Spotlight on: Persepolis and The Benefits of Film Adaptation

Spotlight on: Persepolis and The Benefits of Film Adaptation

A trend has developed in recent film adaptations of graphic novels that worries me. Popular films such as Sin City and 300 are panel-to-panel exact copies of the novels they originate from. While this is often fun to look at and even amazingly done in most cases, it has led to a movement that worries me. When I think about adaptation of a novel, I imagine something that takes from the book, but also has an identity of its own. Recently a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed Watchmen graphic novel went into production. Director Zack Snyder, a big fan of the book, admitted that he would have to make a few changes in order for the novel to work as a film. There was a major backlash. People cried that Watchmen was unadaptable if the entire novel couldn't fit into one film. I say, why can't anything be changed? The medium of film is just a few steps above the experience of reading a comic book style novel, but the story can benefit so much from having visuals and narration separate from each other that it can create an entirely new experience altogether. The film that showed me that a graphic novel adaptation can have several omissions and changes from the book and still be a great experience, and even improve upon the novel in some ways, was the animated film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiography graphic novel, Persepolis.

Persepolis tells Marjane Satrapi's story of growing up in Iran and later Austria from the 70's up until present day. It addresses the political conflict of Iran and the sadness of a girl who has to grow up so far away from her home and her family. Eventually Marjane returns to Iran to see that the home she so longed for, no longer exists. There are three specific examples of benefiting from film adaptation in Persepolis. The first being after a scene in which Marjane overhears some girls at a cafe talking about her. The night before Marjane had pretended to be french while a guy hit on her, the girls at the table across from her were laughing at the thought of her pretending to be French. She angrily walks over to the table and yells "I AM IRANIAN AND PROUD OF IT!" and storms off. Now in terms of the book and the movie, there is no difference in this portion of the scene, it is a word for word copy. When we see Marjane thinking about the incident later while walking down the street she is reminded of her grandmother, and what she would think about Marjane pretending to be French. In the book what we see is Marjane's narration simply state that she was reminded of her grandmother and how upset she would be if she found out about Marjane hiding her Iranian heritage. In the film however, we are treated to a scene that replaces the simple narration with an artfully done scene where Marjane's shadow turns into the shape of her grandmother, and Marjane shares a discussion with grandmother's shadow that looms over her, disappointed in her for denying her roots. The creativeness of the scene along with the beautiful black and white 2D animation that keeps the movie still looking like the book, adds so much to the novel that we couldn't get before.

The second example is a musical number that happens shortly after Marjane attempts to commit suicide. In the novel it is shown over several pages how Marjane improved her life, going to school, starting up a dancing class, and just learning to be happy again. At one point in the book we see a radio in the studio of Marjane's dance class that has "Eye of the Tiger" playing. In the movie however, these pages are molded into one sequence where Marjane sings "Eye of the Tiger" as she improves her life in various ways. This is easily the most uplifting part of an often depressing movie and it expresses the happiness of Marjane much more fully than the novel. The third example is the largest. For the film, an entire extra layer of story was added with Marjane sitting in an airport in present day, thinking about her life. This provides an explanation of where the narration is coming from and a much more satisfying, if not more depressing ending than in the novel. It also provides an added artistic quality, as the present day scenes look beautiful with their partially colored in look. The only real advantage that the novel has over the film is that it can present a more detailed and long look into Marjane's life and that it can provide notes on specific events. Many times throughout the novel Marjane makes notes outside of the panels giving cultural information to explain certain events. Such as in a scene where one of the nuns at the board house Marjane is staying insults her in a different language and specifically calls her foreigner in a harsh tone. A similar event happens later involving her then boyfriend's mother. In the novel there is a note explaining the specific meanings of the words and often add some more humor or insight to the situation. Of course this cannot happen in the film and through careful changing of dialog, it is ommitted.

Besides those two minor differences, Persepolis really stands a strong companion piece to the novel. I can only hope people become more accepting to changes and sacrifices made to adapt a graphic novel to film, it is the only way the genre can branch out in the film world. Persepolis is a large step forward in the right direction, for proving how original a graphic novel adaptation can be.

