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Persona

  • 19661966
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 23m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
116K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,131
618
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Persona (1966)
Theatrical Trailer
Play trailer5:01
1 Video
99+ Photos
  • Drama
  • Thriller

A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.

IMDb RATING
8.1/10
116K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,131
618
  • Director
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Writer
    • Ingmar Bergman(story and screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Bibi Andersson
    • Liv Ullmann
    • Margaretha Krook
Top credits
  • Director
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Writer
    • Ingmar Bergman(story and screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Bibi Andersson
    • Liv Ullmann
    • Margaretha Krook
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 264User reviews
    • 144Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #238
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 11 wins & 5 nominations total

    Videos1

    Persona
    Trailer 5:01
    Persona

    Photos162

    Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson in Persona (1966)
    "Persona" Bibi Anderson, Gunnar Bjormstrand, Liv Ulman 1966 United Artists
    Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
    Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Bibi Andersson
    Bibi Andersson
    • Almaas Alma
    Liv Ullmann
    Liv Ullmann
    • Elisabet Vogleras Elisabet Vogler
    Margaretha Krook
    Margaretha Krook
    • The Doctoras The Doctor
    Gunnar Björnstrand
    Gunnar Björnstrand
    • Mr. Vogleras Mr. Vogler
    Jörgen Lindström
    Jörgen Lindström
    • Elisabet's Sonas Elisabet's Son
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Writer
      • Ingmar Bergman(story and screenplay)
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer. Alma eventually confesses her secrets to a seemingly sympathetic Elisabeth and finds that her own personality is being submerged into Elisabeth's persona. —Kathy Li
    • silence
    • patient
    • mute character
    • intercepted letter
    • sex talk
    • 88 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Taglines
      • A new film by Ingmar Bergman
    • Genres
      • Drama
      • Thriller
    • Certificate
      • Not Rated
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to himself, Ingmar Bergman fell in love with Liv Ullmann during the making of the movie.
    • Quotes

      The Doctor: I understand, all right. The hopeless dream of being - not seeming, but being. At every waking moment, alert. The gulf between what you are with others and what you are alone. The vertigo and the constant hunger to be exposed, to be seen through, perhaps even wiped out. Every inflection and every gesture a lie, every smile a grimace. Suicide? No, too vulgar. But you can refuse to move, refuse to talk, so that you don't have to lie. You can shut yourself in. Then you needn't play any parts or make wrong gestures. Or so you thought. But reality is diabolical. Your hiding place isn't watertight. Life trickles in from the outside, and you're forced to react. No one asks if it is true or false, if you're genuine or just a sham. Such things matter only in the theatre, and hardly there either. I understand why you don't speak, why you don't move, why you've created a part for yourself out of apathy. I understand. I admire. You should go on with this part until it is played out, until it loses interest for you. Then you can leave it, just as you've left your other parts one by one.

    • Alternate versions
      The American version, released by United Artists, omits a brief close-up shot of an erect penis from the film's pre-credit collage.
    • Connections
      Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Fatale beauté (1994)
    • Soundtracks
      Adagio from Concerto No. 2 in E major for Violin, Strings and Continuo, BWV 1042
      Written by Johann Sebastian Bach

    User reviews264

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    A Masterpiece
    PERSONA may well be Ingmar Bergman's most complex film--yet, like many Bergman films, the story it tells is superficially simple. Actress Elizabeth Volger has suddenly stopped speaking in what appears to be an effort to cease all communication with the external world. She is taken to a hospital, where nurse Alma is assigned to care for her. After some time, Elisabeth's doctor feels the hospital is of little use to her; the doctor accordingly lends her seaside home to Elisabeth, who goes there with Alma in attendance. Although Elisabeth remains silent, the relationship between the women is a pleasant one--until a rainy day, too much alcohol, and Elisabeth's silence drives Alma into a series of highly charged personal revelations.

    It is at this point that the film, which has already be super-saturated with complex visual imagery, begins to create an unnerving and deeply existential portrait of how we interpret others, how others interpret us, and the impact that these interpretations have upon both us and them. What at first seemed fond glances and friendly gestures from the silent Elisabeth are now suddenly open to different interpretations, and Alma--feeling increasingly trapped by the silence--enters into a series of confrontations with her patient... but these confrontations have a dreamlike quality, and it becomes impossible to know if they are real or imagined--and if imagined, in which of the women's minds the fantasy occurs.

    Ultimately, Bergman seems to be creating a situation in which we are forced to acknowledge that a great deal of what we believe we know about others rests largely upon what we ourselves project upon them. Elisabeth's face and its expressions become akin to a blank screen on which we see our own hopes, dreams, torments, and tragedies projected--while the person behind the face constantly eludes our understanding. In this respect, the theme is remarkably well-suited to its medium: the blankness of the cinema screen with its flickering, endless shifting images that can be interpreted in infinite ways.

    Bergman is exceptionally fortunate in his actresses here: both Liv Ullman as the silent Elisabeth and Bibi Anderson as the increasingly distraught Alma offer incredible performances that seem to encompass both what we know from the obvious surface and what we can never know that exists behind their individual masks. Ullman has been justly praised for the power of her silence in this film, and it is difficult to imagine another actress who could carry off a role that must be performed entirely by ambiguous implications. Anderson is likewise remarkable, her increasing levels of emotional distress resounding like the waves upon the rocks at their seaside retreat. And Bergman and his celebrated cinematographer Sven Nykvist fill the screen with a dreamlike quality that is constantly interrupted by unexpected images ranging from glimpses of silent films to a moment at which the celluloid appears to burn to images that merge Ullman and Anderson's faces into one.

    As in many of his films, Bergman seems to be stating that we cannot know another person, and that our inability to do is our greatest tragedy. But however the film is interpreted, it is a stunning and powerful achievement, one that will resonate with the viewer long after the film ends.

    Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer
    helpful•189
    47
    • gftbiloxi
    • Apr 21, 2005

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 16, 1967 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Sweden
    • Languages
      • Swedish
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Персона
    • Filming locations
      • Fårö, Gotlands län, Sweden
    • Production company
      • AB Svensk Filmindustri
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $90,556
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 23 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • AGA Sound System
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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