Persona

Plot synopsis:
Persona begins with images of camera equipment and projectors lighting up and projecting dozens of brief cinematic glimpses, including a crucifixion, an erect penis, a tarantula spider, clips from a comedic silent-film reel first seen in Bergman's Prison (depicting a man trapped in a room, being chased by Death and Satan), and the slaughter of a lamb. The last, and longest, glimpse features a boy who wakes up in a hospital next to several corpses, reading Michail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time ("Vår Tids Hjälte" in the film), and caressing a blurry image of Elisabet and/or Alma's faces.A young nurse, Alma (portrayed by Bibi Andersson), is summoned by the head doctor and charged with the care of stage actress Elisabet Vogler (portrayed by Liv Ullmann), who has, despite the lack of any diagnosed impairment, become mute. The hospital administrator (portrayed by Margaretha Krook) offers her own seaside cottage as a place for Alma to nurse Elisabet back to health. Though Elisabet is nearly catatonic when the film begins, she does react with extreme panic upon seeing a Vietnamese Buddhist monk's self-immolation on television, and laughs mockingly at Alma's radio soap opera. As the two women leave the hospital together, Alma reads aloud a letter Elisabet's husband has sent her, which includes a photograph of her young son.Together in the administrator's cottage, Elisabet begins to relax, though she remains completely silent and non-responsive. Alma speaks constantly to break the silence, at first about books she is reading and trivial matters, then increasingly about her own anxieties and relationship with her fiancé, Karl-Henrik, who scolds her for lacking ambition "though not with my career, I suppose in some greater way." Alma constantly compares herself to Elisabet and begins to grow attached to her. As the act closes, Alma confesses to cheating on her fiancé in a ménage à quatre with underage boys. She became pregnant, and had Karl-Henrik's friend abort the baby; "and that was that". She is not sure how to process the abortion mentally. Elisabet is heard to say "You ought to go to bed, or you'll fall asleep at the table", but Alma dismisses it as a dream. Elisabet later denies speaking.Alma drives into town, taking Elisabet's letters for the postbox, but parks by the roadside to read what she wrote. She discovers in Elisabet's letters that Elisabet has been analyzing her and "studying" her. Alma returns distraught, accidentally breaks a drinking glass on the footpath, and leaves the shards there to cut Elisabet. When Elisabet's feet start to bleed, her gaze meets Alma's knowingly, and the film itself breaks apart: the screen flashes white, scratch marks appear up and down the image, the sound rises and screeches, and the film appears to unwind as brief flashes of the prelude reappear for fractions of a second each.When the film resumes, it is following Elisabet through the house with a thick blur on the lens. The image clears up with a sharp snap when she looks out the window before walking outside to meet Alma, who is weepy and bitter. At lunch, she tells Elisabet she has been hurt by Elisabet talking about her behind her back, and begs her to speak. When Elisabet does not react, the nurse flies into a rage. Alma tries to attack her and chases her through the cottage, but Elisabet hits her during the ensuing scuffle causing Alma's nose to start bleeding. In retaliation, Alma grabs a pot of boiling water off the stove and is about to fling it at Elisabet, but stops after hearing Elisabet wail "No!" Alma explains that Elisabet wouldn't have spoken had she not feared death. Alma goes to the bathroom, washes her face, and tries to pull herself together. She then goes to Elisabet and frustrated by her unresponsiveness tells her, "You are inaccessible. They said you were healthy, but your sickness is of the worst kind: it makes you seem healthy. You act it so well everyone believes it, everyone except me, because I know how rotten you are inside." Elisabet tries to walk away, but Alma pursues and continues to accost her. Elisabet flees, and Alma chases her begging for forgiveness. That evening, Elisabet opens a book she is reading and finds a famous Stroop Report photograph of Jews being arrested in the Warsaw Ghetto. Elisabet stares at details in the photograph, but mostly at the boy with his hands raised.That night, Alma watches Elisabet sleep, analyzing her face and the scars she covers with makeup. She hears a man yelling outside, and finds Elisabet's husband, Mr. Vogler, in the garden. Mr. Vogler (portrayed by Gunnar Björnstrand) mistakes Alma for his wife, and despite her repeatedly interjecting