Review of Persona (2008) by Kevin N — 16 Jun 2009

You do not watch this film; this film watches you. It scrutinizes you, makes you feel guilty, makes you feel wrong. Though it's a movie about women unsure of their own organic selves, they seem very aware that they're putting on quite the shock-show for an audience, and the scenes of self-reflexivity made me squirm.

The document-like feel is helped tremendously by the two leading roles, played by Andersson and Ullmann- actresses whose very presense apparently inspired Bergman to make the picture in the first place.

It isn't hard to tell that narrative followed character; the story is driven by the explicitness of the two women, whose very monologues can turn a viewer on or off in a mere instance. Many have called this avant-garde, but what Bergman is trying to convery is too natural for me to limit the film to such a conventional category; what at first seems bizarre becomes very welcome.

The director seems to want to get all shock of the abnormal out of the way early with his disturbing introduction, and such a quick and immediate wave of surrealism allows us to drop ourselves into whatever psychological turmoil might come our way.

It is an ice-cold slap in the face, but without the movie might seem innappropriate or strange; instead, it is a revelation.