Bergman: 100 Years

PERSONA

• Director: Ingmar Bergman
• SWEDEN / 1966 / DCP / B&W / 81´ / Swedish ; Turkish, English s.t.

• Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman
• Director of Photography: Sven Nykvist
• Editing: Ulla Ryghe
• Music: Lars Johan Werle
• Cast: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margareta Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jörgen Lindström
• Producer: Ingmar Bergman, Lars-Owe Carlberg
• Production Co.: Swedish Film Production
• World Sales: Swedish Film Institute

- 1968 NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (USA) Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (B. Andersson)

Described by Bergman as “a sonata for two instruments”, Persona is an unsettling drama which has inspired many from David Lynch to Claude Chabrol and even Abba. Alma, a young nurse played by Bibi Andersson, assists Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullman), an actress who refuses to speak, during her therapy process. The duo locates to a seaside cottage. However, as time passes the therapy works the other way around–Alma becomes the one who talks and pours her heart out instead of Elisabeth and as their characters enmesh, the line between fantasy and reality gets blurred. Persona is one of Bergman’s many flawless masterpieces, and as the director himself says “touches wordless secrets that only cinema can discover.”

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.