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Summary: ..
Review: after seeing this movie for the first time, i was amazed by bergman's talent. after seeing persona for the tenth time, i wept uncontrolably like a little child. this film is really good.
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Summary: Classic Soul-Searching by Bergman
Review: This is one of Bergman's most challenging psychological studies ever. It asks (or rather inspires the viewer to ask) radical questions about personality, identity and character by presenting a woman who one day just stops living her life; stops talking, working or responding to others. This rejection of both self and society poses a threat to others who don't know how to interpret what is going on and can't ask her directly. Is your identity ("persona") something you are--a personal soul or essence? Is it something you choose to do (a series of actions)? Is it a role forced on you by society and culture? All Bergman fans should have a copy of this film. It is at least as essential as *The Seventh Seal* and much more important than anything he did in the 70s and 80s. Many of his films are about the silence or non-existence of God; but *Persona* dares to show us a world in which we are not even sure that people truly exist.
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Summary: One of Bergman's greatest
Review: This is one of Bergman's greatest. The beautiful black and white photography...the beautiful Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, their personalities, minds, and bodies, melting into one...what does it all mean? PERSONA is full of mysterious questions and no answers. It is never boring, and each time seeing it is a new and exciting experience filled with wonderful, haunting images and moments. The jarring opening sequence with the little boy...the powerful, erotic monologue...the dream sequence, one of the most famous images in movie history, of the two women embracing...Alma's speech, repeated twice, followed by the merging of the two women's faces...the husband making love to the wrong wife...and most ironically, the moment when Elizabeth, who has not spoken for the entire film, finally utters a single word: "Nothing."
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Summary: A way to understand the language of film.
Review: As a college film instructor, I find Persona a wonderful text for students to begin to understand the ways film language operates. With it, the critical viewer can surpass content-based approaches to film and begin to understand the way film communicates visually. Not only do I find the film valuable for my students, but myself as well. I love to watch it and unravel its complex and compelling messages. In approaching such a bold and innovative work, I find much of what I love in movies. That experience is beautiful. Persona is one of the few films which can do that for me as well as it does.
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Summary: A great movie, a great experience - every time you see it
Review: Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece, and among the handful of greatest films ever made. Unlike so many other great films ("Citizen Kane" comes to mind) however, it is a difficult movie, one that works on so many different levels that it is virtually impossible fully to appreciate it with a single viewing. It rewards multiple viewings, with each new viewing like another visit to an increasingly familiar locale that continues to surprise and to reveal its terrain in new ways.Definitely a film worth seeing, discussing, mulling over, and seeing again.
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Summary: A great, great film
Review: Haunting, mysterious, deep. I've seen this movie at least 10 times and I'm still picking up new layers of meaning. If you like to have your senses ravished and your intellect stimulated, you should see this film.
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Summary: For a true Bergman's fan
Review: Simply one of the best Bergman's movies. It comes close to Autumn Sonata and his other pictures where he takes a very serious look into Mother's relationship with her children, and it is a very unconventional theme that he seems to have a deep interest - how the mother does not love the child. In short, a masterpiece.
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Summary: Experimental Masterpiece from the Magician Himself
Review: An experimental Bergman film which proves that the man could excell in any given genre. Liv Ullman plays an actress who refuses to talk after a performance of "Elektra". She moves to the country accompanied by a young nurse, played by Bibi Andersson. During their stay, the two women almost become one with the other. The film is very erotic and tastefully shot by Sven Nykvist. The story, though simplistic on the surface, emerges as a detailed study of female bonding and its often devastating results.
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Summary: starts an interesting dialog
Review: I, too, first saw "Persona" in college.. and I was a bit confused by the deatils of the film.. but, I think the film achieves that sense of mystery while still keeping ones' interest and curiousity, making the viewer wanting to know more. This is a favorite film of mine-- beautifully, and artfully directed, a thought provoker.
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Summary: A true masterpiece of world cinema
Review: The first time I saw "Persona" as an eager college student many years ago, my reaction was "huh?" I have seen the film several dozen more times since then, and much of the mystery remains, revealing another dimension with each viewing. Since Bergman's retirement and subsequent autobiographical writings, John Lahr speculates that this film is clearly about the two sides of Bergman's mother--and he makes a convincing case. Someone else here has posted that the film is really a disection of schitzophrenia. I have made the argument in the past that the movie is about...the movies. The working title was "Cinematography," and Bergman has expressed this duality about the role of the artist/filmmaker in the past and the trickery inherent in the process of making and watching films. My point is that all the above--and more--is true. Critic John Simon has stated that "'Persona' is to film what 'Ullyses' is to the novel." Yep...at least.
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