Persepolis

With film adaptations of book becoming quite commonplace nowadays, I always try to read the book before watching the movie. In nearly every case, I have enjoyed the book much more. The movie Persepolis however, has seemed to capture Marjane’s Satrapi’s memories relatively well, though with certain liberties taken for fleeting screen time. Still, characters were easily recognizable and the essence of the plot still lived on.

I would have liked to see the scene when Satrapi first experiments with smoking, a pivotal point in the comic as it shows that she is no longer a child. Seeing the animated motions of the characters on screen drew me; for something as simple as the puffs of smoke disappearing in swirling trails, only to reappear a second later made it clear that though derived from the graphic novels, film had a life of its own. In a visual sense, though staying true to the graphic novel, the filmmakers were clever with certain aspects of the film. One instance was with the shadow puppets, used when it was obvious that people were just pawns of an outside player.

Lacking a soundtrack throughout the movie made it seem so much more realistic; I for one, don’t have the luxury of running down the stairs to an orchestra playing. It kept me grounded to the story and dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, hearing the voices of the characters was something that was powerful. Anger, happiness, worry – you could hear it in the inflections of the voice actors. When reading anything, though there seems to be an internal monologue playing, you really are not actually hearing anything. Though the movie was subtitled, I almost preferred it that way – not everyone speaks English after all.

Though the same language is something that is not universal in our world, the ideas of Satrapi’s graphic novel are. Film makes them more easily accessible; the graphic novel preserves their spirit.