Noe’s subjective camera spends much of the first half in the hands of Oscar, while we watch the world through his eyes, and the second half of the film overhead, racing through hundreds of rooms with masked cuts. It lends an incomparable theatricality to the experience.
The thrill of meeting Marjane Satrapi reminded me of being 6 years old at Disney Land when I met the living, breathing Cinderella. Except Cinderella was an actress with a blond wig and Marjane is the real woman behind her autobiographical graphic novel, turned movie, “Persepolis”. The distinctive mole on her nose and her dark sultry eyes rose off the page and appeared in front of me, smoking and speaking with a French accent.