Persepolis

My muse of the moment of the latest moment is the film PERSEPOLIS.

“As long as you are alive you can protest and shout, yet laughter is the most subversive weapon of all.”

Marjane Satrapi

Here is the "party line" on the film from The New York Times: Persepolis” is a simple story told by simple means. Like Marjane Satrapi's book, on which it is based, the film, directed by Ms. Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, consists essentially of a series of monochrome drawings, their bold black lines washed with nuances of gray. The pictures are arranged into the chronicle of a young girl’s coming of age in difficult times, a tale that unfolds with such grace, intelligence and charm that you almost take the wondrous aspects of its execution for granted."

Never a true fan of comix, M. convinced me that I would love this film, and he was right. It pulled on my heartstrings in so many memory ways, capturing the joy and rapture of young girlhood, the ravages of depression, being a punk rock kid, the love of grandmother and granddaughter. Amazing that black and white, and carefully chosen moments of color, can evoke so much.

Black and white are unsung tools, I am thinking. As M. is peeling a grapefruit within an inch of it's life, I recall the tumbling jasmine flowers throughout the film - especially a young girl asking her grandmother why jasmine fell out of her bra at the end of the night...you'll have to see the movie to get what that's about - be ready to really laugh - and cry too.