Thursday, May 24, 2007

'Persepolis' an Animated Surprise

Could an animated film win the Palm d'Or? The possibility has been on a few tongues since yesterday's screening of "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Persepolis," a stylish, sparsely colored but consistently vibrant tale of growing up while a country crumbles.

Adapted from Satrapi's popular autobiographical graphic novel, the film is a lively, constantly inventive and fun account of Satrapi's childhood in Tehran, Iran and life in Vienna and Paris after she left the country. Satrapi and animator Paronnaud bring out both the personalities of the characters and the history of a troubled country, while recalling different styles of hand-drawn and cutout animation.

It's been 20 years since a French film won the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious top prize, but based on the lengthy standing ovation it received in the Grand Theatre Lumiere, some people think that it could add a nice surprise to the festival's 60th celebration of film. It still has lots of stiff competition, however.

1 comment:

Janean said...

I read this book years ago. Loved it. That's awesome that they've made a movie and the fact that it's a good movie is really wonderful.