Review of Persona (1966) by Jim H — 13 Jul 2012

A troubled nurse treats a successful actress who has stopped speaking.

Ingmar Bergman doesn't shy away from the big issues. Persona's characters encounter the existence/relevance of God, fear of death, motherhood, the impossibility of human connection, and the struggles artists must undergo in order to maintain a sense of selfhood despite their profession's pressures. And in most film and literature, it's usually men who undertake these questions, but 90% of Persona depicts two women coming to terms with such grand, philosophical issues, which is ground-breaking even though it shouldn't be. Most of the film is profound without being avant garde for avant garde's sake with several notable exceptions like the very beginning and parts of the denouement, and thus, most of the film is accessible and thought-provoking. I can't say that there is anything revolutionary or that the film comes to a unique conclusion about the grand questions it encounters, but the very fact that Bergman explores the nature of being raises film to a stature enjoyed by few other art forms.

Overall, Bergman is one of serious intellectual film's masters, more accessible than Godard and more interesting than Fellini, and Persona is one of his masterpieces.