Persona

Persona 1966

Persona is the most surprising and controversial part of Bergman's filmography. This is one of the best proofs of the director's skill and how it has influenced modern cinema and distanced it from itself in many ways. Cinema craftsmanship aside, the language of cinema here has nothing to do with what we have today. Bergman goes far beyond cinematography. If you're wondering who makes the rules, here is Bergman, the real father of cinema. For example, Lynch Mulholland must have watched this movie at least ten times when he wrote Dilemma. A nurse deals with an actress who, despite her mental illness, refuses to speak and has completely cut off contact with others. While the two of them spend time together in the cabin, the other's character (the nurse) falls into a provocative and frightening personality gap opened by the silence of the other and begins to reveal himself in all its details. And after a while, the nurse's own character disappears and completely integrates and transforms into the player's character. (Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman did an excellent job) On the power of silence, the presence of character, play, personality and female identity (it's worth remembering John Berger's thesis in Way of Seeing: especially the differences between women's expected identities and real identity) a masterpiece. Persona has been one of the films that most influenced or even created the cinema since 1966. But one cannot see here a story like Battleship Potempkin or Metropolis, for example, that can only be written on hereditary paper, does what it is supposed to do, and then loses its power long ago. Bergman's Persona is a true cinematic story that all directors can dream of today and when it is made the whole world will bow before it. It was admired by a group of people the year it was made, but was also brutally criticized by a large group. However, it later became one of the films that set the rules.