Faces of Deception in Ingmar Bergman's Persona
Persona is probably Ingmar Bergman's most famous film. Its notoriety goes beyond the sum of its controversial ingredients, however, which are many (the inclusion of footage of an erect penis in the pre-title sequence, graphic verbal descriptions of an orgy, etc.); rather, its enduring legacy has more to do with the fraught complications of the plot itself, which has proven to be nearly impossible for critics and audiences to unravel ever since its release in the year 1966. While I make no claims of being able to "solve" the mystery of Persona, in what follows, I intend to focus on one primary aspect of the film - the role that the human face plays throughout - in order to gain insight into what I believe to be one of Persona's central clues. From the very beginning of the film - the famous pre-title sequence - the face plays a primary role. The pre-title sequence, of course, consists of a montage of different still images, but culminates in a young boy in bed touching the large, projected face of a woman on a screen. The boy is clearly meant to be the son of Elisabeth, and the projection of the face is Elisabeth herself. What is only hinted at here will become clear towards the end of the film - namely, Elisabeth's distan
She then goes inside the house to get a broom. That letter shattered Alma's illusions - and the glass she holds in the subsequent sequence also falls and shatters. Then, we are returned to the barrage of images we saw in the pre-title sequence at the beginning of the film - a monster from an older movie, three actors running around in a chase scene from a silent movie, a skeleton, a hand with a nail being driven through it, and an extreme close-up of an eye. Just as the body and the soul are inseparable, so are the cinema and life. At this point, she pulls aside a veil, which we had not been able to see previously. Ruspoli (1999) reads this moment in terms of a Kierkegaardian conflict of the inner self: Kierkegaard, [. A young nurse, Sister Alma (Bibi Andersson), is assigned to take care of her. At this point, the two sides of human nature - body and soul - will be united - but only for a moment, for this fracture is real and can never be fully resolved even in the cinema (hence, Bergman's continuous reference to the medium itself. A sense of intimacy is fostered - despite the fact that the conversation only goes one way. At this point, the image dissolves, and we are returned to the scene we had left before, with Elisabeth walking into the house, then walking outside again and going to the beach, where sits with her back to the sun, blocking most of its light. Then, in one of Persona's most startling sequences, we see a close-up of Alma's face, at which point the film begins to crack and burn up. " She talks incessantly about her life, until she begins to reveal the most intimate details to Elisabeth, effectively blurring the line that is meant to separate nurse from patient. There are no sounds or music taking place here, allowing the viewer to fully concentrate on each gesture that Alma makes. In the process of sweeping up the glass, she suddenly decides to leave a piece outside - presumably so that Elisabeth will step on it and injure herself, thereby shattering the delicate facade of a passive observer that she has set up for herself. Alma, who has been inside, puts out the cigarette she was smoking and walks to the window in order to study the pained expression on Elisabeth's face - thus, effectively reversing the role that she has been cast in against her will.
Common topics in this essay:
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elisabeth's husband,
decides leave,
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Acceptance Essays