Picks for the 80th annual Academy Awards

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR - 5 points
No Country for Old Men


ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING - 5 points
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - 5 points
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - 5 points
Ellen Page - Juno

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - 5 points
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - 5 points
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - 5 points
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - 5 points
Diablo Cody - Juno


BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR - 5 points
The Counterfeiters (Austria)


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR - 3 points
Persepolis

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION - 5 points
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo


ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY - 5 points
Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN - 5 points
Colleen Atwood - Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - 5 point
Sicko


ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING - 5 points
Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP - 3 points
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE) - 5 points
Dario Marianelli - Atonement

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG) - 5 points
"Falling Slowly" - Once
Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova


ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING - 5 points
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland - No Country for Old Men

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING - 5 points
Matthew Wood - There Will Be Blood


ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS - 3 points
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier - Transformers

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT - 4 points
Freeheld

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM - 5 points
I Met the Walrus


BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM - 5 points
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)

Oscar Review: Atonement

Atonement
Directed: Joe Wright
Written: Christopher Hampton and Ian McEwan (novel)
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Keira Knightley, and James McAvoy

Blech! Period pieces are something I do not often enjoy. They all follow the same basic rules:
1. Have every actor involved go by the classical standard of "victorian" acting.
2. Be nominated for best costume design no matter what.
3. Have Keira Knightley on the cover.
4. Focus on a rich family.
5. Make sure it is a love story.
Atonement breaks none of these rules, and to the untrained eye looks like just another sappy old love story that we have heard several versions of before. The truth is that Atonement breaks new ground in an endless cycle of period piece love stories with its touchy subject manner, creative directing, and bold ending. The tragic story begins at the large estate of the Tallis family. Briony Tallis(Saoirse Ronan) is a writer who at the age of 13 has already completed several stories and plays. Today her cousins are coming over(while their parents are getting divorced) and she has a play prepared to be performed that night. Her three cousins, a 15 year old redheaded girl named Lola Quincey and her two younger twin brothers; are not very interested in Briony's play despite her pleading with them to pay attention. Meanwhile Briony's sister Cecilia is preparing for the arrival of her brother who is bringing his best friend who runs a chocolate factory. Cecilia is being bothered by her classmate/landscaper Robbie (James McAvoy) who later that day confesses his love to Cecilia in a note he gives to Briony. Unfortunately he accidentally gives Briony a highly sexual and crude note that he wrote as a joke. Cecilia seems undisturbed and shows her love to Robbie in the library of their mansion. Cecilia walks in on this and is highly shaken up, this and a case of mistaken identity later in the night lead Briony to accuse Robbie of being a sexual predator. Robbie is arrested and eventually joins the army, being separated from his lover Cecilia. Atonement focuses on the tale of Robbie and Cecilia craving to be back with each other as well as Briony's growing guilt for falsely accusing Robbie over the course of several years.

The first act of Atonement feels very typical, but interesting to watch. A rich yet troubled family and their sexual adventures! We have seen this story before, but the acting helps this part of the story rise above conventional standards. Saoirse Ronan in particular is wonderful as Briony (the real star of the movie) her portrayal of the innocence yet ignorance of a little girl will really affect you. Keira Knightley nor James McAvoy really impressed me and seemed very plain and simple with their performances. This may just be the fact that the story of the character Briony is much more interesting than the love story that the film so heavily advertises. The middle act shows off the more impressive technical aspects of Atonement. A single several minute shot on the beach of Dunkirk is breathtaking, the constant moving camera that goes across the beach, along with the moving score complimenting the singing soldiers in a choir, all mixing with Joe Wright really showing off his talent.

The final act is what really brings this movie over the edge of being typical to its genre (as could be said for many of the best films of 2007) Atonement has an ending that is so astonishingly brilliant, it improves everything in the film tenfold in a single moment. So while Atonement may at first come off as typical, good things come to those who wait, in this case the good thing would be a revolution of consequences in period piece romance.

9/10

Oscar Review: Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton
Written and Directed: Tony Gilroy
Starring: George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson

The words "legal" and "thriller" mixed together have produced some very mixed and boring results before. When I saw the trailer for Michael Clayton I was less than excited. It had a great cast, but the story seemed typical (Network, anyone?) and none of it looked very interesting. I wasn't even tempted to take a look at it until Oscar nominations were being thrown at it. To be honest, the only reason I decided to watch it was because I was dedicated to seeing every best picture nomination. To my surprise, Michael Clayton is much more daring than your average legal thriller. Not so much in the point it tries to make, but in how it focuses on it's characters and their glaring faults. Be it how far they will go to succeed, or how they can fix every single problem but their own; Michael Clayton is a fascinating character study.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is what people in the business(the legal business, I guess) call a "fixer". His job is to come up with quick solutions for rich clients under high pressure situations. Now one of the top attorneys at the firm Clayton works at, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) is having a breakdown. During an important deposition for the firms #1 client U-North a pharmeceutical company, Edens begins to strip naked and seemingly goes insane. Michael is sent in to rectify the situation and take care of his long time friend. Everyone thinks Arthur has simply snapped, but it becomes apparent that U-North is hiding something, something that made Arthur deeply question his own morality, and U-North's chief counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) will do anything to hide it from the public.

