Since Maus broke big in the eighties, many a "graphic novel" has hit the Times bestseller list on a wave of comics-aren't-just-for-kids-anymore hype. Persepolis was one that deserved it. A clear-eyed memoir of childhood in revolutionary Iran, Marjane Satrapi's first major work avoided the navel-gazing of so many autobiographical comics. It was a wry, warm story of life under a repressive regime, a pleasure to read and a stick in the eye of totalitarianism. Could this delicate work make the transition to film without tipping into sentiment?
Hold your breath in — well, not very much suspense, since the film won the Jury Prize at Cannes and has been lauded by almost every critic who's seen it (our own Mike D'Angelo being one notable exception.) Yes, Persepolis remains a great work; as adapted by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the film is a worthy version of the story, and with luck, the holdouts embarrassed to read funnybooks in public will feel comfortable shuffling into a theater to take it in. Everyone who hasn't read Persepolis should see it, and anyone who's felt misery or shame about America's place in the world lately will probably come out comforted; in me, at least, the film induced a profound gratitude for life in a free society. Yes, this decade has been a bit of a hell-ride, government-wise, but trust Satrapi: things could be a lot worse.
That's not to say the film is perfect. As with the book, the early scenes of Marjane's upbringing are more resonant than those that cover her adolescence in Vienna. And the change of medium has brought a slight change in tone. Persepolis the book might owe an unacknowledged debt to Charles Schulz's Peanuts, in its stark black-and-white drawings, big-headed children and emotional reserve. Inevitably, that reserve slips a bit when the big-headed children are merrily animated and squeakily voiced, with results less Peanuts and more A Charlie Brown Christmas. Though the bulk of the art remains black-and-white, it is often ornate and lush where the original was austere. Still, it's hard to care about aesthetic details, watching young Marjane sneak Iron Maiden tapes past glowering clerics. Representatives of Iran's government protested Persepolis before it even hit Cannes, and they should have. It's hard to imagine a better rebuke to their joyless ideology than this little girl's rogue spirit. — Peter Smith