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The Cinema of Lost Innocents
Feb. 3rd, 2008 10:29 pmIn between bouts of sick and overtime, I did manage to see a two excellent movies during the latter half of January: The Orphanage and Persepolis.
Watching The Orphanage definitely quickened my pulse--it's shocking and scary in much the same way that executive producer Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone is. (One gets the impression that del Toro has decided to take first-time director Juan Antonio Bayona under his now-famous wing.) The film's chilly style and themes of family trauma also owe something to another recent supernatural thriller, Alejandro Amenábar's 2001 The Others. But The Orphanage stands out among films of this genre because of the imaginative use it makes of familiar horror-movie images and themes: disfigurement, the loss of innocence, the uncanny. Powerful, cathartic ending, too.
I went to see Persepolis with more preconceptions, having previously read and admired Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name. For those unfamiliar with the latter, it's an autobiographical coming-of-age story set (primarily) in post-revolutionary Iran. Satrapi recounts her life from a childhood spent during the last days of the Shah through early adulthood in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War, narrating the hypocrisies and cruelties she witnessed during those years. The film impressively translates her incredulity, sarcasm, impatience, energy, and sadness to the screen, along with the graphic novel's simple, expressive visual style. (Satrapi appears to have maintained a high degree of creative control over the adaptation, sharing the writing and directing credits.) Bottom line: If you've read and enjoyed Satrapi's graphic novels, I think that you'll appreciate seeing them retold in this way. And, to judge by the friend I saw the movie with, the other weekend, it works equally well for those who are new to the story.
Watching The Orphanage definitely quickened my pulse--it's shocking and scary in much the same way that executive producer Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone is. (One gets the impression that del Toro has decided to take first-time director Juan Antonio Bayona under his now-famous wing.) The film's chilly style and themes of family trauma also owe something to another recent supernatural thriller, Alejandro Amenábar's 2001 The Others. But The Orphanage stands out among films of this genre because of the imaginative use it makes of familiar horror-movie images and themes: disfigurement, the loss of innocence, the uncanny. Powerful, cathartic ending, too.
I went to see Persepolis with more preconceptions, having previously read and admired Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name. For those unfamiliar with the latter, it's an autobiographical coming-of-age story set (primarily) in post-revolutionary Iran. Satrapi recounts her life from a childhood spent during the last days of the Shah through early adulthood in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War, narrating the hypocrisies and cruelties she witnessed during those years. The film impressively translates her incredulity, sarcasm, impatience, energy, and sadness to the screen, along with the graphic novel's simple, expressive visual style. (Satrapi appears to have maintained a high degree of creative control over the adaptation, sharing the writing and directing credits.) Bottom line: If you've read and enjoyed Satrapi's graphic novels, I think that you'll appreciate seeing them retold in this way. And, to judge by the friend I saw the movie with, the other weekend, it works equally well for those who are new to the story.
