Black and white and colorful all over

My film class sort of met up again last week to see Persepolis. Taking notes at this film presented a bit of a challenge - how do you take notes on a foreign film in a dark theater? - but the viewing was a worthwhile one.

Animation: It’s not just for penguins and princesses anymore.

Persepolis relates the true tale of Marjane Satrapi, a young woman during the Islamic Revolution. The grim happenings - an increasingly oppressive regime at home, a continental divide from family, a crushing “banal love story” - suggest 95 minutes of Sturm und Drang, but Satrapi and co-director Vincent Paronnaud perk up the narrative with spunk and stylized pictures.

Persepolis only appears two-dimensional - in fact, its story has great depth. Satrapi based the Oscar-nominated Persepolis (the title refers to the historic Persian town) on her autobiographical graphic novels, but she doesn’t sugar-coat; rather, she’s self-deprecating, particularly during the Vienna years. Satrapi and Paronnaud offer the splash of a red coat that, as in Schindler’s List, stands out amid shades of gray, but mostly the images are deliberately simple black-and-white line drawings.

Persepolis would be flat without vibrant characters, and Marjane is a lively original. A precocious 1978 Marji lists her goals as “shaving my legs and being the last prophet in the galaxy.” Teenager Marjane enjoys contraband Iron Maiden tapes - peddlers of which evoke the Battery Park scene - while the adult emerges from depression thanks to “Eye of the Tiger.”

The French-language Persepolis receives a boost from the spirited vocals of Chiara Mastroianni; her mother, Catherine Deneuve; and 90-year-old Danielle Darrieux as Marjane’s witty grandmother. English dubbing with Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop is planned, but whatever its form, Persepolis proves the look and language of cinema are universal.