with "I'm not your wife", delivers a monologue about his love for her and the son they have together (repeating words he wrote to Elisabet in the opening act "We must see each other as two anxious children"). Elisabet stands quietly beside the two, holding Alma's hand, and Alma admits her love for Mr. Vogler and accepts her role as the mother of Elisabet's child. The two make love with Elisabet sitting quietly next to the bed with a look of panic on her face, and afterward, Alma cries. The image of Elisabet becomes blurry.The climax of the film comes the next morning; Alma catches Elisabet in the kitchen with a pained expression on her face, holding a picture of a small boy. Alma then narrates Elisabet's life story back to her, while the camera focuses tightly on Elisabet's anguished face: at a party one night, a man tells her "Elisabet, you have it virtually all in your armory as woman and artist. But you lack motherliness." She laughs, because it sounds silly, but the idea sticks in her mind, and she lets her husband impregnate her. As the pregnancy progresses, she grows increasingly worried about her stretching and swelling body, her responsibility to her child, the pain of birth, and the idea of abandoning her career. Everyone Elisabet knows constantly says "Isn't she beautiful? She has never been so beautiful", but Elisabet makes repeated attempts to abort the fetus. After the child is born, she is repulsed by it, and prays for the death of her son. The child grows up tormented and desperate for affection. The camera turns to show Alma's face, and she repeats the same monologue again. At its conclusion, one half of the face of Alma and the other of Elisabet's visage are shown in split screen, such that they appear to have become one face. Alma panics and cries "I'm not like you. I don't feel like you. I'm not Elisabet Vogler: you are Elisabet Vogler. I'm just here to help you!" Alma leaves, and later returns, to find that Elisabet has become completely catatonic. Alma falls into a strange mood and gashes her arm, forcing Elisabet's lips to the wound and subsequently beating her. Alma packs her things and leaves the cottage alone, as the camera turns away from the women to show the crew and director filming the scene.

Tags: mystery, avant garde, psychological, cult, violence, psychedelic, sentimental

Review:
Although Elisabeth remains silent, the relationship between the women is a pleasant one--until a rainy day, too much alcohol, and Elisabeth's silence drives Alma into a series of highly charged personal revelations.It is at this point that the film, which has already be super-saturated with complex visual imagery, begins to create an unnerving and deeply existential portrait of how we interpret others, how others interpret us, and the impact that these interpretations have upon both us and them.
In this respect, the theme is remarkably well-suited to its medium: the blankness of the cinema screen with its flickering, endless shifting images that can be interpreted in infinite ways.Bergman is exceptionally fortunate in his actresses here: both Liv Ullman as the silent Elisabeth and Bibi Anderson as the increasingly distraught Alma offer incredible performances that seem to encompass both what we know from the obvious surface and what we can never know that exists behind their individual masks.
And Bergman and his celebrated cinematographer Sven Nykvist fill the screen with a dreamlike quality that is constantly interrupted by unexpected images ranging from glimpses of silent films to a moment at which the celluloid appears to burn to images that merge Ullman and Anderson's faces into one.As in many of his films, Bergman seems to be stating that we cannot know another person, and that our inability to do is our greatest tragedy.
There is one immortal moment in the film when Bergman juxtaposes the faces of each woman onto the screen, merging Elisabeth (Liv Ullmann) and Alma (Bibi Andersson) into a single entity.Persona also includes one of the most vivid depictions of sex that I've ever seen.
Though the film shows us nothing, Alma's whispered description of an intimate encounter on the beach is staggering in its effectiveness; her words allow the viewer to formulate their own visuals, every emotion and nuance perfectly incorporated from the rich story we are being told.
Though I may exhaust hours spouting the merits of Ingmar Bergman's film, I can't escape the fact that watching 'Persona' felt very much like a chore.
In a hospital, young Nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) is assigned to care for Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullmann), an actress who, for no apparent reason, has ceased speaking.
