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Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margareta Krook, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Jörgen Lindström

Persona is difficult to characterize in simple terms, but it may be helpful to describe this complex film as being an exploration of identity that combines elements of drama, visual poetry, and modern... read more read more... psychology. The central story revolves around a young nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) and her patient, a well-known actress named Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann). Elisabet has stopped speaking, and the attending psychiatrist treats the actress by sending her to an isolated seaside cottage under Alma's care. There the nurse, who must do all the talking for both women, becomes a little enamored of the actress. One evening Alma tells Elisabet about some exhilarating sexual experiences she once had and their unpleasant aftermath. Soon after sharing this confidence, the nurse reads a letter Elisabet has written and is shocked to learn that the actress thinks of her as an amusing study. The relationship between the women becomes tense, and they wound each other. Then Alma has a long dream in which her identity merges with that of Elisabet, but when the nurse awakes, both women have apparently come to at least temporary terms with their psychological problems. ~ Rovi

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93% liked it

22,994 ratings

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93% liked it

30 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Release Date: October 18, 1966

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DVD Release Date: March 16, 2004

Stats: 1,492 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,492)

  • brooklynspo
    July 30, 2007
    brooklynspo
    Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
  • fb619846742
    December 27, 2011
    fb619846742
    An intense, well-constructed look on insanity, denial, and femininity at a cabin along a beach, where a nurse (Bibi Andersson) and recently near-catatonic patient (Live Ullmann) struggle to control their emotions. In terms of Bergman films, I feel as though both "Wild Strawberrie... read mores" and "The Seventh Seal" are better overall films, but that is not to slight this particular film, which is a fascinating pseudo-nightmare that is clearly under the control of a master film-maker. It is at times too slow and too talky at times, but for the most part the dialogue is sharp and the story unfolds both smoothly and surprisingly. Both Andersson and Ullman are phenomenal, and Bergman captures enough wide-eyed stares and creepy poses to last three to four films, which leaves the viewer in admiration of this unabashed gem. Not quite perfect, as said, but still an outstanding picture worthy of a view.
  • fb733768972
    November 4, 2011
    fb733768972
    One after another, this film provides a series of misunderstood question marks. Critics around the world have come up with hundreds of meanings for this film, and like all of them, I have my own thoughts. Persona is about a woman who is looking after an actress, turned non-speaki... read moreng individual. Eventually, she takes her away to a beach where she spills her deepest, darkest, and dirtiest secrets. Seeing as she is non-responsive, she believes she will keep these sexually controversial memories to herself. Things begin to get confusing as she falls in love with her patient. An awkwardly unheard of romance begins, and the film spirals into jumbled, yet amazing screen transitions and designs. "Persona" will definitely mess with your mind in more ways than one, but overall, even though non of your questions will ever fully be answered, this film is magnificent!
  • mjgildea
    June 27, 2011
    mjgildea
    Persona is a movie that leaves my feelings about it as segmented as many aspects of the story. The imagery and cinematography are worth a watch alone, but the dreamlike quality of the movie and the story itself put me out like a 6-pack of Benadryl. I love how Persona is a bluepri... read morent of sorts for Mulholland Drive and Fight Club but by the end of the movie I feel like I've been taking crazy pills for days and (not necessarily as a result) I have no idea what the hell's happening. I'm so thankful its not a long movie.
  • webalina
    January 2, 2010
    webalina
    Full review coming soon...
  • matertenebraum
    December 13, 2009
    matertenebraum
    For all its bizarreness; avant-garde feel and totally disorientating visual style at points, Persona actually tells rather a straight forward narrative and adopts a relatively simple visual approach. The camera work is sly and unspectacular, relying on the film itself and its var... read moreious bursts of disturbance to get across more of a 'bang' in the viewers mind and its story, with particular attention to the manner in which a relatively routine love story-come-psychoanalytical tale is told, is shot and unfolded using gentle camera-work and soft female voices to aid the visuals. Such a juxtaposition between visuals and timbre are the hallmarks of someone who knows what they're doing especially given the other visuals elements director Bergman includes.

    So about these other visual elements. The film begins with such a rapid display of images; it is difficult for the human eye to garner exactly what has just flashed up. This is after a slow and deliberate track into a person lying in a hospital, looking dead. The opening and closing montages which share the same powerful punch are two of the most eerie I've seen and rank up there with Elem Klimov's 1985 film Come and See and its closing display of images. But what does it all mean? Thrown in at the end of hands touching steamed up glass and odd looking creepy bugs crawling up same said panes is a projection unit playing rolls of developed film onto a white screen. I think to come up with a stone wall idea on what this means is futility of sorts. It could be Bergman reminding us that a film is still just a film and the following events (and events we've just seen) are obviously not real but the psychology behind the events to come (or just transpired) are real and do exist.

    This forces us to consider a complicated area: Sweden's (the nation that made the film) or indeed the world's attention to psychoanalysis and how much we are aware of such a thing. Although the film is produced several decades after the writings, it was made a mere six years after Hitchcock's Psycho which itself included such issues. Bergman's Persona covers the loneliness and isolation of a character named Alma (Andersson) who is a nurse and her gradual appreciation for hospital patient Elizabeth (Ullmann) after so many deviations and, quite possibly, regrets to do with and into the past of the life.

