Product: Persona (1967)
Rating: 5.0
Intense experimental psychological study
Another masterpiece from Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, this dark psychological study of two woman undergoing an existential crisis, is renown for great acting, directing, and a great script. Alma is a nurse assigned to watch Elizabeth, an actress who will not speak even though neither physically or mentally ill, at a beach house isolated from the hectic city. At first Alma gets along very well with Elizabeth who seems to listen to her, and her problems as she talks about her past and ideas of life. But soon, Alma see Elizabeth's dark nature, and is even more disturbed to find how similar she herself is to Elizabeth.This film is great, winning awards for both actresses, and for the direction by Ingmar Bergman. The style is very experimental, and always presents itself to let you know it is a film you are watching. There is a lot of difficult topics in this, and Bergman, and the two actresses handle it wonderfully, presenting the ideas clearly and very effectively. The film's intriguing story sucks you in, and builds suspense in you. Even though you can understand the film with one viewing, multiple viewing will reveal more layers, and encourage discussion. If you enjoy serious films looking at existential topics, with psychological depth, I'd highly recommend you check this out. If non-conventional films with big concepts hurts your head, stay away. 5 stars.