COMING
OF AGE
by Howard Schumann
Though
Iranian women participated in the revolution of 1979, fundamentalist
mullahs led by Ayatollah Khomeini, once in power, instituted a system
of gender apartheid, building their regime on the premise that women
are physically, intellectually, and morally inferior to men. Adapted
from the four-volume graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi in a style similar
to Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Persepolis
is a sensitive animé about a young girl’s coming of age
during political and social revolution. Using high contrast black-and-white
hand-drawn animation in shifting styles, the film, directed by Satrapi
and Vincent Parranoud, unleashes a torrent of memories of people, places,
and events from Marjane’s life that reveal the universal emotions
of loss and loneliness that accompany exile.
In
voiceover and flashbacks, Satrapi recounts her tortuous physical and
emotional journey over the last twenty years in a mixture of memories,
history, and imagination. The film begins when the adult Marjane (voiced
by Chiara Mastroianni) is asked for her passport and ticket in an unidentified
airport. Adjusting her veil, Marjane walks away and the screen turns
from color to black and white as the young woman reflects on her life
as a child in the early days of the Iranian revolution after the Western-supported
Shah had been deposed in favor of an Islamic fundamentalist regime.
Marjane (Gabrielle Lopes) is a lively eight-year old full of exuberance
and hope. Her grandmother (Danielle Darrieux) provides the young girl
with unconditional love and counsel to act with integrity and follow
her best instincts.
Her
parents (Catherine Deneuve and Simon Abkarian) do not support the Shah
who imprisoned Marjane’s Uncle Aouche (François Jerosme)
for being a communist. The family rejoices when the Shah is overthrown
in 1979 but don't anticipate the even more brutal repression under the
Islamic fundamentalists who take over the country. Anyone who challenges
the authority of the fundamentalists in power is persecuted. Uncle Anouche
is rearrested, a telling blow to the young girl. Marjane tries to maintain
her former way of life and, as a rebellious teenager, buys Western music
from black market street merchants and wears a leather jacket with “Punk
Is Not Dead” on her back. Her parents, however, concerned for
her safety, send her to Vienna to stay with a cousin where she attends
a convent school that only exacerbates her feelings of estrangement.
It
is there that she joins a crowd of young rebels, but criticizes them
for their “nonchalance and forced nihilism.” Unable to fit
in at the school or with her cousin, Marjane moves from house to house,
finally staying with an older woman and her dog. After a series of love
affairs that lead nowhere, depressed and hungry, Marjane eventually
returns to Iran, and then later leaves for France. Though the second
half of the film veers close to soap opera, what remains is not the
ups and downs of an unhappy young woman, but the brutal conditions women
have to endure in Iran, which continue to this day. Unable to show affection
in public, they are forced to cover their hair and body except for their
face and hands and forbidden to use cosmetics.
They
are also banned from pursuing higher education in the majority of fields
of study and must be taught in segregated classrooms, and are unable
to work in most professions without a husband’s permission. Persepolis
provides a look at history that many in today’s audience might
be unfamiliar with, yet the film never digs too deeply in exploring
Marjane’s feelings about the turmoil around her. Nonetheless,
it is an involving experience filled with humor as well as sadness,
a tribute to the resilience of one human being who struggled through
a difficult childhood to become a thoughtful and generous young woman.
We
learn early on in Jason Reitman’s comedy Juno
that “pregnancy can lead to an infant.” This is exciting
news. Of course, most teenagers already know this and use condoms but
if Juno (Ellen Page), a feisty sixteen-year-old, and her boyfriend,
Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), a straight-A high-school track star,
realized this, there would be no movie. In that case, we would be spared
a Diablo Cody screenplay that inundates us with hipper-than-thou dialogue,
overly obvious pop culture references, and cutesy one-liners like a
drugstore clerk (Rainn Wilson) telling Juno that “Your eggo is
preggo” and “This is one doodle that can’t be undid,
home skillet.” One or two of these one-liners are tolerable, but
a whole string of them leads us to question whether or not the author
has a working relationship with how real people talk.
If
the excessive quirkiness doesn’t overwhelm you, Juno
may be ultimately redeemed by the outstanding performances of Page and
Cera, excellent support from Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, and
some genuine emotion and sweetness that leaves us remembering only the
good things. While the film has humanity, Mike Huckabee would have no
problem with its anti-abortion subtext. After Juno and Paulie do it
in a chair, abortion is considered but is quickly dismissed as the filmmakers
skew the odds against it by showing us a depressing waiting room at
the abortion clinic, a disinterested receptionist who jokes about her
boyfriend’s junk smelling like pie, and a lone protestor looking
like a brave warrior instead of an obvious kook.
Carrying
the baby to term seems like the only “wise” decision, and
Reitman and Cody display it as something of an inconvenience at worst
and a pleasurable experience at best. There is no morning sickness or
vomiting, no embarrassment at school, no pain and little trauma. Expecting
the worst, Juno tells her parents (Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons)
that she is pregnant but, surprisingly, Dad and Mom transcend the movie’s
flirtation with clichés and provide a thoughtful, supportive
response. Dad comments that he didn’t think Paulie Bleeker “had
it in him” and mom, who works in a nail solon, thinks of the immediate–vitamins,
and prenatal care.
The
film works its way to a level of burgeoning responsibility and maturity,
but to get there it moves through an unlikely adoption scenario in which
a willing couple, Mark and Vanessa (Bateman and Garner) is found through
a newspaper advertisement. The couple is more than eager but somehow
we don’t know what to make of them or where all of it is going
to lead. Our suspicions grow and become positively cringe-worthy when
Mark takes a more than passing interest in Juno after they start comparing
notes on rock stars and horror films. Ultimately, however, Juno
overcomes our fears and our aversion to its smart-alecky cleverness
and becomes a statement of generosity and unconditional love. Perhaps
a bit too quirky for its own good, Juno works and works until
it reaches our hearts.
©2008 Howard Schumann
CineScene
