Persepolis is Complete

Now that I have viewed the film, I can get a better understanding of what Majane Satrapi went through and how other people in the film were affected by emotions. As Majane's life passes by, she becomes more aware and more mature as she gets older by the events that occur that affect her family and the country she lives in. She lost many people she cared for including her uncle with gave an everlasting effect on her throughout the film. We see how the regime took control of Iran and how many innocent people were punished. Marjane learned to become independent and let go of her past to try and better her future.

My impression of Marjane is that she is a kind hearted girl but gets influenced to easily by her family and peers. She hangs out with the wrong people that gives her the idea to make bad judgements. She still is family oriented but slowly separates from them physically and emotionally. She had to leave them to be free from Iranian control but then she does not speak to them for a long period of time. So when they are reunited it is a little awkward being that they do not know what she looks like or even what she has gone through. By the end of the film, Majane is liberated from her past and forbidden to return to Iran as her mother tells her so this we can see that she is her own person ready to take on the rest of her life and make her own decisions. (Mason Roessler Post 21)

The Complete Persepolis

In the movie "The Complete Persepolis" there was a lot of emotional tyranny going on. It almost seemed like the main character, Marjane could never win. Things seemed just to go from bad to worse, as many close to her died, her city was being bombed and she always feared for her life. She was allowed no individual identification, she could never express herself and she acted out in ways that got her thrown out of school and into some major trouble.

Marjanes struggle I felt acted almost motivational to the reader. It made you read the story of her life and realize that nothing is impossible, and that where there is a will, there is a way. You can make it through anything if you just believe in something. She struggled enormously throughout her life, but always found a way to make the best of the situation she was in.

-Cali (last post)

Graphic Novel Within the Film

After viewing most of the film and completing the book its hard to say which one I like better. If the novel wasn't graphic then I would most definitely choose the film because it allows you see what the author is trying to portray. However, because Satrapi choose to write her story in a graphic novel form it allows for us as readers to really imagine and view what is happening. It allows us to learn about difficult topics in a lightened setting.

The only thing that the film really has over the book is that you are able to pick up on sarcasm, characters attitudes and body language because they are moving and actually speaking the dialogue instead of a person just reading it off the page. I really enjoyed both the book and the film and I don't really read much except for when it's for classes, but this novel I could see myself reading outside of class. It had an interesting topic that is still in our current news and the way the author presents it is easy to learn from. (Shawn Parkhurst, Last Post!)

Film vs Book

I really enjoyed the film. I like how she made serious times, less serious with humor. The humor in a way always lightened the intensity of what was going on. I think the film explained everything, and instead of the book it like showed her true emotion. I would rather watch a film, then read a book because you can feel and hear emotion through a film and not reading. You can get some emotion from readings but not as much in the film. That is how I personally feel. I really hope we can finish watching the film, because it was very interesting. (Nicole Butzke, Post 22)

Changing Stereotypes

Satrapi's use of sarcasm in both the film and graphic novel bring lightness and comedy to some very heavy topics and help her . After 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, many nations and people generalized their opinions of the small fundamentalist group that planned and executed the attacks, to describe all Muslims of the world. Marjane's ability to exaggerate the appearances and feelings of others, as well as her own appearance and feelings humanizses the characters and enables her audience to better relate to them. In doing so, she is able to seperate Muslims and those from Iran from the small fundamentalist groups that gave all Muslims the negative stereotype. By making this clear separation, she is able to portray how the majority of citizens of Iran are in fact victims, and not murderers. She is able to show how all of the nation suffered. By showing this she enables her audience to empathize with a nation they once had looked upon with disgust and disdain.
Cailee- #

Motion Picture or Graphic Novel??

Similar to Sarah, thus far I am unable to decide whether I enjoyed reading the book more than I enjoyed watching the motion picture. This is the first instance where I have experienced this kind of dilemma; I have always preferred the book over the movie based on it. This is normally because the movie is lacking in details. More specifically, I feel I am unable to gain insight about the characters' thoughts and feelings in a movie version; whereas in the book, these elements are abundant. The thoughts and feelings of the characters' are an integral component of any story, therefore when a movie is lacking in these areas, it becomes difficult to extract the same meanings and insight that the book depicts.

It is difficult for a motion picture to portray these fundamental components that comprise the book. Where an author can narrate a characters complete reaction to an event, person etc; a character in a movie can only use his actions and dialogue to portray this same reaction. However, in the motion picture, "The Complete Persepolis," Marjane is able to narrate her own feelings and reactions. She is also able to better depict the reactions of others through her narrations and through the animations. Her use of sarcasm and exaggeration enable Satrapi to clearly illustrate her thoughts, as well as the thoughts of other characters. For example, when Marjane catches her boyfriend cheating; she uses sarcasm in her images and word choice to literally paint a picture of her feelings to the audience. She portrays him in the the exact opposite way she did earlier in the motion picture. Instead of being romantic and loving, he becomes a disgusting, lazy pig. This exaggeration helps the audience to understand her feelings at this time in a way a movie cannot. Instances like this help the audience to gain insight in order to better understand the important themes of the film.
Cailee J- #

Majane's life on the big screen

After reading the comic book version of "The Complete Persepolis" I got the full picture of what was going on in Iran and how the whole country viewed what was going on. When Marjane moved out of Iran and into Europe for the most part you could see her thoughts and words, but could not really get the way she sounded. You had to use your imagination as to how she sounded in her expressions.
Putting things in motion for the comic book into a movie really helped to get a better picture of how Satrapi wanted things displayed in my mind at least. I could see the way she really sounded and the humor she involved in her story. It didn't really change much from book to movie just made it easier to understand the actual tone of the story.
Post 1 Kevin Ostempowski