I started to appreciate Michael Clayton during a scene where Michael pulls over his car to take in the beauty of some horses standing in a field. It is kind of odd, me finding appreciation in a movie that didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary during a scene in which the main character is finding appreciation in horses that weren't really doing anything out of the ordinary. I kind of find it amazing that Michael Clayton is not based on a book. I actually thought it was based on a book up until I started looking for that "based on the best selling novel" label. The fact that Michael Clayton is not based on a book is a testament to the film itself, the dialog feels straight out of a great novel, while the cinematography contrasts it with the kind of beautiful shots we go to see films for (in particular the scene with horses I mentioned earlier). Tony Gilroy has proven his writing skills before by adapting the Bourne screenplays but here he shows that his directing is just as good and compliments his writing very well. The acting here is phenomenal, George Clooney once again proves that he can play any role he wants and often does so, he carries the film very well. I think Tilda Swinton has won me over in just about everything she has ever been in including the mediocre comic book adaptation Constantine and she is just as good here. Tom Wilkinson's role may seem sort of like a show off "give me an oscar" role to some, but I think he genuinely does well here and avoids the oscar grabbing you would see from actors like Russel Crowe(I love you Russel, but don't you ever tell me Cinderella Man was a good movie).

So it is not when the legal plan all comes together, or when justice is served that Michael Clayton becomes a good movie. There is a moment where you realize this is much more than a legal thriller. It is during a scene in which Clayton's son is explaining a popular children's trading card series to Arthur Edens that involves everyone in a town having the same dream, but no one knows it because everyone is afraid that they are crazy. There is something oddly powerful about a moment like this, and seeing Edens react with interest and find such meaning in what is seemingly a stupid trading card game. It is just something you have to stop, look at, and appreciate.

9.1/10

Oscar Review: Juno

Juno
Written: Diablo Cody

Directed: Jason Reitman

Starring: Ellen Page and Michael Cera

"Honest to Blog" There it is, the line that made me cringe the most in Juno. Some others had it much worse, being annoyed by every "quirky" thing about the film from Juno eating lunch in her high school trophy case or her having a plastic phone shaped like a hamburger. I am not writing this review to argue against these people, the thing would have to be pages long. I have been an avid defender of Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, and many others that receive the "quirky" complaint. So let me just get out of the way that yes, Juno is a very quirky movie that may have a few too many weird lines of dialog that seem to "hip" and that no one really says in real life. Let me also get out of the way that even though writer Diablo Cody is getting criticized by a few people for her writing, she is essentially doing the same thing Quentin Tarantino does with his writing. She creates a hip lingo that doesn't really exist, and I(as do most) marvel at Tarantino...so why not Cody?

Now that we got that out of the way lets get on to the actual film. Juno Macguff (Ellen Page) is a 16 year old junior in high school who is probably the coolest girl to never exist. She is witty, loves good music, and coincidentally is pregnant. The father is Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) who is Juno's best friend. He runs track and is addicted to tic-tacs. Juno claims that she had sex with Paulie out of sheer boredom but Paulie was hoping that much more was involved than just boredom. Juno decides to have the baby, but instead of raising it she wants to let a family adopt it. After searching she comes across Mark and Vanessa Loring, a somewhat typical young suburban couple. While Vanessa is nice and almost tries too hard sometimes, Mark seems unhappy with his current lifestyle and misses his rock and roll days from when he was younger. He sees this personified in Juno and as she moves throughout her pregnancy her and Mark see more and more eachother culminating in a lesson in maturity for the both of them.

