Arguably the best minimalist film ever made, “Persona” by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is currently my favourite movie. The film was released in 1966, and stars Bibi Anderson and Liv Ullmann.
The film has been interpreted in so many ways. Susan Sontag suggested that Persona is constructed as a series of variation on a theme of “doubling”. Some says it is dramatization of psychoanalysis form the patent’s point of view, and some says it shows a very modern psychological vampirism.
The complex film utilizes visual poetry to show elements of drama. Persona begins with images of camera equipment and projectors lighting up and projecting dozens of brief cinematic glimpses, including a crucifixion, slaughter of a lamb, a boy in a hospital. These images foreshadow the narrative. Throughout the movie, Bergman moves back and forth between the faces of two women and plays on the similarity of features, juxtaposing the two faces, eventually dissolving them into one another.
The central story revolves around a well-known actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), who refuses to speak and her young nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) . At the seaside cottage, Alma becomes enamoured of the actress. Elisabet’s silence eventually wears on the nurse. As the tension mounts between the two women
The film has been interpreted in so many ways. Susan Sontag suggested that Persona is constructed as a series of variation on a theme of “doubling”. Some says it is dramatization of psychoanalysis form the patent’s point of view, and some says it shows a very modern psychological vampirism.
The complex film utilizes visual poetry to show elements of drama. Persona begins with images of camera equipment and projectors lighting up and projecting dozens of brief cinematic glimpses, including a crucifixion, slaughter of a lamb, a boy in a hospital. These images foreshadow the narrative. Throughout the movie, Bergman moves back and forth between the faces of two women and plays on the similarity of features, juxtaposing the two faces, eventually dissolving them into one another.
The central story revolves around a well-known actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), who refuses to speak and her young nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) . At the seaside cottage, Alma becomes enamoured of the actress. Elisabet’s silence eventually wears on the nurse. As the tension mounts between the two women
Comments