PERSONA directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1966)
“Identity is a crisis, can’t you see?” Poly Styrene of X-ray Spex hit the nail on the head when she sang this.
Ingmar Bergman’s classic movie covers the same territory in a more highbrow manner.
The rapid montage of images at the beginning – including an erect penis, a crucifixion, bodies in a morgue and a young boy in front of a huge screen – puts the ‘art’ into artifice and prepares us for the unexpected.
The burning film reel is an equally memorable finale for a movie which, since it can be interpreted in so many ways, is manna from heaven for movie buffs and film critics. It has rightly been voted as one of 50 best movies of all time in the BFI/Sight & Sound poll. Continue reading