And I am inclined to think that the film is a cinematic expression of his own inward psychological struggles during that period of his life.In other words, "Persona" communicates to us as much about Bergman's mindset, and his ideas of suffering and reality, as it does about any deep, universal questions in a post-modern world, although to some extent, the two dimensions intersect and overlap.
Writing from a hospital bed (as he did with Wild Strawberries, two of these being films strung out from anguish), Ingmar Bergman put down almost anything that was in his head to start with (the first five minutes- some of the most startling and thoroughly symbolic minutes he's ever directed), then transposed into a story of two women, or one.
This was one of the landmark 'art-films' of the 1960's, with hints of the horrors of war (in one memorable scene, Elisabeth looks at a television screen at images of death), introspection regarding sex and identity, existentialism, and what it means to be an actor.
But keep this in mind- it's one of his most unique departures as a filmmaker.Two of his leading ladies (and, ahem, loves), Bibi Andersson and 25 year-old Liv Ullmann, star as a nurse and an actress, who for the bulk of the film are at a Doctor's cottage as the nurse tries to help and likely cure Elisabeth of her ailment (froze on stage, silent but incredibly observant).
In the meantime, Alma the nurse, in a role that gives Andersson more talking-points than any other film she's been in, goes through some hurtful parts of her past, and just tries to understand her counter-part.
Any lessor actresses might fumble up the whole lot of it.While it isn't my favorite Bergman film (though it is unfair to pick favorites sometimes when it comes to someone as huge in the cine-consciousness as him), there are many things that had me come back to it after being a little awe-struck on my first viewing last year.
In the first five minutes, of course, there is some fascinating stuff, but even in the scenes of long dialog and monologue (i.e. the unforgettable speech about being on the beach from Alma), where the lighting is so delicate and sharp with the shadows that you really feel like the weight of this situation is closing in on the characters.
And the question of soul."Persona" is an act of confrontation between Ingmar Bergman and God. The silence, the cruelty of letters, the cries and the confessions of Alma are only guns in a strange and ambiguous war.
And I still have it for a couple of days, the rest of my life be damned!All I can really comment on is the artistry of Sven Nykvist, the cinematographer, always been one of the very best, and on the acting skills of Liv Ulmann and especially Bibi Andersson, who gives one of the bravest and most powerful performances I've ever seen in a movie.
Here the film seems to investigate the line that is blurred between people's identities who are in close proximity over long periods of time.It seems the characters are established exclusively in order to explore Bergman's philosophical meanderings and musings, which involve the significance of the interior and exterior views of the self.
I really suspect that many individuals like this movie because they view it with the same self-impressed state of mind as Bergman did when he made it.I can certainly credit Bergman with having a knack for writing decent dialog and for being inspired in his film-making.
Having seen about 5 of Ingmar Bergman's films throughout the years I always end up extremely angry, literally FURIOUS, after suffering the man's boring, pretentious, inhuman stories and point of view.
Yeah, sure, one can definitely relate to that (NOT!).Of course this movie is filled with pseudo-intellectual clichés (Hallo Vietnam screening - Make our super-sensitive actress go completely insane from a TV programme) and "freudian" imagery that tries to point out hyper-OBVIOUS things about life and human psychology, in such a pretentiously artistic way that literally makes my blood seethe with anger.
We project a different persona than our real deeper self to the outside world - IT HAD NEVER EVEN CROSSED MY MIND BEFORE THIS MOVIE, THANK YOU SO MUCH INGMAR BERGMAN!
The only people liking it are those that haven't a brain cell working in their own skull.It pains me to say this because Bergman's Seventh Seal is one of the great films.
to the contrary, the nurse was being a total, insensitive "female dog" to the actress/patient.Having watched "The Seventh Seal" and "Cries & Whispers", I was rather hopeful that I would enjoy this movie (given that Bergman himself considered it to be one of his finest).
This theatrical film keeps the camera basically all the time focusing the two lead actresses, and Liv Ullmann, even performing a mute character, offers to the viewers magnificent expressions.
Bergman's Persona covers the loneliness and isolation of a character named Alma (Andersson) who is a nurse and her gradual appreciation for hospital patient Elizabeth (Ullmann) after so many deviations and, quite possibly, regrets to do with and into the past of the life.But the film is a little more than a psychological study, even if by not very much.
