Persepolis (2007) - Satrapi's sensationally good and very personal animation

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A couple of memorable scenes from the film are teased amid a clutter of honors and names involved on this overly packed poster for Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi grows up with her family in Iran and experiences the Iranian revolution of 1979, goes through childhood, youth, war, a surreal time in Vienna, homecoming and finally adult exile in France.

 

Persepolis is written and directed by great debuting French filmmaker Vincent Paronnaud (Raging Blues (2004, short)) and great debuting Iranian-born French filmmaker Marjane Satrapi (Radioactive (2019)), based on her autobiographical graphic novels Persepolis (2003) and Persepolis 2 (2004). The title is the ancient Greek name for the capital of Persia, today's Iran.

The film is extremely enlightening about the rough times in the horribly repressive Islamic regime in Iran, - something that regrettably hasn't changed dramatically in later decades. With simple, poignant mostly black and white animation and strong voice performances we are led sensitively through Satrapi's coming of age: Infatuations, deaths, music, depression and illness are all natural important elements of the easily relatable journey.

Persepolis is surprisingly funny, - really, really funny! - and it is a vital, very vivid and honest depiction of conservative state Islamism. It ends a bit suddenly, and I'd have enjoyed another 15 minutes about her later life in France, and perhaps about where Iran and the Iranians have come to since.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. €, approximately 7.3 mil. $

Box office: 22.7 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.10 times its cost)

[Persepolis premiered 23 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 96 minutes. 14 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. It opened #46 to a 37k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #26 and in 536 theaters (different weeks), grossing 4.4 mil. $ (19.4 % of the total gross). North America was its 2nd biggest market. France was the biggest with 9.4 mil. $ (41.4 %), and UK was the 3rd biggest with 1.8 mil. $ (7.9 %). A government-connected Iranian group protested the film to the Cannes Film Festival, and the Iranian ambassador to Thailand successfully had the film cancelled at the Bangkok International Film Festival. The film was selected as France's Oscar bid of the year and was nominated in the Best Animated Feature category, lost to Ratatouille. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, a Golden Globe, won 2/6 César award nominations, a National Board of Review award, the Jury Prize at Cannes, (the Palme d'Or was lost to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and was nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Paronnaud returned with Villemolle 81 (2009); Satrapi with Chicken with Plums/Poulet aux Prunes (2011), co-directed with Paronnaud. Persepolis is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Persepolis?

Demonlover (2002) or, The Dangers of Cyberporn

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+ Worst Poster of the Year

Connie Nielsen is threatened with a gun on this poster for Olivier Assayas' Demonlover

Demonlover is the 9th film from great French writer-director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)).

The potential purchase of a major Japanese porn company is taken over by the mysterious Diane after a nefarious take-down of her boss. The stakes are high and the moral basis is lacking in the executive environment we meet in Demonlover.

Demonlover presents a weird environment I haven't seen depicted elsewhere in movies, which is probably to a large degree thought up: An executive branch to the porn industry, which is a cynical sphere governed by some intense, dangerous business-people. - Not brutish gangsters but cold business-folk. Women are at the forefront of Demonlover, as in other Assayas films, and multi-languaged, sophisticated, impressive Connie Nielsen (Return to Sender (2004)), sexy Gina Gershon (Bound (1996)) and hot-blooded Chloë Sevigny (3 Needles (2005)) are fascinating to watch as the three main ladies, all so nuanced and fierce in each their own way as to make the film worthwhile watching.

Unfortunately, the strange environment isn't opened up too invitingly. For the majority of the film, I was far removed from Nielsen's antiheroine and unsure as to the intent behind this excursion to the backstabbing, top-layer of the porn world. The film has neat cinematography by Denis Lenoir (Still Alice (2014)), emphasizing a live, fast camera and obscureness such as rain and reflecting lights. The plot seems a bit contrived and never manages to steal the scene from the actresses and aesthetics at play. - Demonlover is more a film that seems to want us to ponder the new and ever-expanding universe of the world wide web and what its darker corners has to say about us and do to us, SPOILER offering the insight that it dehumanizes us and is dangerous.
The film also has a great music side made by Jim O'Rourke (Love Liza (2002)) and the great American alternative rock band Sonic Youth (Things Behind the Sun (2001)). Fans of electronica and rock removed from the mainstream will appreciate this element of the edgy Demonlover as well. Not at all a bad film, but one that also isn't quite good. 

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here's a video on the making of the film's soundtrack

Cost: 7.2 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 0.685 mil. $ 
= Box office disaster
[Demonlover premiered May 19 (Cannes) and runs 117 minutes (the unrated cut, the R-rated runs 115, while the initial Cannes cut ran 129 minutes.) Filming lasted from July - September 2001. The film opened in September 2003 #60 to a 39k $ first weekend in 8 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 15 theaters and grossed 232k $. It made 230k $ in its native France. It played in several other countries, many just at festivals, but still only racked together a very small gross, especially compared to its relatively high budget. Demonlover is rotten at 49 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Demonlover?