Review of Persona (1966) by Robert B — 18 Dec 2009

This is the third Bergman film I have ever seen. The first one I saw was the Seventh Seal, a must-see movie for everyone. Entertaining, funny, thought-provoking, an essential classic. Then I saw Cries and Whispers. While an extremely beautiful movie visually, there were no truly likable characters and it was short on story. Very much style over substance, a good film, not a great one. This movie is about in between.

Pros:

Bibi Andersson's performance was FANTASTIC.

Both leads are gorgeous.

The intro is very surreal and compelling.

The cinematography by Sven Nykvist was as to be expected beautiful.

The narrative is interesting.

The ending of the slowly encompassing feeling of terror throughout the movie is not anti-climactic, the face fade sent tingles down my spine.

Cons:

It's not too thought-provoking, besides the doctor's speech in the beginning, nothing really made me think too much.

There is no humor. I smiled once during the movie, and that was when Liv Ullmann appeared.

The part where the film burned and the shot of Ingmar directing didn't add anything and were distracting.

Acting: 9/10 Liv Ullmann had a hard part, and I give her credit, but she was not nearly as good as Bibi.

Script: 8/10 The doctor's speech in the beginning is a good as anything Bergman ever wrote, but some of the dialogue in the end isn't very compelling.

Plot: While initially very interesting, the narrative gets less and less interesting as they start to become each other, and the change happens very quickly.

Cinematography: 10/10 No comment.

Overall: 8/10.