Persona begins with some random shots of earliest cinema and ends with the shot of a film roll that is getting over and the projection seems to end as if to indicate that whatever we witnessed between these are not reality but lies. The lies that we tell ourselves to become someone else (a persona) and film in doing so, really gets into the human mind which becomes so dangerous in the state of the non-existence of one being and becoming another. Bergman uses this interesting setup to explore the struggle for identity, destruction, conflicts, and duality of one such mind.
It’s very interesting for me to find out how Bergman first got the idea for the film. He said that when he was undergoing an operation he was given anesthesia where he lost space & time, and become non-existential to the real world. He felt that this non-existentially of a human mind is very dangerous because there’s no restriction in the unconscious world and we can become whoever we want and do whatever we want. The characters seem to get along so well, Bergman shows us this delicate intimacy and them sinking into one another through some of the most studied shots in the history of cinema.
But, Is the human mind that simple that we can become someone else so easy? that’s where all hell breaks loose. When Alma finds out that something is wrong and Elizabeth is using her, she becomes mad and wants Elizabeth to speak, to not lie anymore, and to reveal the truth. But, Elizabeth, not falling for her own mind games, only speaks when the Alma tries to destroy her (tries to splash hot oil), but then too she never reveals her identity. When Alma finds out what Elizabeth wrote about her in the letter, she leaves a piece of glass deliberately to hurt Elizabeth but the irony here is Alma is the persona that Elizabeth created and Alma’s role is to nurse Elizabeth.
And, what happens next, when Elizabeth steps onto the glass is one of the most cinematic scenes of all time, the screen literally breaks and burns to show how all the lies Elizabeth is telling herself works no longer and reality has hit her, a brilliant showcase of vulnerability and unpredictability of the human mind.
Remember I mentioned how Persona starts, it starts as if we are going to watch a film inside a film and the second film is the one that happens in Elizabeth’s mind, all lies. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Alma asks Elizabeth to say “no, it’s nothing”, a brilliant scene to indicate that Elizabeth finally speaks and comes out of the non-existence and we also get a shot of her acting in a real film.
I consider a film like this as a contribution to the modern art that is to be studied and should be looked at from a personal perspective because a view of someone else may look stupid to me or vice versa. Maybe my interpretation of the film may change over the course of time or on re-watch but what’s very important is to experience art that is so ambitious and to draw our own conclusions on it.
Thanks for reading. Cheers.
CiNeMA ReTroSpecT 