Hey guys. I hope you liked the movie --- I saw a couple of tears in the audience.
For this post, let me know what you thought about the film and its themes. How does it connect to some of the themes we have spoken about in class? For some of you that had little contact with Iranian culture before, what are you taking away from this film? Please no plot summary guys.
I really liked the movie Persepolis and thought that it offered an interesting perspective on Iran's recent history, one of a girl who experienced the revolution firsthand but then moved to Europe and then came back.
I noticed that the accounts of the revolution followed those of what we discussed in class, showing how everyone was involved, like Marjan's parents, yet the Islamist view won out over all other elements after the revolution had passed, which these participants did not necessarily agree with.
I have only taken middle eastern history classes so I have not really been familiarized with popular culture in Iran or every day life so I really enjoyed this aspect of Persepolis. So I was really interested in its portrayal of teenage culture in such a strict environment and the amount of American pop culture displayed in the film. I had no idea that young people have to have underground parties and were so knowledgeable about American culture so I thought that it was interesting that you could buy Michael Jackson merchandise and cds etc. I especially loved the scene where Marjan is singing "eye of the tiger".
I also really thought the portrayal of women in Iranian culture was a good insight. I could not believe that women get harassed by men and police about the placement of their head scarves or holding hands with your boyfriend in public or wearing "Michael Jackson" sneakers.
Overall, I really liked this movie and thought that the story it told was a good one.
I also really enjoyed watching Persepolis in class. It offers insight into the Revolution and how it really affected the Iranian people. I had read the first book before, so some of the things that happened in the movie were not new for me, although it was very different seeing it on a big screen in movie form. One of the things that I liked about Persepolis is that it adds complexity to the understanding that many people might have of the revolution in Iran. It shows that not all of the people supported the government, and many did not like the new strict Islamic rule. Marji and her mother and grandmother seemed to often forget about wearing their head scarves, almost got in trouble with the police for having alcohol, and disagreed with and challenged other rules. It was also interesting to me how westernized the youth were--listening to Michael Jackson and buying American music on the black market, etc.
I think there are two important things to note about the perspective that the story is being told from. Marji's family seems to be fairly well off, but I imagine that the situation during the Revolution must have been different for people of lower status. Also, since Marji is a young girl when the movie begins, we get a slightly different perspective on events. At the beginning, she seems very impressionable. She gets caught up in everything going on, and she and her friends even threaten one boy as he is riding his bike home. As the story goes on she develops more of her own ideas about what is happening in the country.
It is also interesting to see what happens to her when she is sent to Europe. The fact that she becomes embarrassed to say that she is from Iran tells us something about how Iran was viewed in the West during that time.
Like the other posts mention, many of the themes and issues that come up in Persepolis are things that we have discussed in class, so it was a nice complement to what we have been learning about.
I had very little knowledge of Iranian society before this class. The movie showed me that not all people in Iran are in support of an Islamic country where veil is mandatory and expressing feelings in public is forbidden.
I was also somewhat fascinated with the underground life that people in Iran lead. It seemed to me that Iranian people have two lives. The public life where it's one big staged performance; everyone obeys laws and follows the strict rules of Islam. On the other hand there's the private life, where every expresses their true identity and are free to be who they really want to be. Persepolis also showed me the confusion that took place with the overthrow of the Shah and the rise of the new republic. Schools stops praising the Shah and started ripping his pictures out of books. I can't imagine how confused students were when all this took place.
Most importantly, now that I know a bit more about the history of Iran and the people of Iran, I am able to distinguish between what the media portrays, what the president and prime minister of Iran think and what the people of Iran think. What they say does not in any mean portray what the people of Iran think; something that can be clearly seen in with the recent student protests where many were killed in the dorms!
