Director Olivier Assayas discusses the magic of Ingmar Bergman's 1966 masterpiece PERSONA.
A stunning 35mm print of "Bergman's most important film" (James Monaco), which the director himself referred to as "a breakthrough, a success that gave me the courage to keep on searching along unknown paths." PERSONA explores the relationship between two women: a famous actor who has suffered a nervous breakdown and lost the power of speech (Liv Ullmann, in her first film for Bergman), and her naïve young nurse (Bibi Andersson), whose own anguish is unleashed by the mysterious woman in her care. The two women, who look alike, begin to merge and converge - or are they actually two facets of one divided personality? Persona is famous for many things: Bergman's startling metacinematic devices; the eerie, erotic charge of the two women's agonized relationship; the superimpositions which suggest their psychic dissolution and convergence. "Persona, unbelievably, lasts for 83 minutes, though you may need half a lifetime to get over it" (Anthony Lane, The New Yorker).
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8 сен 2024
