Persona (1/2) (Persona) - Breaking Down Bergman - Episode #27

[@Gallifrey1991]

this is one of my favourite films of all time :)

[@johnsharman7262]

Maybe Bergman sees the two actresses as two sides of his psyche, and as Sonia says, they were in effect two of his main muses, one from the past, passing on, and one from the future, coming into being: the fact that they were also two friends in real life brings out the intimacy in their acting. The one who talked showing her influence in his past films, being the active catalyst; the silent one Elisabeth, being observant while healing( Bergman had passed through a period of illness), but also absorbing the other one, until the two merge into one.

[@breakingdownfilms]

We did not know that -- but thanks for enlightening us! - Sonia

[@jlent]

A reason why Alma is not just a part of Elizabet: The strange sequence at the end is A.'s dream. She's in bed, hears E.'s husband, the bit with the husband, the face merging sequence, the breakdown of language, Alma sucking E.'s blood and then beating her. Alma on the rocks, E. out of focus, then in. This is Alma coming to terms with herself. When Alma awakes, E. is gone, back to the theater. Focus is on Alma tidying up to leave. Film also asks the question, can art truly capture emotion?

[@65g4]

This film is a masterpiece

[@jlent]

Nice, but I don't think story is about just one. Alma is main character who thinks herself a good person but learns about her own darkness from Elizabet. What is that darkness? Who is the kid at the beginning? Why is he waiving his hand in front of the shifting Alma/Elizabet? I submit the kid represents children in each woman's life and ultimately Bergman himself. Fun read is Strindberg's 'The Stronger,' Bergman's primary influence, a very short play in which one woman does all the talking.

[@jlent]

I guess what I'm saying is I don't now where it gets us if the film is only about the psyche of Elizabet. Granted, the structure allows it. But Bergman was never that obsessed. His films are about relationships between people. I focus on Elizabet's kid, whose picture she tears in half vertically, which people don't normally do because it's not as easy. But it would leave a half face, a foreshadowing of the merging that comes later. That points back to the child at the beginning, the key, IMHO.

[@danspitalnik]

Do you think, in that scene you included where she hears that play on the radio, Elizabeth turns off the play suddenly because it reminds her of her own lack of compassion for her child? Maybe I'm just over-analysing and it's a coincidence.

[@ramziaboughazale672]

I doubt it is a coincidence. I think you're spot on.

[@krzysztofsobkowicz6611]

Hi, it reminds her about lousy actors in a lousy play, the connection of both is so clamsu that it causes her laughter and then it goes to her own experience in her acting as a mother

[@jlent]

Though I will say on one level Elizabet/Alma are two sides of Bergman's mother. (Might as well get that out. Lot going on in this film and Bergman was obsessed with his mom, both positively and negatively.)

[@TheTachy0n]

This movie is so good it's disgusting.

[@GINGERALER]

Too much over thinking here. Persona IS about two women. It's not one woman.

[@65g4]

It is about two woman sort of merging into one its pretty clear