Movie #235: Persona

Movie #: 235
Movie Title: Persona
Year Released: 1966

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Notable Cast: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann

Short Description: A nurse is put in charge of an actress who can’t talk and finds that the actress’s persona is melding with hers. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: #93



Date Watched: 2/23/2013

What I Liked: The acting was spectacular, especially by Bibi Andersson as Nurse Alma. The film focuses on the relationship between Nurse Alma and Elisabeth Volger, played by Liv Ullmann, and since Ullmann’s character has lost the ability, or will, to talk, Andersson was charged with carrying the film on her shoulders. I think she succeeded in every way. I was gripped by each conversation Alma had with Elisabeth even though Elisabeth never answered back verbally. The emotion that both actresses put into their characters was impressive.

What I Disliked: Near the end of the film I couldn’t tell if you were being led to believe that Alma and Elisabeth were actually the same person and you were just viewing different perspectives of a singular personality the entire time, or if Elisabeth was just seeing Alma become her but they were still different people.

Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)
Rationale: Surprising good given that it was a foreign language film (Swedish) and the premise sounded a bit boring