How did she become so 'unpopular' and secluded?There can be no denying that Alma comes across as a confident person and looking at the role she plays within the film, a nurse, you would think she needs attributes of charisma and a strong soul in order to combat any nastiness she might see on the job and to work up a strong communicative relationship with any doctor or patient she may come across.
Ingmar Bergman made films like "Persona" (and "Wild Strawberries" and "Cries and Whispers") that make me forgive him for making other films like "Hour of the Wolf" and "Winter Light." In "Persona," a nurse is charged with taking care of a mentally deteriorating actress, and through a series of enigmatic, dream-like scenes, we are left wondering which of the two actually exists and which is the figment of the other's imagination.
It's a sort of precursor to "Mulholland Drive," and the comparison is even more apt as both films are very much about the art of acting and the art of making movies.The most stunning (and stunningly simple) moment in the film comes when one of the actresses delivers a lengthy monologue while the camera slowly zooms into a close up of her face, and then the entire scene plays out again, with the other actress delivering the same monologue.
Someone who has read a biography of Ingmar Bergman would probably be able to offer an intelligent interpretation of this very personal film by the great Swedish director.
Since it stars his two most famous proteges, Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, and is an intense focus on their faces as though to look into their souls, and further since during the film their personas merge as one--given all this, perhaps it could be speculated that Bergman is suggesting that his perfect love would be a composite of the two.
She plays, Alma, a young and naive nurse who is called upon to help rehabilitate Liv Ullmann's Elisabeth Vogler, an actress who suddenly stopped talking.
If I ever see this film again, and after reading up on the life and loves Ingmar Bergman, perhaps I will look for what Persona says about him.
After having seen The Seventh Seal (1957) and this one i can definitely declare that statement null and void.There's no doubt the black and white photography and the visual imagery are beautiful, and there is really nothing wrong with Bergman's skills with the camera itself, as he uses brilliant closeups and wideshots combined with great cinematography to create a visually impressive film.
These kind of experiences are never immersive, because we do not feel connected to the main characters in any way because their connection built in the first 45 minutes feels so wobbly and fake.So, in terms of visuals and camera work there really is nothing wrong with Bergman's way of directing, but it's the messy plot structure and the disconnected editing and sometimes addition of irrelevant images is what turns this film into a pretentious jumble..
I don't normally find myself picking apart Bergman films - the ones I've seen have been for the most part either searing emotional studies that feel like they tear off the skin to show what's underneath or odd movies that work on the level of philosophy and art.
My Rating : 8/10In Bergman's sensual psychodrama, a nurse, Alma (Bibi Andersson), takes care of stage actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), who has recently been struck mute.However, their personalities change completely and irrevocably by the film's finale, in which they are depicted as distrustful, angry and consumed by their own shortcomings.David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. was inspired by this and I love it so much.'Persona' is one of Bergman's most accessible films after 'The Seventh Seal' and is a must-watch..
It is almost impossible to praise this movie without sounding smart and cultured and it's almost impossible to criticize this movie without sounding like a bit of a philistine but...yeah, I don't like it.Now, I'm all for stylized cinematography, when "If" switched from color to black and white for no obvious reason I was so impressed because it's the kind of movie that can do that.But here I don't feel it works because, firstly, it makes the whole thing kind of risible, especially given how stone faced the tone is and secondly, the essence of the thing kind of gets drowned in bizarre angles and sudden blurriness.It could have been a fairly effecting exploration into the way, despite superficial differences we are all alike, and part of the same universal journey yet still determined to analyse others.
Gradually, Alma begins to be taken over by Elisabeth's persona, even though, or more likely because, she speaks only one complete line in the film.That's the famous capsule summary of the plot.
As the film progresses Alma takes on Elisabeth's persona, supposedly, and relates the dismal story of Elisabeth's son to her, apparently causing her great anguish.I think Elisabeth's experiment must have gotten out of hand, although it's possible she wanted such an extreme reaction.
The movie is close to perfect, it makes you wonder of the world art can be, and the technicalities achieved as perfection, with such simple elements, like light, direction, camera, location, and 2 peopleThank you Bergman..
