Persepolis – And why animation gets me every time
There was once a little boy who had a very big heart that bled easily. Unfortunately for him, his brain was too small to fix his chronic syndrome. Since he could think of no way to grow his mind to fix the imbalance, he went the other way. He started chipping away at his heart until the center of gravity was restored, and harmony found. He became selfish and happy.
An hour ago after watching Persepolis, I met that boy again. And he cried and he cried. He can’t take the repression that abounds in the world. How the spirit and will of the strong is crushed, turning them into zombies of their former selves. I should know. I have seen the mighty crumble. Losing the confidence and swagger they once owned. I want them to be King Kong again.
The movie is about repression in Iran, and how religious fundamentalism affects a girl growing up. Filmed in unglitzy and unglamorous animation, and using an overwrought voiceover which I tend to frown upon, I could not help but be re-acquainted with that boy.
I wished Ms.Satrapi would give me a way out. A cathartic finish with a dose of irony. But she would not spare me. I wanted the characters to die or be raped or something melodramatic. Anything for me to feel that it was contrived. It is always the animated movies that get me, epsecially Pixar. Ms.Satrapi take a bow. You got me too. I hope you are happy now. I cried during Finding Nemo, and even The Incredibles. There is something more real about animation. I don’t know what it is.
My usual weapons of rage and cynicism failed me when I needed it most, like the shraap on Karna by Parasuram. I have not felt this sad in a long time. Even the company of the lovely girl with me didn’t help. As I took the subway back home, and saw the pretty girls in short skirts on the train, for once sex was not on my mind. I cried all the way back home.
All the news stories of a world marching steadily to hell started flooding my head. Iraq, Afghanistan, fucking Islamic fundamentalists, fucking RSS and their V-day hating thugs, goons trying to chase Biharis out of a city, Dalits not being able to use the village well, female infanticide, the utter loss of dignity that is poverty, the Bhils and other tribes not being able to live the way they want to, a mother desperately seeking happiness and not knowing how to find it, a father lying about being happy…
Dear mankind, find your humanity once again.
I take refuge in dark cinema halls because it is the only place I allow myself to feel. How can I be happy when those around are miserable. What right do I have? And yet, tomorrow morning when I wake up, nothing would have changed outside and more importantly in me.
All of my carefully cultivated hedonistic nihilism will come back, but for now I am utterly rudderless.
I am making a declaration. No matter what happens in the future – how broke I get, how poorly I age, how many times I fail, or people try and crush me; my will is mine and I will put fight.
Try taking it away from me. I double dare you!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Ya gotta check out this year’s anime releases like” Vexille” and “Appleseed Ex Machina”. I’m finally getting my hands on the complete “Paranoia Agent” this week.
Genius thy name is anime. Sunday is dedicated solely to” Afro Samurai”.
Cheers!
Dabba: May be you over-rate your own rage and cynicism. That boy isn’t as removed from your present as you might think based on what you’ve written. Using your yardstick, I never had that boy in me which explains why I never felt this way at a movie. You’re better off!
How could you cry during The Incredibles?
This is like the song ‘wo subah kabhi to aayegi…’
mildly optimistic and very depressing!
@ doremi –
twice. first when the boy rises up to the challenge as the man of the house and uses his super power to peddle mom and sis across the ocean, he reaches ashore completely tuckered out, and mom says with a smile “what a trooper”
second time, when in the climax the whole family of superheroes gets together to fight the baddie, and the dad says something along the lines of “we’re together, and we can do this” or something like that.
the same two scenes in live action would have been cheesy. when animated, it cuts through any artifice or contrivance and feels tru, which is sort of ironical that animation feels more real and less contrived.
@ mithun –
afro samurai is good fun. have only seen a few episodes. will try and catch the others.
@ tushi –
thanks
@ subrat –
perhaps you’re right. it don’t make living easier.
I just got back from watching Persepolis. I thought it was an exhausting experience but at the same time I was a lil disasppointed. When I watched the trailers, I was really impressed and somehow I expected the girl to do some great things. But she is as confused and normal as I am and maybe then I realised the movie was fine, it was just me who had unrealistic expectations. I loved the lil details of the animation. On the whole, thought it was very interesting.
@ srishti –
it was because she doesn’t go on to do great things that really got me. there was no hollywood style inspiring story when someone overcomes adversity to become a world famous cellist, or photographer or something.
In life, the only catharsis is death. And only for those living in hell.
Great post dabba….you have spilled your guts this time. And I know exactly what you mean.
Persepolis is a movie I could relate to completely. It was brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMwfzqEqVLk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlIAmCfHzbg
cheers to Satrapi
Good Post Dabba
@ Mainak
Thanks for the Link:)
Really good post dabba.
I admit that even I feel very emotional while watching some animation movies. When I was small I cried for little simba in Lion King. I still sometimes….
@ qwerty –
thanks. where have you been? haven’t heard from you in a while? traveling and shooting?
@ shekhar –
thanks. what is this style of animation called?
any guesstimates on budget?
@ mainak –
thanks for the interview clip. i had actually noticed that the teheran in the film, could have been anywhere, and that she probably did it deliberately. the abstractness of it really helps put you there.
@ 32 –
same here. only difference, I wasn’t that young when I watched Lion King…
Try taking it away from me. I double dare you!…..aameen!
the film is with me for the longest time. after reading this post, feel like watching it now.