'PERSEPOLIS' LEADING LADY NO ORDINARY ANIMATED HEROINE.

Byline: GLENN WHIPP

>FILM CRITIC

Animated movies have never seen a heroine quite like Marjane in "Persepolis."

Sure, she's spunky and resourceful, cute as a button at age 9, and possessing grace and beauty as an adult. But she's also a chronically depressed chain-smoker (the adult, not the 9- year-old) and spends most of the movie thrashing around in search of a grown-up identity.

Marjane is, in other words, a thoroughly realized human being, and "Persepolis" is her funny and thoughtful coming-of-age story. The film is based on Marjane Satrapi's two graphic novels, recounting a childhood in Iran that encompassed both the pre-revolutionary and Islamic fundamentalist years, her teenaged exile to a Viennese boarding school (talk about a sea change!) and her return to Tehran as a young woman.

Satrapi co-directed the movie with Vincent Paronnaud, and the film retains the novel's stark, black-and white graphic style as well as the intimacy of its subject matter. Also present is Satrapi's self-mocking, playful humor, qualities that remove any traces of self-pity from her story. Satrapi, now living and working in Paris, knows she's one of the lucky ones.

"Persepolis" is also something of a history lesson, not to mention a knowing look at a nation that most Americans (our "Decider" included) don't really understand. Satrapi never loses her love of country despite watching one repressive regime after another deny individual freedom and use God to quash dissent.

Marjane (voiced by Gabrielle Lopes as a child and Chiara Mastroianni as a teenager and adult) has parents who are loving and progressive. (Catherine Deneuve, Mastroianni's own mom, provides the mother's voice.)

But her primary relationship is with her grandmother (legendary grand dame Danielle Darrieux), a foul-mouthed freedom-lover who guides Marjane on her journey.

"Freedom always has a price," the grandmother tells Marjane, and the wise "Persepolis" makes these words ring true with a rueful poignancy that comes from lived-in experience.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

PERSEPOLIS - Three and one half stars

>PG-13: violent images, sexual references, language and brief drug content.

>Starring: Voices of Gabrielle Lopes, Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux.

>Directors: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.

>Running time: 1 hr. 35 min.

>Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino; Lammle's Music Hall in Beverly Hills; Laemmle's Monica in Santa Monica; The Landmark in West Los Angeles.

>In a nutshell: Fine, funny adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel about coming of age in Tehran. In French with English subtitles.

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Photo:

Simple animation contrasts with the complex story of "Persepolis."