Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
Starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann.
Starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann.
In a Nutshell: The identities of an unstable actress and her caretaker begin to overlap.
Persona is an avant-garde classic of identity with a beauty and clarity that has endured mere art-house cliché. Ingmar Bergman, famous for the use of overlapping visages, demonstrates the intertwining souls of two tortured women living in solitude. One is Elisabet (Liv Ullmann), an actress who has inexplicably gone mute, possibly in protest or anguish. Nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) is certainly skilled enough to deal with trauma patients. But while caring for Elisabet, she finds herself becoming increasingly vocal with her hopes and fears, while Elisabet intently listens. Both relate moments of intense hurt (Elizabet’s unwanted and deformed child) and ecstasy (Alma’s beach orgy), but find themselves numb to more worldly crises. While holed up in a seaside cottage, the two women begin to share an unexplained emotional link where each experiences the other’s memories and dreams.
Persona is an avant-garde classic of identity with a beauty and clarity that has endured mere art-house cliché. Ingmar Bergman, famous for the use of overlapping visages, demonstrates the intertwining souls of two tortured women living in solitude. One is Elisabet (Liv Ullmann), an actress who has inexplicably gone mute, possibly in protest or anguish. Nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) is certainly skilled enough to deal with trauma patients. But while caring for Elisabet, she finds herself becoming increasingly vocal with her hopes and fears, while Elisabet intently listens. Both relate moments of intense hurt (Elizabet’s unwanted and deformed child) and ecstasy (Alma’s beach orgy), but find themselves numb to more worldly crises. While holed up in a seaside cottage, the two women begin to share an unexplained emotional link where each experiences the other’s memories and dreams.
As a film of abstract imagery, it is simple to interpret on a literal level; the two women share a bond that gives the other insight to their pain. But Bergman explores a more ambiguous definition of identity through his own cinematic illusion, and the subtext that illusion creates. Persona’s opening montage of disturbing imagery experiments with the power these pictures have on the human perception. The sequence pulls back to reveal a small boy viewing it from a projection; an experience solely of emotion. Elisabet and Alma’s identities are result of their own projections, shaped by the roles society has forced them to play (even within Elisabet’s chosen life of role-playing).
It is never explained why these two women become joined or what each discovers. One could infer two sides of the same woman or a singular identity between two entities. But that is still subjective. Even if no concrete conclusion can be attached to Persona, is a film experience in the truest sense. Bergman senses the pull of the film medium and spins his ideas into haunting visual poetry. Like its characters, it refuses to be pinned down, becoming a new movie for each viewer’s reading. A peerless work of art, no matter what persona it takes.
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