I find it interesting that Marjane Satrapi decided to have the movie in French. One could argue that it would attract a larger audience than if she were to have it in Farsi. However, one could also argue that it is because Satrapi attended the Lycée Français; it was at this high school, where she witnessed, the growing suppression of civil liberties and the everyday-life consequences of Iranian politics, including the fall of the Shah, the early regime of Ruhollah Khomeini, and the first years of the Iran-Iraq war. Moreover, Satraphi has contributed greatly to the French literary cannon by writing novels like Perseplis and Poulet aux prunes: a graphic novel which narrates the last eight days of the life of Nasser Ali Khan, a relative of Satrapi's, in November 1958 in Teheran. (Nasser Ali's favorite meal had been his mother's recipe for chicken with plums and he was a renowned musician who played the tar; yet, he was very depressed, and choose to lie down, and let himself die). Satraphi won the Best Album Award (Prix du Meilleur Album) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2005 for this novel.
Drawing upon theorist, Louis Althusser, one could argue that Satraphi uses French not only because she wants to express Iranian politics to a larger audience, but also, because she yearns for what Althusser describes as "the approval of the ideological state apparatus (ISA)." In this context, the ISA would be the westerners (e.g. French, English, German, etc).
Persepolis is also one of my favorite movies. I had seen it for the first time, only a week before finding out I'd be watching it again in class. Watching it a second time, I was able to understand it a little bit better. A lot of my Persian friends were born in Iran and came to the US fairly recently. Their stories were very similar to that of Marji. The scenes of the Iraq-Iran war stood out most to me. Last year, my roommate was Armenian, born and raised in Iran. There was a heavy storm with lots of wind and thunder, and I had told her how I was especially scared because it reminded me of hurricane Andrew from the early 1990s. She said it was okay that she was scared of bombs. I didn't see how it related. I'm scared of bombs, too... However, her story was similar to mine. When she was little in Iran, they practiced bomb drills because of the Iraq-Iran war. The house across her street was bombed. After that, her family moved out of Iran. Bombs were a constant threat for a large part of her childhood. We take our safety for granted living in America. We take many of our liberties for granted. As evident in Persepolis, these lifestyles could have gotten us into a lot of trouble in Iran.
6 comments:
I really liked the movie Persepolis and thought that it offered an interesting perspective on Iran's recent history, one of a girl who experienced the revolution firsthand but then moved to Europe and then came back.
I noticed that the accounts of the revolution followed those of what we discussed in class, showing how everyone was involved, like Marjan's parents, yet the Islamist view won out over all other elements after the revolution had passed, which these participants did not necessarily agree with.
I have only taken middle eastern history classes so I have not really been familiarized with popular culture in Iran or every day life so I really enjoyed this aspect of Persepolis. So I was really interested in its portrayal of teenage culture in such a strict environment and the amount of American pop culture displayed in the film. I had no idea that young people have to have underground parties and were so knowledgeable about American culture so I thought that it was interesting that you could buy Michael Jackson merchandise and cds etc. I especially loved the scene where Marjan is singing "eye of the tiger".
I also really thought the portrayal of women in Iranian culture was a good insight. I could not believe that women get harassed by men and police about the placement of their head scarves or holding hands with your boyfriend in public or wearing "Michael Jackson" sneakers.
Overall, I really liked this movie and thought that the story it told was a good one.
I also really enjoyed watching Persepolis in class. It offers insight into the Revolution and how it really affected the Iranian people. I had read the first book before, so some of the things that happened in the movie were not new for me, although it was very different seeing it on a big screen in movie form. One of the things that I liked about Persepolis is that it adds complexity to the understanding that many people might have of the revolution in Iran. It shows that not all of the people supported the government, and many did not like the new strict Islamic rule. Marji and her mother and grandmother seemed to often forget about wearing their head scarves, almost got in trouble with the police for having alcohol, and disagreed with and challenged other rules. It was also interesting to me how westernized the youth were--listening to Michael Jackson and buying American music on the black market, etc.
