue ever for the viewing of a film. Nipping to the bathroom on one occasion, I descended cold stone stairs that wouldn't have been out of place in Dracula's Castle. I felt right at home.
PERSEPOLIS was one of four films shown, the other three being 12 ANGRY MEN (1957), CITIZENFOUR (2014) and Ken Loach's famous and controversial CATHY COME HOME (1966).
I was stifled with a cold at the time and I'm pretty sure my coughing drove the other viewers batty with irritation but, glass of wine in hand (yes, there was wine!), I was unabashed. The film was fantastic and the darkened Music Room, illuminated only by the red flicker of strategically-placed lanterns in the windows, was probably my favourite venue ever for the viewing of a film. Nipping to the bathroom on one occasion, I descended cold stone stairs that wouldn't have been out of place in Dracula's Castle. I felt right at home.
Canon Patrick Comerford, a former Foreign Desk Editor at the Irish Times newspaper, introduced the film, which tells the story of Marjane Satrapi's coming-of-age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution, of all things. I don't pretend to be terribly knowledgeable about this period of history but the film didn't beat the viewer over the head with the politics of it all. It gave us the essentials but it did it lightly enough, which I appreciated. I still learned stuff, though...!
Marji, born in 1969, was a girl just like any other girl when she was growing up. It's just that the country in which she was doing all her growing up was Iran. This meant that, among other things, Marji experienced the trauma of her beloved uncle Anoush being imprisoned and executed by Islamic fundamentalists for his political beliefs.
The saddest scenes in the movie are the ones in which Anoush presents Marji in his prison cell with two small swans which he's made out of stale bread. He tells her that the larger one is the 'uncle' of the smaller one. When the two swans 'sailed' off together after Anoush's death, it was hard not to cry.
Women like Marji and her mother and grandmother were oppressed and made to wear headscarves and the régime under which the Iranians lived was generally an intolerant one. Marji's parents sent their heavy metal-loving, punk clothing-wearing daughter to a French Lycée in Vienna for a bit to keep her safe and out of trouble.
After a couple of disastrous relationships and even a brief period of homelessness that led to her hospitalisation for bronchitis, Marji ended up back in Iran in the bosom of her family. Iran's régime of political and religious intolerance had only gotten worse in Marji's absence, however.
When she is caught holding hands with her boyfriend, for example, her parents have to pay a fine to prevent their daughter from receiving a lashing...! Such things seem incredible to people living in Ireland and other similar countries where stuff like this doesn't happen.
Eventually, the Satrapis decide that Marji will be safer out of Iran altogether. Will she always remember where she comes from, as her beloved grandmother urges her before she leaves? The final frame of the movie should answer this question for you.
Marji's relationship with her grandmother is probably her most important one. Her granny is a game old girl for sure. Popping jasmine leaves into her bra so she smells nice all day, and dunking her boobs in cold water for ten minutes a day to keep 'em nice and firm, she believes in divorce and choices for women and was clearly a role model for the young, rebellious-spirited Marji.
Well, this was certainly a week for firsts. My first time watching a film in the historical, ancient surroundings of Christ Church Cathedral (it's nearly a thousand years old!) and my first time reviewing a movie based on a graphic novel. Much of the animation is done in the black-and-white style of a graphic novel, in fact, which was quite fascinating to see.
Equally fascinating is the fact that women are obviously women the world over, regardless of country or religious and political beliefs. We all have stuff we want to do, with obstacles of various natures to overcome before we can achieve our goals and dreams, and we all get jerked about by men. You're never too old for that particular pleasure, apparently. Oh joy. I could have, like, another thirty or forty years of being jerked around by blokes ahead of me. Ah well. It's not like I had any plans, haha.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can contact her at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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