Juno is a very funny movie. All of the characters are lightning fast with their responses and everyone seems to play off of eachother very well. Ellen Page especially deserves her oscar nod for creating one of the most likable characters of the year without seeming too cheesy with most of her delivery. The only problem with most of the humor was that it seemed almost toned down at points that took me out of the film. There is an excess of the word "friggin" throughout the film, but we all know what they would be saying in real life. Despite that I enjoyed a lot of Diablo Cody's dialog, she is not a master writer but for a first screenplay Juno is certainly very impressive(much more impressive than what I could churn out). Just about all the acting is enjoyable. Michael Cera as usual is very funny with his standard facial reactions mixed with awkward dialog. I am not a big Jennifer Garner fan but she really shines in this movie especially in a scene that takes place in a mall where she feels the baby kick for the first time. Jason Bateman and Michael Cera do not share any scenes together so there is no Arrested Development references, even so Jason holds his own and I am glad he is getting some better roles now(The Ex and Smoking Aces bleh) Juno pulls no punches when talking about music or movies either, extended conversations about Sonic Youth and rare horror gems like The Wizard of Gore are all over the place, causing some awkward moments of only 2 or 3 people in the theater getting the joke.

Despite it's humor and silly exterior, Juno has some very touching moments within, almost all of them accentuated by former Moldy Peach, Kimya Dawson doing the soundtrack. There is a performance of "Anybody Else But You" that is a key moment of the film and challenges anyone not to crack a smile at how sweet it is. The film is not afraid to go deep with some of it's emotions and it definitley works well, making a much more serious movie than most would expect. 2007 has been the ultimate year for "having a baby" movies and Juno brings it to the teens. It almost takes me back to when I was in 9th grade and had a lot of friends that were "hip" like Juno, none of them pregnant of course. These people shaped my taste in just about everything and Juno makes me miss them terribly. If anything can tug on my heartstrings hard enough to make me think of all my friends from back then and focus on pregnancy in a humorous and serious way without a moments hesitation between the two...It is definitley one of the best films of the year.

9.7/10

Oscar Review: No Country For Old Men

No Country For Old Men
Written : Cormac McCarthy(novel) The Coen Brothers (screenplay)
Directed: The Coen Brothers
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

America has become sort of a rough place. So many films have had specific statments about America, and what it is becoming. Be it Crash with its statement on the racism that still exists after all these years and might be getting worse, or Requiem for a Dream's take on the drug problem in America. All of these films have a clear straight message of how bad America is becoming. No Country For Old Men has a similar message, but it is not clear, and it is not warning of us how bad America will become, it is showing us how bad it was 28 years ago. Leaving us alone to realize how bad it is now. The thing that is most scary about No Country For Old Men is not it's nail biting scenes of suspense that bring a whole new standard to the thriller genre. It is the thing that transcends the thriller genre, transcends the film altogether really, it is the portrayal of the rising violence and insanity in America and how that the picture perfect baby boomer generation of America has now faded into a dark and scary place with little remorse for the lives of others.

The film is about three different men, who are all chasing eachother, rarely interacting head on, if ever. The first is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) a small time sheriff in West Texas who opens the film with a voiceover about a horrible crime committed by a teenage boy, which compliments the wide open shots of desert. Then we have Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) a vietnam veteran who goes out hunting one day and spots the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, all that is left is tons of drugs, a pile of dead bodies along with an almost dead body, and a satchel filled with $2 million dollars. Llewelyn takes the money, ignoring the pleas of the last man alive who is begging for water. Later his guilt gets the best of him and he drives back to the scene only to be discovered and shot at by a third party checking out the drug deal. He ditches his truck, gets his wife out town, and starts hiding but now they have access to all his information and have send someone to get their money back. That man is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) a purported hitman who personifies unstoppable evil, Anton is not in this for the money, he is in it for the hunt, the money being a nice bonus. Anton sadistically kills people for little to no reason going as far to even kill some of his own allies. His weapons of choice are a cattle gun, a gigantic silenced shotgun, and a coin. Anton flips the coin on those he is not sure he needs to kill, allowing them to choose their own fate. It as almost as if that he has to leave it up fate, since no matter what he is driven to kill them, he can't make the decision despite what one of his victims claims otherwise. He is literally a killing machine.

