Persona: Appearances and Existence

Though entirely sane in body and mind, actor Elisabet Vogler abruptly stopped communicating with anyone. She was taken to a hospital where Nurse Alma will look after her. Vogler’s doctor decided that the hospital of a less use, so she lent her beautiful beach house at Faro to Elisabet, Alma also went with her for Elisabet’s healing process. Sooner, Elisabet and Alma get friendly and their personalities started to slide into each other. They get trapped into other; lose their individual roles gifted and start playing the character of the other woman.

Bergman always commented that his movies are basically poetry in images. As my favoritism, Persona proves that most. Persona is a pristine blend of real intellect and illustrative metaphors. From the standpoint of Elisabet, she used to maintain her Persona throughout her life (that’s what we perform every day, maintain our dissimilar countenances and appearances for different paradigms) but when she wanted to disapprove she ceased all contacts with the external world, by silence. Here, silence is truth.

While Alma started reading Elisabet during the learning process, she projected herself into the other character. Truly, in our real world, what we believe in a different person is greatly due to the acknowledgment of that person, like we have estimated ourselves into their survival, wearing the Persona or the mask of the other.

Persona shows the visual brilliances where Alma is slowly getting entrapped into Elisabet, whether it is the dream sequence (with Mr. Vogler) or in the coveted sequences of monologues. Bergman’s long standing celebrated cinematographer Sven Nykvist brilliantly took continuous long close shots of the two actor’s faces, keeping each half of the face in dark and in light. As the movie progresses (may be it’s by my mistake or no matter what) I feel both the faces look similar.

The last long monologue is masterfully crafted when Alma conversed about Elisabet’s past life, the same dialogues been shot from two angles, once showing Elisabet’s face and then Alma’s. Alma talked about her personal viewpoint, comments about how Elisabet neglected her child. Then at the end, both their faces suddenly merged into one!

Bergman was privileged with these two gifted actors (Liv Ullman as Elisabet and Bibi Andersson as Alma). In the entire movie Liv Ullman uttered only few words (nothing…nothing...) and kept a Persona of torment and tragedy. Her silence as a blank is truer than anything. Bibi Andersson is remarkable and perfect as her other Bergman ventures (the seventh seal, all these women, wild strawberries etc.) in showing her mental distresses and of course in the scene while she is slithered in other persona, but trying to return.

The film starts with some very chaotic shots which Bergman left for the audience. For instance, it shows some reels of a silent movie, a spider (the spider-god from his chamber trilogy?), and a crucifixion (from his undying question on existence of god?), a kid places his hand on a blurred face of a woman (Elisabet’s son or Alma’s unborn child?) and so on.

Well the above, is my explanation. I am also wearing a Persona to think as I am.

Persona is a haunting brilliant masterpiece from the living legend.

Persona (1966)

Directed By : Ingmer Bergman