I think there are two important things to note about the perspective that the story is being told from. Marji's family seems to be fairly well off, but I imagine that the situation during the Revolution must have been different for people of lower status. Also, since Marji is a young girl when the movie begins, we get a slightly different perspective on events. At the beginning, she seems very impressionable. She gets caught up in everything going on, and she and her friends even threaten one boy as he is riding his bike home. As the story goes on she develops more of her own ideas about what is happening in the country.
It is also interesting to see what happens to her when she is sent to Europe. The fact that she becomes embarrassed to say that she is from Iran tells us something about how Iran was viewed in the West during that time.
Like the other posts mention, many of the themes and issues that come up in Persepolis are things that we have discussed in class, so it was a nice complement to what we have been learning about.
I had very little knowledge of Iranian society before this class. The movie showed me that not all people in Iran are in support of an Islamic country where veil is mandatory and expressing feelings in public is forbidden.
I was also somewhat fascinated with the underground life that people in Iran lead. It seemed to me that Iranian people have two lives. The public life where it's one big staged performance; everyone obeys laws and follows the strict rules of Islam. On the other hand there's the private life, where every expresses their true identity and are free to be who they really want to be.
Persepolis also showed me the confusion that took place with the overthrow of the Shah and the rise of the new republic. Schools stops praising the Shah and started ripping his pictures out of books. I can't imagine how confused students were when all this took place.
Most importantly, now that I know a bit more about the history of Iran and the people of Iran, I am able to distinguish between what the media portrays, what the president and prime minister of Iran think and what the people of Iran think.
What they say does not in any mean portray what the people of Iran think; something that can be clearly seen in with the recent student protests where many were killed in the dorms!
I find it interesting that Marjane Satrapi decided to have the movie in French. One could argue that it would attract a larger audience than if she were to have it in Farsi. However, one could also argue that it is because Satrapi attended the Lycée Français; it was at this high school, where she witnessed, the growing suppression of civil liberties and the everyday-life consequences of Iranian politics, including the fall of the Shah, the early regime of Ruhollah Khomeini, and the first years of the Iran-Iraq war. Moreover, Satraphi has contributed greatly to the French literary cannon by writing novels like Perseplis and Poulet aux prunes: a graphic novel which narrates the last eight days of the life of Nasser Ali Khan, a relative of Satrapi's, in November 1958 in Teheran. (Nasser Ali's favorite meal had been his mother's recipe for chicken with plums and he was a renowned musician who played the tar; yet, he was very depressed, and choose to lie down, and let himself die). Satraphi won the Best Album Award (Prix du Meilleur Album) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2005 for this novel.
Drawing upon theorist, Louis Althusser, one could argue that Satraphi uses French not only because she wants to express Iranian politics to a larger audience, but also, because she yearns for what Althusser describes as "the approval of the ideological state apparatus (ISA)." In this context, the ISA would be the westerners (e.g. French, English, German, etc).
[edit] ISBN
Perhaps
Persepolis is also one of my favorite movies. I had seen it for the first time, only a week before finding out I'd be watching it again in class. Watching it a second time, I was able to understand it a little bit better. A lot of my Persian friends were born in Iran and came to the US fairly recently. Their stories were very similar to that of Marji. The scenes of the Iraq-Iran war stood out most to me. Last year, my roommate was Armenian, born and raised in Iran. There was a heavy storm with lots of wind and thunder, and I had told her how I was especially scared because it reminded me of hurricane Andrew from the early 1990s. She said it was okay that she was scared of bombs. I didn't see how it related. I'm scared of bombs, too... However, her story was similar to mine. When she was little in Iran, they practiced bomb drills because of the Iraq-Iran war. The house across her street was bombed. After that, her family moved out of Iran. Bombs were a constant threat for a large part of her childhood. We take our safety for granted living in America. We take many of our liberties for granted. As evident in Persepolis, these lifestyles could have gotten us into a lot of trouble in Iran.
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