Rating: 
Summary: Visually stunning exploration of the theme of identity
Review: Could this be Bergman's greatest film? It's certainly one of the most stylistically audacious films ever shot; and the performances by Andersson and Ullmann are unforgettable. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was released two years later, this film really expanded the vocabulary of the cinema.
Rating: 
Summary: Persona
Review: I am a neophyte when it comes to Bergman movies, but I love Liv Ullmann, most recently enjoying her performance in MINDWALK. I found PERSONA fascinating! The development of the relationship, and the sometimes angry, sometimes exquisitely tender..the subtiltle situation is irrating, with some of the text being all but unreadable..but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and will certainly explore more Bergman and Ullmann movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont buy this version:
Review: This has got to be one of the worse films I have purchsed and or viewed. The English sub-titles were so bad, and in most cases couldn't be made out. If you dont know swedish, and you cant read this english sub-titles, whats left. Hmm a black and white film, that while playing, I got up and finished my laundy. What a waste.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this version of Persona
Review: A brief note: Persona is a great film, a five-star film. This version is terrible. MGM/UA has offered a VHS version in the past and will again in the future. Buy that version.
Rating:
Summary: Great Film, Wretched Video
Review: I hate to spoil the lovefest... yes, I agree with previous reviews as to the greatness of the work, but people need beware the truly horrendous quality of the transfer. The image and sound quality are appalling; it's discouraging that such a cinematic masterpiece gets such slipshod treatment.
My message to the company that released this: get your act together or give the rights to someone who can do the job properly! Don't buy this version!
Rating:
Summary: Complex, rich and audacious filmmaking!
Review: PERSONA is everything a film should be - visually groundbreaking, thematically complex, and a deeply involving emotional experience. The plot is almost laughably simple: A famous stage actress, Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullmann) appears to have a nervous breakdown. Unwilling to speak or even interact with others, she is sent to recuperate at the seaside home of her doctor in the care of a young nurse, Sister Alma (Bibi Andersson). Over time, the talkative Alma becomes more and more obsessed with her famous patient, and resorts to emotional blackmail and even violence in her attempts to force Elisabeth to communicate with her. Ultimately, the two women's identities seem to blur into one. Driven nearly insane by her relationship with Elisabeth, Alma leaves her service. It is impossible to overstate how complicated a viewing experience PERSONA is for the uninitiated spectator. Both of the lead actresses are phenomenal. Liv Ullmann delivers one of the most nuanced and complex cinematic performances in existence, despite having no more than one line of dialogue (or possibly two). Bibi Andersson's interpretation of Alma is equally stunning - cool, calm and professional at first, then slowly descending into a whirlpool of self-doubt and then madness. Characteristic of this film is its ambiguity - the viewer is forced think for themselves about the meaning of events and individual sequences, rather than being spoon-fed a series of definitive images, as in Hollywood movies. Is Elisabeth actually ill, or is she merely selfish, acting yet another role to manipulate those around her? Is Alma's mental breakdown the result of Elisabeth's treatment of her, or does she bring it on herself by using Elisabeth as a blank screen on which she projects her own fantasies? The emotional and intellectual themes of the film - what is identity and how do other people play a role in our construction of our own personalities? - are perfectly balanced by an extraordinary cinematic style which foregrounds the illusory nature of the "actions" taking place in front of us. Beginning with its opening montage, PERSONA explicitly reminds the viewer of its status as a fiction, and of the material process which transforms a set of still pictures into shadows with the illusion of life. Within the body of the main narrative, certain sequences (such as Elisabeth's midnight visit to Alma's room) are structured so that we are unsure whether what we are watching is "real" or merely an hallucination on Alma's part - indeed, the entire last half of the film may be no more than Sister Alma's fantasies, but then again...PERSONA'S mystery and meaning are best expressed in an astonishing shot within the opening montage - a boy interrupts his reading and reaches towards the camera/audience. A cut reverses the perspective, and we see the boy extending his arm to caress what seems to be a huge screen, on which colossal images of Andersson and Ullmann's faces appear, merge with one another, and disappear. In this single sequence, Bergman amalgamates Woman and the Screen of the cinema, and the child seeking the embrace of the mother with the cinema audience. PERSONA is one of the most unusual, even philosophical films ever made and it will certainly haunt your dreams as it haunts mine.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond Interpretation
