Product: Persona (1967)
Rating: 5.0
Hairpins, Identity and - sorry - Dichotomies
God, where do you start?For the young Bergman, it was a guy playing with a two-pronged hairpin that also looked like it had one prong. Well, he talks about this in 'After the Rehearsal' and again in Chapter 4 of the 'Magic Lantern', as it implies the illusion/magic of the reel (think ?The Face', whose silent performer-'hero' shares a surname with Elisabeth in this film)... and also the idea of conflation - the idea that characters in Bergman's films are not opposites but complements. I mean, who else sees the squire not the knight as the true hero of the 'Seventh Seal', as he actually helps people instead of moaning?... Or take 'The Silence', where the two sisters are so different but equally self-obsessed?... Or indeed 'Persona'...The two merging into one... The search/struggle for identity...The VAMPIRE à la Dreyer à la - in turn - 'Seventh Seal'...Psychology (the babies' hands - remember Bergman's obsession with his childhood) and the inadequacy of traditional psychological methods - cf. that smug summary at the end of 'World of Mariopnettes' or the SCRIPT of 'Persona'...The religious/existential dilemma (the crucifiction - remember those harrowing shots in 'Seventh Seal' and 'Winter Light')...The sheer aesthetic beauty of it all (the depoliticised Brechtian alienation effect)...A life-changing film, anyone?