I didn’t realize that Marjane Satrapi’s amazing graphic novel was being turned into a movie until I had a chance to see an advanced screening of it last night.
This was the French version, with subtitles. The US version will apparently have Sean Penn and Iggy Pop, which is odd as it works so well in French.
Regardless, it’s an almost exact recreation of the comic book, with the wonderful artwork faithfully recreated and animated.
And the second book, which I thought was the weaker of the two, comes off a lot better on screen, though it does drag on a little bit.
All in all, I was very excited to see the movie, and I’m hoping that it gets a good reception in the US.
An Iranian friend who was lucky enough to have gotten out of Iran as a teenager in 1981 turned me on to the graphic novel, and it might’ve been one of the most stunning, stirring, emotionally draining works I’ve ever read. I remember vaguely that this was being converted to a movie, and based on your review, I can’t wait to see it.
BTW, both volumes of Persepolis have been re-packaged into one and re-released to US bookstores as of last month.
Arise.
I just saw this courtesy of Netflix’s streaming, and I’m absolutely gutted. What a great film. But so goddamn sad.
For some reason, I didn’t like the film. I liked the effects, I liked the style, I loved the original comics (especially the first one), I loved the voice acting but the movie just fell flat for me. Maybe it was the framing technique they used. Or that it didn’t really benefit from the film format other than looking snazzy.