★ 7 / 10
This is one of my favourite Bergman films
CinemaSerf
This is one of my favourite Bergman films that darkly and potently showcases the skills of two women at the top of their game. "Elisabeth" (Liv Ullmann) is an…
This is one of my favourite Bergman films that darkly and potently showcases the skills of two women at the top of their game. "Elisabeth" (Liv Ullmann) is an acclaimed stage actress who, mid-performance, is struck dumb. Nobody is quite sure what has caused this, but a nurse is duly hired to take care of her. "Alma" (Bibi Andersson) arrives and soon comes to believe that the silence of her charge is her choice. She simply doesn't want to talk! Devoid of visitors, "Alma" constantly chatters to "Elisabeth" and a bond starts to develop between the two, outwardly profoundly different, women that challenges both of their preconceived ideas of the other. The latter is keen to emulate the former, the former is ultimately keen to prevent her new friend from doing precisely that. Why? What might have caused "Elisabeth" to take such an impenetrable refuge? Essentially this two hander is a monologue; there is precious little by way of contribution from anyone else as the characterisations intensify and the story becomes one of attrition, to an extent, but of cruelty - and of evaluating the sources and causes of cruelty, as well as providing us with a poignantly sensitive look at intimacy and maybe even optimism. I'm certain that there are other depths and allegorical aspects to this that I didn't necessarily appreciate, but unlike with many of this director's films, I found the personas represented here to have more relevance and humanity that in many of his previous works. Coupled with the condensed nature of the storytelling, a strongly complementary score and some effective outdoor cinematography this makes for a compelling film to watch.
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★ 7 / 10
"Your hiding place isn't watertight. Life trickles in from the outside, and you're forced to react."
ackstasis
Ingmar Bergman's 'Persona (1966)' opens with a bewildering montage of sounds and images, a frenzied newsreel of sex, death, cinema and comedy. The sequence is…
Ingmar Bergman's 'Persona (1966)' opens with a bewildering montage of sounds and images, a frenzied newsreel of sex, death, cinema and comedy. The sequence is so far removed from my previous experience with the director that its effect is jarring, shocking; I momentarily wondered if I'd hit a wrong button and started playing Buñuel's 'Un chien andalou (1929)' by mistake. I question Bergman's motives for including such an uncharacteristic opening, for it appears to have very little to do with the narrative that follows. Is this montage - an account of the sickening and concealed horrors and desires of society - a possible explanation for Elisabeth's continued silence? Even so, it all seems somewhat exploitative, as though Bergman was simply going for shock-value, obliterating any notions of subtlety with which I had begun to associate him {though I'll admit that the strength of 'The Seventh Seal (1957)' arose from its not-so-subtle representation of Death}. The opening scene concludes with a young boy awakening in the morgue, his hand outstretched towards the vague image of a woman's face. Elisabeth's unloved child? Alma's aborted fetus?An endless line of critics, it seems, have celebrated 'Persona' as a masterpiece, and among the greatest films ever made. I'd hate to be the lone voice of dissent, but the film is certainly the lesser of the three Bergmans I've hitherto seen, if only due to the noticeable absence of the good-natured humour to be found in both 'The Seventh Seal (1957)' and 'Wild Strawberries (1957)'. If, indeed, I were to describe 'Persona' as a masterpiece, it would be in regards to the visuals, which, photographed by long-time Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist, are beyond description in their detail and intimacy. The film takes particular interest in the human face, and entire conversations of words and emotions are played out through the communication of the eyes, and the glimmering hint of a smile on the lips. 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. The film boasts a relatively short running time, but it never seems to attain any comfortable sense of rhythm, and, by the film's end, I was left wondering just what the film was trying to get at. Bergman includes various allusions to Bertolt Brecht's "Verfremdungseffekt" effect highlighting the inherent artificiality of the cinematic medium with the film at one point appearing to burn; but, unlike in Fellini's '8½ (1963),' these self-referential flourishes seem to serve little foreseeable purpose. Am I looking too far into this film for meaning? Or am I not looking far enough? Even just hours afterwards, another layer of meaning has unfurled itself. Maybe it'll get better.
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An absolutely perverted film. How is this "art" and "Inga" isn't? Bergman was one sick SOB.