The Franco-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi died at the age of 56, her entourage announced Thursday June 4. A year after the death of her husband, Mattias Ripa, the comic book author and director “died of sadness”, according to a press release from those close to her.
In the early 2000s, Marjane Satrapi became known internationally thanks to her comic strip Persepolis, which was quickly adapted for cinema. Another of his albums, Poulet aux prunes, also brought to the screen, also met with wide critical success. On the other hand, his subsequent films remained more confidential.
Here are five works to discover or rediscover the journey of this unique artist.
“Persepolis”, the comic strip and the film
This is undoubtedly Marjane Satrapi’s most emblematic work, the one that made her known throughout the world. Persepolis was first a series of comic strips, in four volumes, published between 2000 and 2003 by the publisher L’Association. The Franco-Iranian author and designer talks about her childhood in the middle of the Iranian revolution. The story begins in 1979, in Tehran, when the Shah’s regime is on the verge of falling. Marjane at 10 years old. We then see her grow up under the religious dictatorship, then go into exile, alone, while her parents send her to Europe.
A historical and intimate fresco, which combines humor, political and feminist reflection, this comic book immediately met with great success with critics and the public. She helped to revive interest in graphic novels and won several prestigious prizes in Angoulême, Belgium and Germany. Translated into more than twenty languages, Persepolis has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide since its release.
In 2007, this drawn autobiography was adapted into an animated film on the big screen. Marjane Satrapi then becomes director alongside Vincent Paronnaud. The film, which will become iconic, retains all the strength of the original work, as highlighted in the review by La Croix. The voices are given to Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux and Simon Abkarian. Persepolis wins the jury prize at Cannes.
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“Embroidery”
In 2003, the year the last volume of Persepolis was released, Marjane Satrapi published with her publisher L’Association a new album entitled Broderies, which paints an intimate and humorous portrait of several Iranian women, to depict the condition of women in Iran.
A very different work from Persepolis, this graphic novel is shorter and is organized around the confidences of these women, heard by young Marjane when she was little, at times when the men went to take a nap and when women’s tongues were loosened around a cup of tea. We discover in particular the stories of Marjane’s succulent grandmother. Funny and touching, as well as revealing chilling testimonies, the work suffered from being released in the shadow of the massive success of Persepolis, but was noticed at numerous comic book festivals.
“Chicken with plums”, the comic strip and the film
A year later, Marjane Satrapi released another comic strip in 2004 which was a great success. In Chicken with Plums, the designer once again evokes Iran and her family history, through the story of her uncle Nasser, a melancholy musician who decides to let himself die after losing what gave meaning to his life. “A sad story told in the manner of a tale, a book to laugh and cry, a great pleasure to read,” was written in La Croix.
The boards are always in black and white, with great graphic mastery. The album was translated into ten languages and received the prize for best album in Angoulême in 2005.
In 2011, Chicken with Plums also became a film. Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi are reunited to direct. This time they are not using animated cinema, but using “real” actors. Maria de Medeiros, Chiara Mastroianni, Édouard Baer and Jamel Debbouze are on screen. If the work moves away from the graphic and poetic universe of Marjane Satrapi, it nonetheless remains praised at the Venice Film Festival and received the best film prize at the Abu Dhabi festival.
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« The Voices », le film
In 2014, Marjane Satrapi once again tackled the 7th art to direct the film The Voices, an American production, released in 2015 in France. Thanks to the international success of Persepolis, the Franco-Iranian artist was approached by several Hollywood producers. When she was asked to direct the film Maleficent with Angelina Jolie, the designer opted for a stranger scenario, better corresponding to her humor and her universe: the script for The Voices.
Black comedy and psychological thriller, the film tells the story of Jerry, a solitary man working in a factory, apparently nice, but who turns out to be a serial killer, guided by the voice of his pets and in particular that of his cat. Marjane Satrapi says she laughed a lot while creating this character of a tyrant cat, “cynical and so funny”.
The cinematic farce received good reviews in the United States, but proved to be a commercial failure. In France, opinions are mixed, with some praising the originality of this black comedy, others finding it too confusing.
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“Radioactive”, the film
A few years later, Marjane Satrapi directed a new film at the request of an Anglo-Saxon studio. Radioactive, released in 2019 and notably presented at the Toronto festival, is an international biopic on Marie Curie. This is the adaptation of the graphic novel Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, the story of two invisible forces by Lauren Redniss.
Well received by some critics for its visual originality and its feminist theme, it enjoyed more limited success with the public. La Croix noted at the time “visually successful scenes which give an aesthetic texture to the work of Marie Curie, making radioactivity poetic”. The performance of lead actress Rosamund Pike is praised, but the overall narrative of the film is sometimes considered too classic.
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