Persona was a montage of disturbia, a philosophical meditation on the horror of a lonely existence, an entrance into a warped mind that twitches and trembles. Persona displayed two women in raw, minimalist bare-soul form. There are no barriers here: no one can hide, not even the viewer. Persona is raw in every fashion. It is scathing. It is like sandpaper to the brain. Persona sounds like the scrape of a match which is then flicked into a hot flame; Persona feels to the brain like the scrape and the fire. Persona is like Pi. Persona fuses characters and souls and ideas under the heat of its own artistry. Persona crawls under the skin; it tastes bitter and is prickly to the touch. It is seductive, yet poisonous upon contact. It is intimately poetic and yet harshly abrasive. Indeed, Bergman has made a film of contrasts and contradictions. Two characters are one; shocking turns to smooth; abrasive to poetic; death becomes life; things run opposite; things double over. Things float. Bergman uses extensive imagery to convey the existential experiences of two women, or one woman. This film is a horror project and a work of beauty. I love Liv Ullman and I hate Bibi Andersson. Persona has the simplest premise. Two women are isolated together and they begin to fuse. There are no other characters, essentially one location. This is a minimalist film that is excessive and indulgent. I love its simplicity, and also its chaotic nature. I love that the philosophy comes through but may not be connected.
Perhaps Persona is more coherent than I have been conveying. I will experience it again, obviously. I am more attracted to the subtlety and sophistication of other similarly-acclaimed films than I am to the mad genius of Persona, but it is extremely attractive to me in other ways. The intimate camerawork is essential; it has a soft touch on the faces of the women. The chaotic philosophy; the intimacy of the performances at times; the isolation and simplicity of the setting; the sweeping aesthetics: all these make Persona a special movie for me.
Bergman's Persona is a work of genius creativity and fantastic execution.
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