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Reviewing Persona 's home video, Richard Brody credited Bergman for a work that shed realism with special effects and conveyed "a tactile visual intimacy", and praised the film's island setting. [158]
- The Illusion of Reality in Bergman’s “Persona”
- What Drives Elisabet’s Rejection of Identity and Conventional Security?
- Is Elisabet’s Silence A Rejection of Life’S Facades?
- A Growing Bond: Unveiling Secrets in The Summer House
- The Changing Dynamics Between The Nurse and The Patient
- What Alma Finds in The Elisabet’s Unsealed envelope?
- Does Elisabet’s Letter Undermine The Authenticity of Her Silence?
- The True Emotional Reaction from Elisabet
“Persona” opens with a projector showing a series of disparate images (a projector lamp comes to life), including images from the birth of cinema (a silent slapstick comedy), a spider, a crucifixion, and the slaughter of a lamb. These imageries can be interpreted as Bergman laying bare the artifice and illusory nature of cinema, produced through li...
Twenty-five-year-old Alma introduces herself to Elisabet. Alma mentions that she is engaged, and her mother also worked as a nurse. Of course, Elisabet remains unresponsive. When the doctor questions Alma regarding her first impression, the young nurse says she isn’t mentally equipped to care for Elisabet. She feels the actress needs a more experie...
In the hospital, Elisabet is restless and unable to sleep. On the TV, she watches the images of a monk’s self-immolation during the Vietnam War. It profoundly distresses her as she cowers in the room’s one corner. The following day, Alma reads a letter Elisabet received from her husband. The husband harbors guilt, wondering whether it is his action...
The narrative’s next chapter unfolds in the summer house (shot at Bergman’s home island of Faro). A voiceover describes Elisabet going for long walks, fishing excursions, occupying herself with letter writing, and cooking. Nurse Alma also enjoys the isolated stay in the countryside. The initial phase of the retreat is marked with joy as Alma freely...
The vividly expressive nurse recalls an event when she and Karl-Henrik rented a cottage by the seaside. One day, when Karl-Henrik went to town, Alma went to the beach on her own. She met with another girl, Katarina, from a nearby island. Wearing straw hats, they were sunbathing completely naked. Soon, Alma notices two figures hovering from above. I...
What follows feels like something out of a dream for Alma. First, the nurse (and us) hear Elisabet saying, “Go to bed, or you’ll fall asleep at the table.”We don’t see Elisabet’s face as these words are uttered, so there’s a question of whether Alma imagined it. Then, we see Elisabet entering Alma’s room like a ghost, embracing Alma and caressing h...
Elisabet writing a letter and casually revealing Alma’s secrets also raises the question of the actress’s purpose for the silence. As the doctor says in the monologue, didn’t Elisabet shut herself in ‘to not play any parts or make wrong gestures’?However, the communication in the form of a letter reveals something about the actress’ inherent person...
As Elisabet keeps reading her book, Alma laments about her false understanding that great artists will be compassionate. Alma accuses Elisabet of using her for a purpose. Then, the nurse confesses that she read Elisabet’s letter to the doctor. While Elisabet tries to evade Alma, Alma gets increasingly furious, which leads to a minor altercation tha...
Secluded on the barren island of Fårö (which became Bergman’s favourite location and main home), the protagonists – both brilliantly played – engage in a battle of wills, their divergent attitudes towards sex and motherhood merging in disturbing ways.
Persona: Directed by Ingmar Bergman. With Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand. A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.
- (132K)
- Drama, Thriller
- Ingmar Bergman
- 1967-03-16
Jan 7, 2001 · Reviews. Persona. Drama. 83 minutes ‧ 1967. Roger Ebert. January 7, 2001. 6 min read. Shakespeare used six words to pose the essential human choice: “To be, or not to be?”. Elizabeth, a character in Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona,” uses two to answer it: “No, don’t!”.
In Persona, Bergman has achieved a more interesting situation by delicately excising or transcending the possible sexual implications of the tie between the two women. It is a remarkable feat of moral and psychological poise.
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In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays a stage actor who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage.
