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Sweden · 1966
1h 25m
Director Ingmar Bergman
Starring Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
Genre Drama
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Young nurse Alma is put in charge of Elisabeth, an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, but she never receives an answer. As the two form a strange bond, Alma’s insecurities around her identity lead to her projecting onto Elisabeth. Slowly, Alma's personality is submerged into Elisabeth's persona.
Persona (the ancient Latin word for mask) is too deliberately difficult to rank with Bergman's best. But in an era when the director who dares to repeat himself is rare indeed—when the cinematic world is full of one-shot wonders, Bergman's consistency is itself refreshing.
Ingmar Bergman's best film, I suppose, though it's still fairly tedious and overloaded with avant-garde cliches.
Wonderfully complex but warmly human, Bergman's drama is one of his very best.
It explores two of the filmmaker’s pet themes – the impossibility of true communication, the futility of art – and is set against the Vietnam War. Extraordinary.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
One of the screen's supreme works and perhaps Ingmar Bergman's finest film, "Persona" is also his most radical in form and technique.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Persona is a film to make you shiver with fascination, or incomprehension, or desire.
The New Yorker by Richard Brody
Bergman blends a theatrical subjectivity—scenes of the inner life that defy physical reality and depend on special effects, whether in the film lab or on set—with a tactile visual intimacy, with his characters, the objects close at hand, and the superb coastal landscape.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Persona is a film we return to over the years, for the beauty of its images and because we hope to understand its mysteries.
Persona feels like an act of disclosure on Bergman’s part, with him pulling back the curtain to acknowledge the fantasy of filmmaking and global realities that linger in his mind.
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This film is hauntingly gorgeous. The relationship between Alma and Elizabeth is so nuanced and slow-building and is explored in a truly fascinating way, not just with the dialogue, setting and acting, but also with the experimental use of the camera and nontraditional use of time. The film delves into questions of identity, subjectivity, and the fragility of the "persona" in a fascinating and engaging way.