Persona is a film directed and written by Ingmar Bergman. The film is a fascinating study of identity, role-playing and the shifting border between truths and lies. These are some jumbled thoughts.
Elisabeth Vogler is a well renowned actress and artist, whose sudden shock into silence mystifies the scientific and medical community. She is healthy, but her will to not make a sound is driven by deep emotional and mental struggles. Sister Alma is assigned to be her nurse, a job she is unsure she can fulfill properly. After a short while at the hospital, Alma and Elisabeth are transferred to a seaside estate to recover in seclusion and peace. This isolation works well for the movie, as you are able to focus solely on the developing relationships between Alma and Elisabeth. Alma soon finds talking to Elisabeth to be cathartic, and she opens up to her in trust. As she talks more and more, she delves deeper into the psyche of Elisabeth, getting an understanding of why she remains silent. Bergman uses physical similarities between Alma and Elisabeth to establish the foundation of their relationship. As Alma talks to the silent Elisabeth, she is transformed into the actress, and Elisabeth the audience.
Elisabeth tries to escape a life of lies and shame, of false personalities and facades, by shutting up. Without speech, she can’t play her roles anymore; she can’t put on a show worthy of the stage. Without her voice she hopes to hide from the world of lies she had created for herself. She wants to escape the guilt of her failed abortion, of her motherless child, and her life as a mask. She is tired of always being the actress. But by silencing herself, in a way she just creates another façade. It’s another act.
Through Persona, Bergman shows the power of silence. Elisabeth utters not one word until forced to by the possibility of violent action from Alma more than half way through the film. Yet, without saying her single thing, her personality and inner struggles overtake the malleable nature of Alma’s character. Sister Alma’s voice is heard, but it is drowned out by Elisabeth’s silence. This is not an immediate effect, but as the film’s plot progresses it is a dominant element of the film.
Beyond the plot, the film is also a study of cinematography as Ingmar Bergman tries to compose a beautiful image with every shot. Moreover, from what I was able to absorb, he accomplishes the goal. Te slow pace of the film allows the watcher to appreciate intricate camera angles, prop placement, and shot composition. Unlike the fast paced nature of movies today that vomit images to you like a visual machine gun, Bergman slows Persona down to a snail’s pace to allow the full reception of the cinematography. I found myself caring less about the plot and characters and being more absorbed with the exquisite compositions and transitions found throughout the film. At such a slow pace, it was easier to absorb the cinematic elements, and much more difficult to pay attention to the plot.
Bergman’s compositions were utterly fantastic, each shot creating a complete image. Each composition is full of decisions both clearly and subtly made, a clever play between the obvious and delicate. It is obvious Bergman thought about each shot as a painting, and the film as a series of paintings meant to be viewed in succession. His tonal ranges match the moods of the plot, and vice-versa.
I have to admit that Persona loses me on many occasions. The slow nature of the film, while an excellent device to showcase the cinematography, it is a bit hard to sit through and pay attention to a plot that becomes increasingly convoluted. Bergman begins to intertwine reality with dreamlike states and perceived illusions, whose unmarked entry and exit make it hard to follow the flow of the movie. In fact, it disrupts much of the flow as I struggled to understand what the heck was going on. This confusion led me away from the plot, and from the fascinating ideas presented in the film. On many occasion I found myself questioning what just happened only to find myself missing what is going on at that very second, putting me even further behind in the comprehension of the film.
