GatorDeb

Heard about the movie from a friend and after seeing his copy had to have it, so I picked it up for $25 on Blu-ray ($20 on DVD). Have only seen part of the film festival interview so far but love it - Marjanne really is like the movie's characters - I love her personality. There's quite a bit of extras on it:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/33664/persepolis/

I'm still trying to figure out what Persepolis is. Not even Wikipedia helped.

BullGooseLoony

It's based on the autobiographical nature about the fall of democracy in Iran I believe, as told from the perspective of a very smart but naive little girl (the author). I read it earlier this year, and it was very good. Smart, funny, and powerful. Heard the movie was great, too.

Moleman1138

Persepolis is an ancient Persian city.

Anyways I had to go 5 places to find the BD last week.

calhoun07

Perhaps one of my favorite movies of the year.

I love how they did the animation and did it all in traditional 2-D. It makes for a very striking, moving movie. And I would STRONGLY recommend watching it in the original language with subtitles. The acting in the English dub is sub par and an insult to the movie, IMHO.

I think this is the way all comic book movies that are based on non superhero material should be done. Could you imagine if Ghost World was done like this in Clowe's art style?

deto

i got the blu-ray last week and i thought it was an excellent movie. highly recommended.

marty888

I hope lots of people see this (I caught it when it was shown as the Closing Night Feature at last year's NY Film Festival) - it's one of those rare movies that is thoroughly entertaining from the first frame to the last, and also leaves you feeling as if you've actually learned something.

Bleddyn Williams

Its not been mentioned here, but the subtitles can be rather hard to read, being white on black & white animation. While I tend to almost always default to the original language, in this case I disagree with an earlier post - the dub is fine, and a valid alternative to the subtitles: when I sampled them, I decided that the effort of reading them would be more distracting that going with the english track.

And yes, I concur with the others that the film is very good, and the image stellar. I just read both books and the film really captures the same feel.

GatorDeb

By the way, the actress that plays Marjanne does the voice both in French and English.

mrlumpy

Watched it this weekend. It was phenomenal - proof that animation doesn't have to be Pixar-smooth to work well.

I didn't bother with the english dub - I knew it wouldn't be as good as the original.

bluetoast

Saw it in theaters, really liked it. I then read the two graphic novels, also very good.

Richard Malloy

They try and they try... and it never quite works. Even the "good" ones. Here, the original voicings are so much better. Yeah, the gray subs (on the BD version at least) do blend a bit more against the background than the bright white subs I'm used to (or, of course, the garish yellow uglies), but I didn't miss a single word.

This is a phenomenal film, easily one of my favorites from last year. I understand the animation is supposed to be quite true to the original graphic novel - it's gorgeous, powerful, quite exceptional (and I'd only just viewed a couple other amazing animes on BD, Tekkonkinkreet and Paprika).

So very highly recommended!

ChristianB

Waiting patiently for my latest DVD order to arrive! Persepolis is part of it and I'm looking forward to seeing it...

calhoun07

What version of the DVD did you pick up? The version I have has very clear and legible subtitles in the bottom black bar.

There is one scene in particular that seems to lack the emotional punch when you go from sub to dub... The delivery of the line in the original language is just far more effective.

I didn't watch the entire movie in dub and then with subtitles. I'd track back on a few select scenes to see how they compared and I was unimpressed with what I compared.

Adam Tyner

It's definitely a problem on the Blu-ray disc. Dunno about the DVD. It's a 1.78:1 film, so at least on my display, there is no bottom black bar: just white text with a thin black border against a black and white image. I could make out the subtitles, but I wasn't always able to read them when they first displayed -- just that fraction of a second for something to move so I could see them more clearly -- and there were a couple of times where I had to rewind.

whovian43

The Blu-ray Persepolis does indeed have clear subs.

Here's a good review of the Blu disc:
http://www.dvdcorner.net/reviews/hd_...s_blu-ray.html

Bleddyn Williams

Whoops, I didn't say, did I? I have the Blu-ray version, and a widescreen TV. No black bars for my set up with this 1.85x1 film.

GatorDeb

What's the significance of calling the movie Persepolis, though? It's like making a movie about Reno and calling it Old Nevada/Bonnie Springs

Richard Malloy

I don't think it was directly addressed in the film in anyway, but I think she was making an allusion to one of the highest points in the rich history of Persian culture - "Persepolis" being the great Persian city-state founded around 500 B.C. - to show not only how much was lost over the decades, but also the millennia.

In this context, we are presented a culture with a history as rich and old as the Greeks or the Chinese, including a sophisticated, cosmopolitan class represented in modern times by Marji's family who in some way personify that cultural connection that extends back to the time of Persepolis.

But since the height of culture that the city has come to represent, Persians have been living under a series of unenlightened rulers, punctuated by desperate attempts to repel invading armies, and ultimately finding themselves living under the boot of one of the more oppressive modern regimes. From the invasion and plundering by the armies of Alexander the Great in 300 BC, to the Islamic conquest during the middle ages, to the Anglo-Soviet invasion that installed the Shah, to the Islamic Revolution that brought to power the current fundamentalist mouth-breathers, modern Iranian culture is a far cry from the days of Persepolis.

To Marji's family and all those like her (that is, the cultured class that elected Rafsanjani and Khatami, and - quite unfortunately as it turns out - subsequently boycotted the elections that brought Ahmadinejad to power), this idea of "Persepolis" represents what modern Iranian culture could be, what many of those who fought to depose the Shah wanted it to be, an ideal that was once again thwarted by much the same set of negative dynamics that have beset Persian culture since the fall of Persepolis.

I think it's this juxtaposition that the title refers to.

GatorDeb

Thanks for taking the time to write all that out, makes the movie that much better!