I think that Bergman was sort of giving us a clue as how to go about interpreting his film.In conclusion, this movie is a masterpiece.
If you think you know anything about movies you'll be blown away, just extraordinary.The best thing about Bergamn and persona is that it makes you analyze your life and makes you want to be a better person.
Elizabet says nothing, and thus Alma feels free to talk at length, professing her hopes and her worries, and in time, confessing a truly sexy experience during which she was absolutely blissful.Bergman emphasizes the two actresses' resemblances in a disquieting shot where he merges halves of both faces.
Just before the end there is a shot of the actual movie crew, almost as if the film's central theme of merging is having a universal effect.The images and descriptions of the monologues in this sequence of variants on the subject of replication and coalescing is so commanding that Bergman truly reveals how ideas produce perceptions and certainty.
When the nurse becomes upset, she confronts and reproaches her own patient to shift the "spotlight" back on the patient (the actress).About the time we realize how complex this movie might be, Bergman starts to blend and morph one person's face into the other's (sort of a half Ullmann and half Adnersson shot).
Throughout `Persona,' Bergman seems to be taking aim at some vague statement about art: Mrs. Vogler comes from an artistic profession, the plot is based almost entirely upon storytelling and role-playing, and, most important of all, the director draws our attention again and again to the artifice of the cinematic form, with his film breaks, sudden `subliminal' images (usually, it should be noted, of actors in cheap costumes), and sudden shock-horror chords on the soundtrack.
Persona didn't register fully for me at first viewing, and as of now I can't consider it one of my favorite Bergman films - I didn't enjoy it half as much as I did The Seventh Seal the first time around.
Bibi Anderson as Alma has done a great job and her performance was one of the best I have ever seen in art films.
Stating that the enigmatic child seems to represent the viewer (not in vain, his role in the story is not other than to wake up and then decipher, first a book and then the film image of the two faces)...Ingmar Bergman's responds in a concrete way to the neuroses and the cinematographic challenges of his time.
It dwells on philosophical themes which are portrayed in the relationship between two individuals.When it comes communication, although Elisabet barely speaks, her expressions on different scenarios proves that an opinion, story, emotion can be tell without a single word coming out of the mouth.On the other side, we have Alma, a girl whose monologues treat nihilism, abortion, lesbianism, imposed maternity, guilt, insanity, schizophrenia trough not only an a well written and poetic script, but a magnificent direction...Bergman's frequent use of sunlight for a Rembrandt effect makes every shot a unique story, the beauty and precision with which he handles the dream elements make the cinema of modernity reach completely new possibilities.
art.Sometimes referred to as the Mount Everest of film critics, Persona by Ingmar Bergman is not an easy movie to get into.
When she finds out her trust has been betrayed Alma lashes out.I'm not certain how much of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman's highly personal work I understand.
The film is pretentious, unashamedly, but the way Bergman takes the style from the narrative means that the pretension isn't a bad thing, because the images of Persona are some of the most memorable and haunting that any director has dared to show.
Similarly, Andersson's nurse Alma often comes off as being far too weak for her vocation, but is this a general character flaw, or just a continuation of the role reversal the two women are undergoing.There is still a great deal of Persona that I don't understand, and maybe I never will but this only makes me want to watch the film again and again, as it's the perfect film to just loose yourself in.
Persona was my first Ingmar Bergman film and it certainly makes me curious to check out more of his work.
This simple act of making her mute creates that contrast between the two that Bergman uses to it's fullest capacity.As their time together begins, Alma finds herself opening up to the silent Elisabeth, speaking about things that she never imagined she would tell another soul.
Few films can stay with you for years, haunting you like a ghost, that is Bergman's Persona.
Alma is clearly fascinated by Elizabeth, with this irrational veneration ordinary people feel for artists and all she does during the first act is speaking, telling her life, from the most banal to the most shameful secrets."Persona" is made of monologues and silences, and the genius in Bergman is to make it feel as dialogs, as if a human personality had unlimited ways for expression.
"Persona" is one of Bergman's most praised and talked-about films, so I was enthusiastic about watching it.