Topic: March Around the World 2016

[Danae Cassandra]

Persona
Year of Release: 1966
Directed By: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann
Genre: Drama

Overview:
By the midsixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema's most unforgettable images. But with the radical Persona, this supreme artist attained new levels of visual poetry. In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays a stage actor who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema's most influential creations. Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark contrast and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist, Persona is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth.

My Thoughts:
There's not much I can add to the conversation on this magnificent film. So much has been said already. This is a true masterpiece of cinema, a complex and layered piece of work that will require multiple viewings to peel back the strata. Be prepared for an intellectual film, but this is a must-see for cinephiles.

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall: 5/5