Persona
Release date: 1966-10-18
Votes: 2361
Genres: Drama
A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
This is one of my favourite Bergman films that darkly and potently showcases the skills of two women at the top of their game. "Elisabeth" (Liv Ullmann) is an acclaimed stage actress who, mid-performance, is struck dumb. Nobody is quite sure what has caused this, but a nurse is duly hired to take care of her. "Alma" (Bibi Andersson) arrives and soon comes to believe that the silence of her charge is her choice. She simply doesn't want to talk! Devoid of visitors, "Alma" constantly chatters to "Elisabeth" and a bond starts to develop between the two, outwardly profoundly different, women that challenges both of their preconceived ideas of the other. The latter is keen to emulate the former, the former is ultimately keen to prevent her new friend from doing precisely that. Why? What might have caused "Elisabeth" to take such an impenetrable refuge? Essentially this two hander is a monologue; there is precious little by way of contribution from anyone else as the characterisations intensify and the story becomes one of attrition, to an extent, but of cruelty - and of evaluating the sources and causes of cruelty, as well as providing us with a poignantly sensitive look at intimacy and maybe even optimism. I'm certain that there are other depths and allegorical aspects to this that I didn't necessarily appreciate, but unlike with many of this director's films, I found the personas represented here to have more relevance and humanity that in many of his previous works. Coupled with the condensed nature of the storytelling, a strongly complementary score and some effective outdoor cinematography this makes for a compelling film to watch.
Movie Recommendation
Wild Strawberries1957-08-28Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.More...
The Seventh Seal1957-02-16When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.More...
Hour of the Wolf1968-02-19While vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.More...
Autumn Sonata1978-10-08After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.More...
Cries and Whispers1972-12-21As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.More...
Winter Light1963-02-11A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.More...
Stalker1979-05-25Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.More...
Scenes from a Marriage1974-09-15Johan and Marianne are married and seem to have it all. Their happiness, however, is a façade for a troubled relationship, which becomes even rockier when Johan admits that he's having an affair. Before long, the spouses separate and move towards finalizing their divorce, but they make attempts at reconciling. Even as they pursue other relationships, Johan and Marianne realize that they have a significant bond, but also many issues that hinder that connection.More...
Cléo from 5 to 71962-04-11Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.More...
The Silence1963-09-23Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.More...
Some Mother's Son1996-09-13Based on the true story of the 1981 hunger strike in a British prison, in which IRA prisoner Bobby Sands led a protest against the treatment of IRA prisoners as criminals rather than as prisoners of war. The film focuses on the mothers of two of the strikers, and their struggle to save the lives of their sons.More...
Red Desert1964-09-04In an industrializing Italian town, a married woman, rendered mentally unstable after a traffic accident, drifts into an affair with a friend of her husband.More...
Mirror1975-03-07A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.More...
The Passion of Joan of Arc1928-04-21A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.More...
Jules and Jim1962-01-23In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.More...
Bicycle Thieves1948-07-21Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.More...
Fanny and Alexander1982-12-17As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.More...
The Battle of Algiers1966-09-08Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.More...
Vivre Sa Vie1962-09-20Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.More...
The 400 Blows1959-06-03For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.More...
Similar Movies
Little Secret
2013-06-29LITTLE SECRET is a short, suspenseful drama about a fifteen year old boy and his inner struggles. A son tells his mother an innocent lie as an excuse. We've all covered things up, but what happens when the consequences begin to snowball, and every minute it becomes harder and harder to take back the lie. Little Secret is inspired by a true story that happened in April 2012 in the Czech Republic and became a national scandal and media sensation for weeks. It started a huge racist backlash in the country.Cop Land
1997-08-15Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a place everyone calls “Cop Land” — a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big city police officers he’s long admired. Yet something ugly is taking place behind the town’s peaceful facade. And when Freddy uncovers a massive, deadly conspiracy among these local residents, he is forced to take action and make a dangerous choice between protecting his idols and upholding the law.Voyage to the Bottom ...
1961-07-12The crew of an atomic submarine battle to save the world from global destruction.Breakdown
1997-05-02On their cross-country drive, a married couple, Jeff and Amy Taylor, experience car trouble after their SUV breaks down. Stranded in the New Mexico desert, the two catch a break when a passing truck driver offers Amy a ride to a nearby café to call for help. Meanwhile, Jeff is able to fix the car and make his way to the café, but Amy isn't there. He tracks down the trucker ― who tells the police he's never seen Jeff or his wife before. Jeff then begins a desperate, frenzied search for Amy.Not Here to Be Loved
2005-10-12Jean-Claude Delsart, a 50 years-old bailiff, with his worn-out smile and heart, abandoned a long time ago the idea that life could give him pleasures. Until the day, he dares to push the doors of a tango lesson...Blackmail
1929-07-28London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.Rashomon
1950-08-26Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.The Experiment
2001-03-0820 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.Solaris
1972-03-20A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.Dedication
2021-07-04A young maid enlists supernatural help in order to escape her past.Candy
2006-05-25A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle — and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.Viridiana
1962-04-01Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.Sleuth
2007-10-12Locked in a high-tech English manor, bound in a deadly duel of wits, Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle come together as English gentlemen to discuss the matter of Wyke's wife: the woman both are sleeping with.Für den unbekannten H...
2007-11-08Almost casually, the young concrete worker Bastian kills a tramp. The police believe it was an accident and so the murder remains undiscovered for the time being.Last Year at Marienba...
1961-05-25In a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.Bloody Sunday
2002-01-25The dramatised story of the Irish civil rights protest march on January 30 1972 which ended in a massacre by British troops.Women on the Verge of...
1988-03-25After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.Counterparts
2007-05-20Teacher Anne and policeman Georg are thought of as the perfect couple. However, appearances are deceptive: one of them is covered with scars and bruises. But which one is the abuser?Fort Saganne
1984-05-11In 1911, a willful and determined man from peasant stock named Charles Saganne enlists in the military and is assigned to the Sahara Desert under the aristocratic Colonel Dubreuilh.Atonement
2007-02-27A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.