我在伊朗长大影评：Westernised ideology-Image of Iran in Persepolis
When watching the film Persepolis, I am aware of westernized ideology. This was not that obvious in the previous films, since all of them happens in the context of west society, and that becomes appearent in the context of Iran.
The image of Iran
We all feel nostalgia for the environs of our past, … ... Our pasts may be flawed, but they are ours and we are attached to them.
At the beginning of the film, Marjane recalls the memory of her childhood life, It might be ruled by dictator and there are many conflicts there, but it is the Iran than she longs for all his life, with families, friends, parties , rock music and pop star.
"I want to be in America", the Jets sing, in that famous song from West Side Story. They are in America already and yet still wanting to get there.
We always dream to live somewhere else, in most cases it is only a beautiful dream that can never comes true. Marjane is the lucky girl who is able to realize her dream.However, she is still unable to get her ideal place to live in, and dreaming about the hometown that never exists.
Marjane's hometown, Iran, was depicted as a conservative country, what impresses me about Iran is its policemen, the stringent censorship of foreign commodities, and the bloody revenge to people who hold different political views. These give audiences a feeling that Iran is such a closed country that falls far behind the western countries, all they can do is to admire the western lifestyle, and complain about their country. Marjane had set a gap between Iran and the modern society. With her brilliant skills of depicting things, she gives us an image of Iran's daily life which is dull, conservative and hopeless. This is a sharp contrast to the vivid description of Vienna.
The tone in Marjane’s childhood is bright. This snapshot of her family describes a warm and happy atmosphere, regardless it is still in black-white.
Then the atmosphere in Irani society becomes darker. This screen shot has a strong metaphor: Every student in this scene stands in equal distance, the darkness from the background and their black clothes forms a contrast to the bright and innocent faces. This suggests how stringent social rules standardize individuals.
“ABBA? That’s for losers!”
When it turns to western things in Iran, the atmosphere becomes more relax, sometimes amusing. This line is also in quite a western style.
It is interesting when Marjane is in the airport, the image even turns to colours. This may because the airport is the connecting between Iran and western world. A typical scene in airport is Marjane smoking in the waiting room, this “bold” behavior suggests Marjane is going to a new world.
It is a typical image of western life—friends sit around the campfire, singing and drinking. Marjane’s life in Vienna is free and happy in general. It is her personal reasons that she leaves it.
After going back to Iran, Marjane finds Iran is not the country as it used to be, it is hopeless and full of horror. In the picture, we can see Marjane’s ability to control the visual language. By using the dark tone and a line of shaded faces, she successfully applies the hopeless feeling to her film.
Why Iran is depicted like that
Marjane tells her story with a humorous and westernize way, Audiences with a western background can easily enjoy this scene without feeling confused about the cultural gap. That is why this film is so succeed in the world, cause the world is more globalized than ever before, in another word, westernized.
This looks like the way some Chinese contemporary artists did when entered the western world. In order to be accepted, they have to use the Chinese icon to attract viewer, each one of them occupies a traditional symbol as their major concern, Which makes their work remain at the most superficial level. Since there is already a gap between us and our great traditions, it is almost impossible to discuss contemporary life in the context of Chinese tradition.
This is mainly because the way we were educated, modern Chinese education system were introduced by reformers in the early 20th century, at that time, China Is a weak country which was invaded since 1840. Before that, China was so proud of its wealth and arm force. In 1840, China lost the First Opium War, and then it lost again and again to other western forces. In the next 100 years, Most Chinese people, from the emperor to ordinary civilians, were in lack of confidence when facing the western countries. So it is reasonable that the thought of learning the west emerged at that time. When it came to 1920s, since more Chinese oversea student returned, the learning became much more systematic. All of the oversea students had the idea that modernize China completely, of course in a westernized way. The most severe situation happened in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), most old order of ancient China, including customs and cultural relics, were destroyed. Since then, tradition is no longer a living context. Now look back to Marjane , when she stayed in Iran in her childhood, the reason why the western culture is attractive to her is that it is an alternative choice and an interesting lifestyle. After having read a little about the modern history of Iran, I have learnt that Iran had also experienced a period of westernization which was conducted by the Western-backed Shah. Although the process was interrupted by the consecutive majorities, It still influenced many youths, Marjane’s parents must be among them. This makes it much easier to understand her negative view about contemporary Iran.
When she came back to live in Iran for the second time, she find it almost unacceptable, that is because she has totally accepted the western lifestyle, even her emotional experience hurt her badly. When you have tasted what freedom is, it is so hard to return to the restricted life.
I don’t mean to judge which kind of lifestyle is better, but it is of great significance that each culture should have its own way of existence. It may hard to distinguish what the western gene is in our mind, it is more important to know what we have as a Chinese person.(1072words)
伊朗女画家自传
