Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- – The Michael Musto article in the current issue of the Village Voice contains a short passage about Marjane Satrapi. This isn’t the usual material you get to read about Satrapi in her push toward the opening of Persepolis – scheduled to open wide on December 25th.

By any name, the New York Film Festival closed with Persepolis, the inventive animated film based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel about an Iranian Eloise growing up through political tumult, a gay boyfriend, and a grandmother who soaks her tits in ice water, even her nipples. In the midst of the Café des Artistes dinner for the film, Satrapi left her ice water on the table to go outside and smoke like a chimney as she fielded my queries. Was her childhood in Iran all bad? “Primo Levi said total happiness doesn’t exist,” Satrapi replied, puffing away. “Total sadness doesn’t exist either. We had our good moments.” What brought her the most pleasure? “Smoking in the toilet with friends,” she admitted. “I loved putting something forbidden in my mouth in the toilet.” And she didn’t even have to tap in the stall!

Will publicity as good as this allow Ms. Satrapi to beat Bee Movie to the finish line come Oscar time? Animation is usually given the back seat in the PR rush. Unless you have a Bee Movie where Jerry Seinfeld is out there on Oprah pushing everyone (including Oprah) to wear Bee hats, you’re in the ghetto of the publicity machine. If you can’t act like an infant, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of press.

I’m pleased to see Musto write about Satrapi like this. It means she’s stepped over the border into adult-world. Her film is being treated like a real film not a kiddie comedy. It’s a big step in the right direction. It’s also nice that it’s being done by a woman. Arguably, Bakshi did the same years ago, certainly with Heavy Traffic which made many “Best Films of the Year” lists. However, the current fodder of second-rate animated features has thrown things back a few years, and we need a good representative to bring things up somewhat. We can hope that Marjane Satrapi will lead the quiet charge.

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