Product: Persona (1967)
Rating: 5.0
'Persona' is one of the best personality depictions on film.
'Persona' is centered around the ideas of the Expressionists painting, the patterns of Gestalt therapy and the projections of Psychodrama. Bergman was influenced by the above and much more. Bergman was Swedish, but his experience was from the center of Western Europe of the 20th century. His portrayal of Elizabeth in the form of Liv Ullman is sensuous and sinister at the same time, calling to mind the paradoxical nature of Existensialism. We see the Nurse, (Bibi Anderson) and the Actress, (Liv Ullman)as both a single persona, though badly fragmented; and as two distinct people. The two distinct people seem not able to exist unless they coexist with help, one from the other. Witness the scene where Anderson chases Ullman across the beach, finally catching up to her, but not able to be a part of her. Here, the fragmentation of self is very strong and the need to be "togehter" isn't strong enough or sufficient enough to pull them into one being.