PERSONA (1966)

Country: Sweden

Genre(s): Art Film / Drama

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Bibi Andersson / Liv Ullmann / Margaretha Krook

 

Plot

Following a nervous breakdown, an actress is accompanied by her nurse to a secluded cottage to recover.  The women develop an intense psychological connection that leads to personal turmoil.

What I Liked

“Persona” delves very deeply into some of the themes I love in literature and film, the subconscious, psychological control, language, perception versus truth, and individual desires versus cultural expectations.  Some of these motifs are covered so overtly that it is shocking.  Others are developed with deft subtlety.

The part of the story I found most intriguing was the changes that occur in the relationship between the two main characters after they arrive at the seaside cottage.  The women at first find common ground in that they are both trying to make sense of their own roles in the world, conflicted by their own selfish desires and the moral challenges society has set before them.  They both feel guilty over past decisions; not because they personally regret what they did, but because societal mores disapprove of their actions.  These similarities form a sort of psychological intersection symbolized by some clever camera work and a bedroom encounter (possibly fantasized) that turns the relationship upside down.  At first Alma, the nurse, seems to be the holder of power as the talkative and expressive caregiver, while Elisabet, the patient, seems closed-off and fragile. These impressions are steadily revealed as false as time passes.  For a time it seems that each character gets lost, confusing herself for the other.  Once they separate again, the transformation is complete.  Alma is rendered first vulnerable, then desperate, and is finally emotionally and psychologically shattered by the more confident and manipulative Elisabet.

Director Bergman uses a whole arsenal of techniques to illustrate the events happening inside the minds of Alma and Elisabet.  The film opens with disjointed, fractured, and horrific imagery that makes only a little more sense by the time it concludes.  These seem to represent the terrors hidden beneath of the surface of each woman’s public persona.  As the story moves along there are several moments where both women’s images are melded together either candidly or subtlety to illustrate the emotional melding occurring between them.  The climactic scene is played out twice, once from an angle showing Elisabet’s face and then from the more telling angle showing Alma’s.

What I Didn’t Like

This film has little to no ‘action,’ depending upon one’s definition of the word.  In case it wasn’t inferred above, most of the events of the film are internal, their effects displayed mainly in facial expressions, dialogue, and camerawork.

The splicing of strange elements into the more conventional story can be seen as pretentious.  They certainly aren’t as interesting as Berman probably thought they would be, but, as mentioned before, they do make slightly more sense as the film draws toward its conclusion.

Most Memorable Scene:

The climax of the film comes when Alma tries to confront Elisabet and attack her verbally by going into Elisabet’s past.  Instead Alma is the one who is left broken by the scene’s close.  Shown twice from two different angles, it’s an excellent summary of the entire film itself.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5