November 18, 2007
SLIFF DAY 10 (recap)
PERSEPOLIS
One of the films I have most been looking for for this year's festival was "Persepolis," based on the widely acclaimed graphic novel.
I loved it. It was one of my favorite films at the fest. The animation was in sync with the style of the graphic novel while remaining true ot the spirit of Marjane Satrapi's work.
From a political standpoint the film could not come out at a better time. Socially it is a film that does a lot to explain a culture that many are quick to condemn without understanding.
The downfall of the Shah of Iran and subsequent Islamic Revolution has never been so easily explained in such a minimalistically clever way. The humor of the graphic novel is retained as well, providing a very accessable human element to the animation on screen. This film won a jury Prize at Cannes and is slated for a wide release soon. Do not miss it!
Another reason to see "Persepolis" is because the French are doing some cool things with both comics and animation right now. A case in point of this would be, "Renaissance" which came out here last year.
THE WALKER
Woody Harrelson plays gay against a triple threat of acting powerhouses, Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall and Kirsten Scott Thomas. Okay, two powerhouses and KST. Anyway, What the hell happenend to director Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver," Raging Bull")? With the body of work he has created you would expect to see a film that was a not a slowly paced meandering mess like this. At times it was stagnant and had no life. Harrelson was not awful onscreen, he just wasn't very great either.