History Film / Persona

[[redirect:Film/Persona1996]]

[[quoteright:338:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1232752461-large_5677.jpg]]

A 1966 psychological drama by Creator/IngmarBergman, starring Creator/BibiAndersson and Creator/LivUllmann. As with much of Bergman's filmography, the movie rides heavily on symbolism and philosophy. Its plot is...[[MindScrew hard to explain]].

At first, it is pretty straightforward: an actress named Elisabet Vogler (Ullmann) suddenly decides not to speak and is thus considered mentally ill. She and Alma (Andersson), the nurse who takes care of her, are sent to a Summer cottage in hopes that it will help nurse the actress back to health. Alma talks to her a lot, first about trivial things and then about increasingly personal matters. One day, she reads a letter by Elisabet to her husband, which talks about these matters; among them, a sexual tryst Alma had with [[NoYay underage boys]]. Cold war ensues.

Whatever happens from there on is entirely up to you to guess. The director's [[ShrugOfGod lack of explanation]] does not help. However, it is still regarded as one of Bergman's best movies, and one of the greatest films of all time.

Unrelated to the ''{{VideoGame/Persona}}'' video games, although Jungian psychology is a major theme in both.
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!!This film contains examples of the following tropes:
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Averted -- as the title suggests, psychology in this film is primarily based on Jung's ideas, which the viewer is [[ViewersAreGeniuses apparently expected to know all about]].
* BornInTheTheater: The famous moment in which the film appears to crack and melt right after Elisabet and Alma are about to have a confrontation.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Things start to get weirder around the halfway point, in the scene where Elisabet enters Alma's room and starts caressing her, while both stare straight at the camera.
* BrokenAce: Elisabet is a talented and respected actress and has a successful marriage and a son. Except she hates the kid and the very society she lives in, which leads her to become mute and need treatment.
* BrokenPedestal: Alma seems to look up to Elisabet as an actress at first. When it turns out Elisabet is writing about Alma in a rather condescending tone in her letters, Alma loses her respect for her and starts hating her.
* CreatorCameo: Bergman along with his cameraman right at the end.
* GainaxEnding: Alma and Elisabet packing up to leave, a ghostly Elisabet caressing Alma in the mirror, Alma leaving alone as Elisabet seems to have disappeared, brief shots showing Alma seemingly acting out the memory of a stage play that was Elisabet's. Then a shot of Ingmar Bergman filming the movie, and a shot of film running out of the camera and the arc light going out.
* ImaginaryFriend: Although it's never really made clear in this MindScrew of a movie, it's eventually at least hinted that "Elisabet"--the character played by Ullmann, that is--is not real, and is actually a figment of the imagination of "Alma" (Andersson) who is the real Elisabet. Note the scene where Elisabet's husband shows up and calls Alma "Elisabet". Alma denies it at first but then starts talking to the husband like she actually is Elisabet. Meanwhile, the husband does not seem to perceive the presence of Liv Ullmann when she shows up in the scene. Note also how the camera cuts to Ullmann just as Alma, apparently in "Elisabet" mode, shouts "It's all just sham and lies!" This is also strongly implied towards the end with the famous RepeatCut address scenes--Elisabet as Alma addresses her, then a cut to Alma doing the talking, then a horrified Alma insisting that she is ''not'' Elisabet, then a shot with one half of each character's face joined together to make a whole.
* ImpaledPalm: One of the surreal inserts that opens and closes the film is a shot of a palm getting a nail pounded through it Jesus-style.
* JuxtaposedHalvesShot: Alma and Elisabet in the climax of the film. Their faces are juxtaposed to show that their individual identities have become indistinguishable from each other (or they've melded, or they were each other all along, or something).
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: Apparently this is what happened to Elisabet. The stress of all the white lies people have to tell and the masks people have to wear drove her to stop talking to anyone.
* MaleFrontalNudity: The montage of surreal imagery that starts the film includes a brief shot--less than a second, but still recognizable--of an erect penis.
* MandatoryMotherhood: In the past, someone told Elisabet that the only thing she was lacking was being a mother. She had no interest in having children before, but what that person said bothered her, so she allowed herself to get pregnant without being sure of whether she really wanted it.
* MeaningfulName: Alma, which is Spanish and Portuguese for "soul".
* MeltingFilmEffect: TropeCodifier at the least, as this is just one of the ways Bergman reminds you his movie is only a movie.
* MindScrew: Just what the hell is going on here? Is Elisabet real? Are Elisabet and Alma the same person? What do the brief clips from some old slapstick silent comedy signify? Why is there a penis?
* MinimalistCast: There's only four or five (if you think the boy from the prologue is meaningful) characters in the whole film. It's only Alma and Elisabet who are onscreen for the great majority of the film, with the head doctor and Elisabet's husband being in it very briefly.
* PaintingTheMedium: The director reminds us several times, through a few [[MindScrew weird]] sequences, that this is only a movie.
* ParentalNeglect: One of the reasons for Elisabet's condition, recounted by Alma in the film's climax, is having a son she didn't want and who she can't bring herself to love. It's said the son lives with relatives and Elisabet only sees him sporadically and unwillingly.
* ProsceniumReveal: Does this a couple of times, most notably at the very end when the camera pans away from the actors to show the crew who have been there all along, filming what's supposed to be two women isolated on an island.
* PsychoStrings: You could almost mistake this for a horror movie at certain points (the montage of strange, sometimes disturbing images at the beginning may well remind you of ''Film/TheRing''), and the music reinforces this.
* RepeatCut: Does this with an entire scene: first, we see a monologue with the camera looking at the speaker, and then we see the exact same monologue again, this time with the camera focusing on who the speaker is talking to. Bonus points: this isn't a simple shot-reverse shot, this is an entire sequence, with each shot being a perfect mirror of the opposite angle for each corresponding shot.
* ScareChord: Used a few times for disturbing imagery, like when half of Alma's face is put together with half of Elisabet's face to form one face.
* ShoutOut: In the strange interlude after Alma hurts Elisabet with a piece of glass, a scream from ''Film/{{Tystnaden}}'' can be heard.
* SuddenlyVoiced: Elisabet, who spends most of the film in silence, speaks in three instances, though it [[MindScrew may not have happened]]. It's interesting to note that the camera avoids showing Elisabet's mouth moving in the first two instances.
* TheVoiceless: Elisabet has been sent to recuperate after suddenly deciding to stop speaking; the number of times she speaks during the film can be counted on one hand and all of them may just be imagined by the characters.
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* ShoutOut: In the strange interlude after Alma hurts ELisabet with a piece of glass, a scream from ''Film/{{Tystnaden}}'' can be heard.