    But the film is a little more than a psychological study, even if by not very much. From my own viewpoint, no matter how wrong or how basic it may be or respectively sound, Alma suffers from this loneliness so much that to have the individual of Elizabeth around actually reminds her of what it's like to have human contact. Indeed, the contact is not a physical one and is not one as graphic as regressions into the past have us believe they used to be. One scene has Alma describe an orgy on a beach with males she did not know at the time and tells us of a friend who was also there but where is that friend now and what meaning does it have toward the larger scale of things? How did she become so 'unpopular' and secluded?

    There can be no denying that Alma comes across as a confident person and looking at the role she plays within the film, a nurse, you would think she needs attributes of charisma and a strong soul in order to combat any nastiness she might see on the job and to work up a strong communicative relationship with any doctor or patient she may come across. Incidentally, that scenario is played out in this film and makes me think that the film is somewhat purely a study of an individual loosing consciousness of what's around her but using the mute character of Elizabeth as a slow burning reason to tell the story. Either way, it's all very complicated but somewhat intriguing.

    Persona is the sort of film that gives you a headache but it's one of those 'nice' headaches you get when trying to work something out. Due to the sheer nature of the film and general inclusion of elements of the avant-garde, there cannot really be a stone wall conclusion to the film. Much like Luis Buñuel's early work, Persona is a mixed bag of interesting ideas and un-readable content ? an exercise in futility from any non-qualified film personnel to read into and get marginally close to a correct reading. The film has its characters write letters; read the letters; question one's sanity; show us cameras and film stock being played; have the fourth wall being broken; give us metaphorical montages that are too quick to absorb and then have the audacity to render whatever reading we may have into it all incorrect. But I guess that's all part of the genius of Bergman.
  • flixsterman
    December 13, 2009
    flixsterman
    Is it a great film? Yes. Is it one I'd like to own and watch over and over and over again? No.

    Igmar Bergman's films are, for me, much like those of Fellini. They're masterpieces of modernist, expressionistic art but there is sometimes no personal connection.

    Intense? Yes! Rec... read moreommended viewing? Of course. Empathetical and recognizable? Absolutely not.
  • SirPant
    October 23, 2009
    SirPant
    This is possibly the most beautifully directed film I've ever seen. The black and white photography is sublime, the performances are amazing, especially from Bibi Andersson who's performance is incomparable. The conclusion of this film was highly original of its time and has been... read more Imitated many times since, some good, some excellent but none are quite as hauntingly beautiful as Persona. An absolute masterpiece and a must see!!
  • MeetMeinMontauk
    September 14, 2009
    MeetMeinMontauk
    Weird. Good, but weird. :)
  • Saxia
    October 24, 2008
    Saxia
    My first Bergman film! I was impressed! It's sooo... fresh? I really don't know another way to describe it... it doesn't seem to have any restrictions.
    Very intimate because of the close-ups, but the characters are inaccessible as well.
    Vague, I know, but I'm still processing it... read more, so maybe I'll say something useful and intelligible about it later.

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Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
July 30, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Ingmar Bergman's best film, I suppose, though it's still fairly tedious and overloaded with avant-garde cliches. Full Review

Variety Staff
July 30, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

Bergman has come up with probably one of his most masterful films technically and in conception, but also one of his most difficult ones. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Miss Ullmann and Miss Andersson just about carry the film -- and exquisitely, too. Full Review

Roger Ebert
February 13, 2001
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A film we return to over the years, for the beauty of its images and because we hope to understand its mysteries. Full Review

Cole Smithey
October 20, 2010
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

Bergman's clear-eyed artistic study of the rules of interplay between opposite, ill-equipped dominant and submissive characters, expresses universal ideas about human compatibility. Full Review

Cole Smithey
November 4, 2007
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

"Persona" is Ingmar Bergman's 1966 postmodern lesbian romantic psychological mystery.

Ken Hanke
August 22, 2007
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

A work of many possible readings -- any of which provide deeply disturbing looks into the psyche of the characters or character. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
July 24, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

An intense, challenging and complex experimental psychological drama. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
June 30, 2007
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

One of Bergman's undisputed masterpieces is a seminal work of psychonalayis and metacinema, raising more complex questions about identity and role-playing than it could possibly answer, thus deliberat... Full Review

Dan Jardine
July 14, 2006
Dan Jardine, Cinemania

Not a movie, but a Film. And a Great Film it is. As good as any. Full Review

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Persona Trivia

  • 1960s film about an actress who looses her voice and is taken care of by a nurse. They later switch identitys. Or do they?  Answer »
  • Which infamous real-life persona of terror influenced some of the themes in 'Pyscho'?  Answer »
  • Name the Swedish director of The Seventh Seal. He also did Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, and Persona.  Answer »
  • Which of these films is not based on a real life persona?  Answer »
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