PERSEPOLIS - A new animated film coming out of Iran

[Cleverboy]

I haven't seen this yet, but the trailer looks great...

Welcome back to the world of traditional animation.
Absolutely goregeous! Based on an original biographical graphic novel.

It's now on Apple trailers...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/persepolis/persepolis_lg.html

I can already tell I won't mind reading the subtitles.

I was reading the interview in the Wallstreet Journal, and um, for a comicbook artist... Marjane Satrapi looks posititvely gorgeous.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119767165662230277.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

I remember the first I heard about this, was because it had sparked protests in Tehran, because of its depiction of that society. Apparently Marjane has a very wry sense of satire. The first trailer I saw actually struck me a LOT better. It's smaller, but I loved the young girl's (Marjane) rendition of "Eye of the Tiger" with her foreign accent. It's no longer on the official website, but here it is anyway.

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/

Good stuff!

~ CB

 

[tyr2]

I saw this at the Leeds film festival a month or so ago. Enjoyed it immensely, one of the very few films I've rated 5/5 at the festival over the years.

 

[jng]

A friend of mine saw it last week and said it was the best film she's seen in YEARS.

I was going to go tomorrow, but alas have to get up at 5am on Tuesday and teach a first period class.

But I'll probably go later this week. Wish I understood French though...

 

[Abstract]

Looks like an interesting movie.

I never understood why most American cartoon movies are praised. (And yes, that includes some of the Pixar films). Thin stories, a slight bit of humour, not much imagination or magic, and then top it off with no impact, and you get.......Cars, Madagascar, Antz, Ice Age,.....The Simpsons(?).

Give me a movie like this movie, "Persopolis", or something like Spirited Away, or even some weird-ass Japanese animation where it's set in the future and lots of people die. All of it is better. Even the animation is better. Hand-drawn animation is very cool. Sorry, but it is. People drew that with their hands, and there's beautiful detail.

 

[Cleverboy]

Another write up on the author and her books:
http://gloveandherspecialsauce.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
I love Marjane Satrapi! She is the author of Persepolis and Persepolis II, both graphic novels about her childhood and adolescence in Iran. The Persepolis books made me cry and I read them each in one sitting. Embroideries is much lighter than her other graphic novels; it's about the sex lives of Iranian women. Satrapi's art, prose, and storytelling are so compelling you won't feel guilty spending a few hours with a graphic novel/comic book.

Her style reminds me of Alison Bechdell's comic "Dykes to Watch Out For", one of the best, frank and independant slice-of-life strips I've come across. It's so disarming when you see such simple drawings portraying such complicated relationships and life circumstances. It's great.

~ CB

 

[twistedlegato]

Hahaha!

I am Iranian and Persepolis is the name of my family's favourite Iranian restaurant.


Yumm! Bogkgoli Polo!

 

[Cleverboy]

Hahaha!
I am Iranian and Persepolis is the name of my family's favourite Iranian restaurant. Yumm! Bogkgoli Polo!

I imagine that name has a similar affinity to what Constantinopal has with certain peoples. I've always found the global "namespace" roadways littered with interesting "fender-benders".

This quote from the WSJ piece cracks me up:

The term "graphic novel" has taken off here in the States. How do you feel about your work being described that way?

I don't like "graphic novel." It's a word that publishers created for the bourgeois to read comics without feeling bad. Comics is just a way of narrating -- it's just a media type. Chris Ware doesn't like it either -- he says it sounds like "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

It's so true!

~ CB

 

[0098386]

Looks like an interesting movie.

I never understood why most American cartoon movies are praised. (And yes, that includes some of the Pixar films). Thin stories, a slight bit of humour, not much imagination or magic, and then top it off with no impact, and you get.......Cars, Madagascar, Antz, Ice Age,.....The Simpsons(?).

Give me a movie like this movie, "Persopolis", or something like Spirited Away, or even some weird-ass Japanese animation where it's set in the future and lots of people die. All of it is better. Even the animation is better. Hand-drawn animation is very cool. Sorry, but it is. People drew that with their hands, and there's beautiful detail.

Too true.

I can stomach some American cartoons (in general, not just films) but find them extremely overrated. I used to like the Simpsons, took a step back for a few years and returned to find it a shadow of what it used to be completely devoid of humour.

This film looks excellent.

 

[jng]

instead of just bashing american cartoons, back to topic...

Just saw Persepolis tonight and it was pretty good. It wasn't so much a movie as an animated comic book for me though in that may scenes are short and the movie progresses very quickly, esp. in the beginning.

But the drawing in this film is art and just beautiful, something to appreciate in itself

I think I love this film style wise and art wise but story wise it could have been better - sounds weird when you're talking about someone's life! Actually the movie is good, but the ending was just rather abrupt. My guess is that the first book ends there and the second goes on, not sure.

Anyway, I'd recommend it to basically everyone. Even if you don't appreciate its beauty the film is doused with lots of humor despite the heavy topic matter.

 

[Cleverboy]

I bought both of the comics this movie was based on: PERSEPOLIS & PERSEPOLIS 2. The first one is subtitled "The Story of a Childhood" and the second one is subtitled "The Story of a Return".

I decided to give them away to two of my female cousins for Christmas (they're sisters). My aunt swooped in and took a liking to them as well though. My aunt had this inspiration that they might provide great material for her counseling sessions with teens, getting them to open up and express themselves. She made a reference to some type of therapy that involved using comic depictions of things, and I thought it was interesting.

Great stories. I would have gotten spare copies, but the comic store I went to only stocked one copy of each. :: grumble :: I suppose they wanted to stock an extra copy of "Battle Pope: Armageddon"... I'm still going to try to catch it in the theatre though. --Nothing in my area so far.

http://www.fandango.com/persepolis_110434/movieoverview

~ CB

 

[Iscariot]

I've always been a huge fan of traditional animation. When/if it sees release in Toronto, one of my social circles will certainly be having some kind of large scale get together.

The last time I was this excited for an animation release was for the Triplets of Belleville.

 

[Stridder44]

I miss traditional animation. All this CGI stuff is nice, but none of it comes even close to hand drawn animation.

 

[obeygiant]

Oh yeah, this film again. I remember when it was pulled from the Thai Film Festival. Thread Here.