The question inevitably arises: why use cinematism in one sequence, but animetism in the other? Lamarre states that cinematism and animetism operate differently on the viewer:

“…animetism not only implies a different way of perceiving things in an accelerated world but also promises a different way of thinking about technology and of inhabiting a technology-saturated world. Put another way, animetism does not take us out of the modern technological condition but hints at other ways of dwelling in it.”

 

In this way, Lamarre draws the comparison between a technique of experience and a technique of acknowledgement. In cinematism, as aforementioned, Lamarre and Virilio assert that ballistic motion in cinematism taps into a primal pleasure of a “strike or instant hit,” as well as the desire to close distance between the viewer and the a target object as fast as possible.

Conversely, Lamarre says that animetism is more concerned with what drawing attention to the idea that modern technology is pervasive, and offers a means by which a technologically created world (like that of Persepolis) can be lived in by the audience despite its inherent artificiality. In tandem, these sequences therefore give the viewer a visceral experience of the action as it takes place on-screen (cinematism), as well as an acknowledgement that the events are unfolding in the context of an animated world that is inherently technological (animetism).

More instances of animetism and cinematism occur in the final moments of the protest and for the rest of the film. However, it is important to consider what these choices do for the audience. In every shot throughout this uprising scene, the animators take painstaking effort to either employ either ballistic z-axis movement in the case of cinematism or multiplanar techniques in the case of animetism to give the viewer two different senses of depth.

Although it can be argued whether or not these techniques make the film seem realistic, this added sense of dimensionality is certainly fundamental to immersion; cinematism satisfies the human desire for an “instant hit,” and animetism recognizes the medium in which the story is being told. These operations also makes Persepolis very different from its source material, offering motion as a means to see into the Marjane Satrapi’s vision of Iran that could never be achieved on the pages of the graphic novel.

~ Søren