So the film focuses on these three men, waiting until the end to reveal who the movie is really about. In between the opening and the last 15 minutes or so we are treated to one of the best suspense thrillers to come out since Silence of the Lambs. One of the more effective factors is how the film features no music at all, creating eery silence, unlike most films today that have a score trying to add an exclamation point on every scene. The silence here provides such an intense viewing experience when you first see it, that I already miss not knowing what is going to happen. For violence junkies the film will please you as well, Anton Chigurh pulls off some very nasty kills here. One thing that has annoyed me about the recent praise of No Country For Old Men is people claiming that "this is what the Coens do best" I highly disagree, while Fargo and Miller's Crossing are both classics in their own right they shouldn't always be considered the Coen's best. As a person whose favorite Coen film is Barton Fink I can say that No Country easily surpasses it and IS the Coen's most well written and directed film. From what I hear the script is a word for word adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel besides some small improvements or making specific things a little less clear. The movie has some great dialog, mostly coming from Anton and Sheriff Bell who both have long monologues at different points showing the duality of their two different sides.

When the film comes to a close and the real message is revealed, when we finally see why it is called No Country For Old Men that is when the film easily rises above whatever limitations the thriller genre has and becomes a much more horrifying movie. Let me just restate the film is set in 1980, if things were bad then, what kind of country are we in now?

9.8/10

Oscar Review: There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood
Release Date: December 26th 2007
Written and Directed: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano

Fuel powers everything we do, it gives us energy, it gives us ambition, it gives us greed, and it gives us the need to succeed. There Will Be Blood addresses fuel in a very interesting way. Paul Thomas Anderson hasn't made a movie since Punch Drunk Love in 2002, so when it comes to his fans There Will Be Blood is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year. I was just recently introduced to Paul Thomas Anderson through his 1999 epic Magnolia . So my anticipation was short lived but strong. There Will Be Blood is a story about Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day-Lewis) loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel from 1927 novel "Oil!" We see Daniel start out as a small silver prospector and slowly rise to oil baron, all in one completely silent 15 minute scene. He is approached by a man named Paul Sunday(Paul Dano) who tells him of the town of Little Boston, California that has oil literally leaking out of the ground. Daniel and his son H.W. travel to Little Boston and meet the other members of the sunday family. In paticular Eli Sunday(also Paul Dano) who is Paul's twin brother. More importantly Eli is a preacher of a small church within the very religious town. When drilling begins Eli and the not very religious Daniel regurarily clash. Daniel is not exactly evil, but his business seems to be fueled by greed, hiding the good man within, and when this clashes with the extreme religion of Eli's church, Daniel and his family will forever be affected.

So first off, the best performances of the year is in There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis is being nominated for just about every male acting award available and winning most of them. It is known that Daniel only takes roles that are very special to him, and he is what makes the character of Daniel Plainview show a broad range of good and evil. Child actor Dillon Freasier as H.W. Plainview shows some very early promise and is able to really show off his ability due to a plot point that I will not spoil for you. The performance I personally enjoyed the most was Paul Dano as Eli Sunday. When Little Miss Sunshine came out, I praised his performance as young angst filled son Dwayne. Some questioned the validity of his performance based on the fact that he is silent for the majority of the film, in my opinion this only adds challenge to his role and showed much more promise for him than mediocre teen movies he had been in like The Girl Next Door. Eli Sunday is hands down his best performance so far. When Eli gives his sermons he becomes eerily similar to evangelical preachers you see on TV today, screaming and yelling about "getting the demons out" with frightening intensity. It is a shame Paul couldn't pull a best supporting actor nomination from the academy, but Javier Bardem would most likely beat him anyway.

Paul Thomas Anderson proves here that his range is growing, being able to realistically portray the early 1900's in the middle of nowhere had to have been a difficult task. There Will Be Blood is not the most tightly pulled together, nor well constructed film of 2007. These faults almost add to the film, making it seem like more than your standard epic. While There Will Be Blood has a lot of factors similar to something you would see in a Scorcese biopic it also has almost Kubrick-like visuals throughout. Some might say that Paul is pulling too much from other directors, but somehow by mixing several different things together he makes a style all his own and I am sure one day a movie will be known as Anderson-like. The only minor downside to There Will Be Blood is its length. The film comes in at about 10 minutes short of 3 hours, and to some the length could be off putting. I was interested almost the entire time due to the well written dialog but those who are easily distracted will definitely be checking their watch towards the middle portion of the film.

Luckily the last 30 minutes or so take an unexpected turn that I won't give away, but I will say that the film delivers on its titles promise. Religion and Oil mixed together make blood, and when we see it run over the final frames in a deep shade of red, we need to take it as a warning about todays economy and the frequent feuds connecting religion and oil together. It is strange that a film set in the early 1900's says more about current times than any other film in 2007, but There Will Be Blood does just that and manages to be the best film of the last year.

10/10