* MinimalistCast

* SuddenlyVoiced: Elisabet, who spends most of the film in silence, speaks in three instances, though it [[MindScrew may not have happened]].

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At first, it is pretty straightforward: an actress named Elisabet Vogler suddenly decides not to speak and is thus considered mentally ill. She and Alma, the nurse who takes care of her, are sent to a Summer cottage in hopes that it will help nurse the actress back to health. Alma talks to her a lot, first about trivial things and then about increasingly personal matters. One day, she reads a letter by Elisabet to her husband, which talks about these matters; among them, a sexual tryst Alma had with [[NoYay underage boys]]. Cold war ensues.

A 1966 classic film by [[UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} Swedish]] director Creator/IngmarBergman (the guy who made ''Film/TheSeventhSeal''), starring Creator/BibiAndersson and Creator/LivUllmann. As with anything by Creator/IngmarBergman, this movie rides heavily on symbolism and philosophy. Its plot is... hard [[MindScrew to explain]].

Whatever happens from there on is entirely up to you to guess. The director's [[ShrugOfGod lack of explanation]] does not help. However, it is still regarded as one of the best movies by Ingmar Bergman.

At first, it is pretty straightforward: an actress named Elisabet Vogler suddenly decides not to speak and is thus considered mentally ill. She and Alma, the nurse who takes care of her, are sent to a Summer cottage in hopes that it will help nurse the actress back to health. Alma talks to her a lot, first about trivial things and then about increasingly personal matters. One day, she reads a letter by Elisabet to her husband, which talks about these matters; among them, a sexual tryst Alma had with [[{{Shotacon}} underage boys]]. Cold war ensues.

Unrelated to the ''{{VideoGame/Persona}}'' videogames, although Jungian psychology is a major theme in both.

%%* LeaningOnTheFourthWall
%%* LeFilmArtistique

%%* GainaxEnding

* ImaginaryFriend: Although it's never really made clear in this MindScrew of a movie, it's eventually at least hinted that "Elisabet"--the character played by Ullmann, that is--is not real, and is actually a figment of the imagination of "Alma" (Andersson) who is the real Elisabet. Note the scene where Elisabet's husband shows up and calls Alma "Elisabet". Alma denies it at first but then starts talking to the husband like she actually is Elisabet. Meanwhile, the husband does not seem to perceive the presence of Liv Ullmann when she shows up in the scene. Note also how the camera cuts to Ullmann just as Alma, apparently in "Elisabet" mode, shouts "It's all just sham and lies!"

* ImaginaryFriend: Although it's never really made clear in this MindScrew of a movie, it's eventually at least hinted that "Elisabet"--the character played by Ullmann, that is--is not real, and is actually a figment of the imagination of "Alma" (Andersson) who is the real Elisabet. Note the scene where Elisabet's husband shows up and calls Alma "Elisabet". Alma denies it at first but then starts talking to the husband like she actually is Elisabet. Meanwhile, the husband does not seem to perceive the presence of Liv Ullmann when she shows up in the scene.

%%* MindScrew