5 Facts About Marjane Satrapi
In preparation for the next Bushwick event, Original Music Inspired by Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, I read the Complete Persepolis. It left me wanting to know even about Marjane Satrapi’s life. Those of you who have read Persepolils know that it tackles some serious stuff. But does a softer, sillier side of Satrapi exist?
I took to the Internet to find out. Here are a few fun facts I discovered about Marjane Satrapi.
Smoking is Her Jam
Satrapi is a committed smoker and views smoking as a pleasure and accepts that her fondness for it might eventually kill her. She chronicled her love of smoking in a 2005 New York Times blog post complete with her illustrations and art. There are other great posts in her NYT blog, including a great one on a chicken sandwich and bird flu.
She’s Seen the Movie Seven Samurai More than 300 Times
According to an interview with IndieWire, Satrapi is a huge fan of the Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai. She watched it every day after school for years and has racked up over 300 views. About her love of the film she said, “I have an obsessive relationship with some movies that I can watch them over, and over again. I like them so much that I just can’t stop.”
She’s a Successful Director
After co-directing and co-writing the film adaptation of Persepolis, Satrapi went on to direct three more movies, Chicken with Plums, Gang of the Jotas and The Voices. Persepolis, her first foray into directing, was a huge success winning the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Her next movie is The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir is set to be released in 2017 and stars Uma Thurman.
She is a Childrens Book Author
Satrapi wrote and illustrated a children’s book called Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon. This is noteworthy because she strays from both biographical writing and black and white illustrations here to cover the world monsters under the bed in vivid color. Satrapi is also really good at drawing injured cats and monsters.
The first five pages of the book are available to read on book are on google books.
She Got Worms from Reading Comics
In a 2007 New York Film Festival Press Conference, Satrapi explains how reading the American comic Dracula lead her to believe that she and a cousin must eat raw chicken to be more like Dracula. They spend much of the summer eating this meat until they got worms and she swore off comics for the rest of her childhood.
It’s nice to know some fun facts about Satrapi and a little bit about her life outside of war in Iran. What is your favorite fact, silly or serious? Let us know in the comments below.
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