Review: 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. Certainly part of the erotic power of this stunningly filmed masterwork (black and white cinematography by the gifted Sven Nykvist) is the evocative display of the two Swedish actresses, who were respectively, 30- and 26-years-old, when the film was made. It is curious however that Bergman is very deliberate in downplaying their sexuality. They are never coquettish, nor openly sexual. Very little skin is exposed and that only incidentally. It is their differing power as actresses that is explored with some, no doubt, deliberate and unavoidable revelation of their real life personalities.I was particularly impressed with Bibi Andersson's performance. 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. Andersson has a beautiful and expressive voice that should be heard, so avoid a dubbed version (if it exists). It is true that the subtitles are occasionally ungrammatical and full of typos (and at one point a misleading term is used to avoid a gross sexual expression), but it doesn't matter because everything is very clear; indeed one could view this without the subtitles and without knowing Swedish and still get a fair idea of what is going on. Liv Ullmann is also brilliant in a part that has her on camera for most of the film but without a single speaking line! Nurse Alma does all the talking and something curious happens. She becomes the "patient," spilling out the intimate details of her life while Elisabeth becomes in a sense the shrink, and a "transference" takes place. This is no doubt a Bergman joke (he was no fan of psychotherapy), but it is also a statement about the power of silence. Elisabeth stopped speaking during a performance of the Greek tragedy Electra, and of course we have all heard of the Electra Complex, the female equivalent of the Oedipus Complex so beloved of psychoanalytic theory. However what Bergman's point here is, I have no idea. I do know that in the last two Bergman films I have viewed, this and Autumn Sonata (1978) with Ingrid Bergman as a concert pianist, the star is a selfish woman who does not love her children. Here, we have Alma tearing into Elisabeth with the accusation that she hates her son and wishes he was dead. Since Ingmar Bergman both wrote and directed this film, one might reasonably ask what this has to do with the psyche of the master. The fact that an older man makes love to both women is also grist for the mill of an autobiographical interpretation. However, I am Against Interpretation in this case (although clearly a film like this cries out for it) and more in favor of experience. A work of art can always be interpreted and sometimes should, but it is essential to first experience the work. 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. Meanwhile, I am content to observe that this is an original work of art, and as always with Bergman, an emotionally draining experience.
Rating:
Summary: The Limitations of Words
Review: To really comment on a film like Persona there would first have to be written full, a dictionary of completely new words and terms. Verbal language simply cannot describe the emotional piano Persona plays. Along with 2001: A Space odyssey, it is the single most disturbing and mind opening film I have ever seen. While in the middle of performing the last act of Electra, Elizabeth Vogler suddenly freezes, and from then on ceases to speak. She is in perfect health both mentally and physically, but for reasons unknown has simply retreated into herself. Sister Alma, a young nurse, is sent to look after her. They go together to a small remote Island, where Alma attempts to nurture her out of her silent facade. At first, due to her silence, Alma cares for Elizabeth like an oversized doll. But then, with the opportunity of real conversation, Elizabeth becomes to her an empty vessel into which she spills her soul. And Elizabeth, hollow, becomes a sort of vampire, constantly taking in Alma, but at the same time giving herself up as well. Nestled together, without the interferences of the world, their personas begin to mesh, as they become the two sides of a single personality, one soul living amongst two bodies. However, as a human body warns off a foreign intruder, the personas of Elizabeth and Alma become allergic to each other, engaging in a fierce battle for identity. Throughout, as if testing his own skills as a seducer, Bergman tries to remind his audience that it is just a movie they are watching, not experiencing. But true to his form it becomes of no use... Persona is an experience. Alluring, compelling, mind opening, and disturbing, Persona is all of these things. It is a film that works on a multitude of complex levels. In a sexual sense, not a stitch of clothing is removed, and yet the film permeates with eroticism. It is on many stages completely surreal, but you don't realize that. You don't realize anything... you simply experience. And then afterwards you sit in awe, trying to recall what has just gone on.
Rating:
Summary: Hairpins, Identity and - sorry - Dichotomies
Review: 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?
Rating:
Summary: One of the All-Time Greats
Review: "Persona" is not only Bergman's masterpiece; it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. It is admittedly difficult, but never pointlessly so. The underlying spirit feels much the same as the High Modernist literature of the 1920s: a brilliant fusion of emotion and intellect resulting in a startling new form of expression. Indeed, the opening sequence of the film -- "a heap of broken images" -- brings "The Waste Land" to mind, and Bergman himself remarked, "I had it in my head to make a poem, not in words but in images." Despite the unconventional style, one never has the feeling of novelty for the sake of mere effect. The formal innovations follow from the content. Much of the film, in fact, is shot in a fairly traditional way, though with Bergman's usual painstaking subtlety. The detailing is even finer than one might expect, with every sound, almost every word, orchestrated with great care. "Persona" is a deeply compelling film, but it is probably not an ideal starting point for a newcomer to Bergman's work. "Wild Strawberries" is more straightforward and warmer; a great character study that retains elements of fantasy. A final note: Avoid the grungy transfer on Hen's Tooth Video. The MGM version is far cleaner and is worth the extra money.
|
