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Persona

  • 1966
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 23m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
124K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,155
424
Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in Persona (1966)
Theatrical Trailer
Play trailer5:01
1 Video
99+ Photos
DramaThriller

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.

  • Director
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Writer
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Stars
    • Bibi Andersson
    • Liv Ullmann
    • Margaretha Krook
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    8.1/10
    124K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    3,155
    424
    • Director
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Writer
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Stars
      • Bibi Andersson
      • Liv Ullmann
      • Margaretha Krook
    • 284User reviews
    • 151Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #244
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 11 wins & 5 nominations total

    Videos1

    Persona
    Trailer 5:01
    Watch Persona

    Photos180

    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
    • Alma
    Liv Ullmann
    Liv Ullmann
    • Elisabet Vogler
    Margaretha Krook
    Margaretha Krook
    • The Doctor
    Gunnar Björnstrand
    Gunnar Björnstrand
    • Mr. Vogler
    Jörgen Lindström
    Jörgen Lindström
    • Elisabet's Son
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Writer
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to himself, Ingmar Bergman fell in love with Liv Ullmann during the making of the movie.
    • Goofs
      The part where Alma reads a passage from her book to Elisabeth at the beach was translated clumsily to English version where the passage loses most of its meaning.
    • 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 reviews284

    Review
    Review
    Featured 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•210
    52
    • gftbiloxi
    • Apr 21, 2005

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    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

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    • 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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