Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis - Essay Example

The film has helped in bringing static pictures to life; something that did not seem possible until animated films from Pixar and the likes were being produced. The way Satrapi’s animation has been styled is simply a matter of grace and charm, leading a larger audience to watch and follow the life she led. The buildings of Tehran and Vienna, its people and emotions have all been portrayed so beautifully, that the film itself is more lyrical than a theoretical memoir of someone’s life. The humor and excitement that Satrapi feels as she grows up, has all been depicted marvelously.

“Similarly, if the movie version had been conventionally cast and acted, it would inevitably have seemed less magical as well as less real.” (Scott, A. O.) Marjane’s family consists of leftist thinkers in the Shah’s regime, and they later live under the rule of the mullahs as the revolution takes place and people are forced to switch their lifestyles however Marjane tries her best to remain unchanged as she takes her grandmother’s advice and maintains her identity the best way that she can.

As she ventures to France to study she finds a whole new world where people live differently, and moreover, she is treated differently because of her religious and national background. The political repression has been showed wonderfully as the film moves into a world of colour; this further signifies Marjane’s personal voice growing and she becoming a woman of her own word. She grows into a rebel in a land where turning against the law is punishable by the minute. However, she stands for what she believes in, tries her best to get what she wants, and at the same time the same is depicted through a great amount of humour.

Her love interests have also been portrayed in the movie; something a typical young girl would relate to. She is tells the story of how she believed in someone and felt affection for him because he showed her a different idea of living life. Later on however, her heart is broken and she realises the tough life one has to live. Her grandmother’s words keep coming to her as a revelation she keeps pushing off until she truly matures – owning up to her national and religious identity no matter however much a person might insult the same.

However, this becomes a dilemma of her own as she is ridiculed in Vienna because of which she dramatizes her life’s situations and throws tantrums just like any other young woman. The music used in the movie is amazing; it truly matches the atmosphere being depicted in the background. Right from the history of how the Shah’s regime came into being to the wars and post war rebellion accountable to the citizens, the soundtracks are enough to give the audience goose bumps. However, at the same time, many critics state that the film went overboard in converting a graphic novel into moving images and thus was not so different from the books written by Satrapi.

This is because the film may seem to feel like meandering pages out of the diary of a young woman’s life, growing up in Iran and moving to France after that. The movie might seem to portray outbursts of her life unnecessarily and some even find the imagery to be very superficial, almost like a mix between a young infant’s animation film and an adult’