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Persona (film): Encyclopedia BETAFree Encyclopedia |
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The film discusses what makes a person a person and if all our roles as humans are just as exchangable. It is highly open to interpretation and features many memorable moments. It is considered a major artistic work by arthouse cinema fans and many filmmakers, and is of particular interest to psychologists. PlotThe movie takes place mostly at a seaside summer residence in Sweden, where actress Elisabet Vogler has been sent to recuperate by her psychiatrist after remaining silent for a long time. Her nurse Alma is sent to accompany her.The main plot is about the two personalities exchanging places, switching from one body to the other, so at the end, the nurse is Elisabet Vogler and Elisabet Vogler is the nurse (this is just one of many interpretations). Brechtian alienation techniquePersona is one of the first films to make use of the Brechtian alienation technique (Verfremdungseffekt); it is used to destroy and/or interrupt the fantasy-world of the movie. Some notable uses of the technique in Persona are at the beginning and end, where you see a reel of film being loaded; in the middle, when Elisabet steps on glass and the film appears to burn; and later on, when the camera turns around to display the crew filming a scene with Elisabet.Possible interpretations
First theoryElisabet and the nurse are one and the same person. They are "split" when the actress does not want to act any more, and retires to her own self. The term "does not want to act" depicts two things: firstly, she does not want to act as a job, and secondly, in a more distant, but more appropriate interpretation, she does not want to act to the outside world (e.g. in the movie the nurse part of the personality says this: "But you played the part. The part of a pregnant, happy mother.") The nurse is nothing more than the outside appearance of the same person—this is why Mr. Vogler recognises her (and not Elisabet) as Mrs. Vogler. Elisabet is the inner self of the same person: she is a quiet, strong personality. This interpretation is suggested by the director when the two half-faces of the nurse and Elisabet are put together into one picture, one face (note also that the nurse says during the beginning that she thought that Elisabet is very similar to her).Second theoryAlma is the nurse who is supposed to be treating Elisabet, but this is gradually reversed. Simply by talking to Elisabet, Alma develops a feeling of closeness to her and comes to divulge intimate secrets, even though Elisabeth has not reciprocated. This transference effect is shattered when Alma reads Elisabet's letter to her doctor, mentioning that Alma has childishly fallen in love with Elisabet and that it is interesting to study Alma. Suddenly, Alma realizes that she has been only an object for Elisabet, and lashes out against her. Yet the film progresses to a complex confusion of Elisabet's and Alma's characters, felt perhaps most strikingly when Elisabet's blind husband visits and mistakes Alma for Elisabet; Alma hesitates at first, but then embraces the role, beginning by saying the things to him that Elisabet cannot or will not say, and then "breaking down" (deconstruction) much as we can imagine Elisabet did. This recalls the notorious psychoanalytic style of Jacques Lacan, who would sometimes remain silent for an entire session.CensorshipTwo scenes are frequently cut from versions of the film; a brief shot at the beginning depicting an erect penis, and a piece of Alma's monologue where she says her lover "made her come with his hand" and implies they were children or teenagers. These changes were removed for American distribution and retained on most American video releases.When MGM archivist John Kirk restored Persona as part of a larger restoration project, he worked with the original, uncensored version with the brief shot of an erect penis. He also created new subtitles by commissioning several language experts to provide new, accurate translations for the dialogue; this is particularly noticeable during Alma's graphic recollection of an orgy, which some were reluctant to translate without toning down some of the details. The original, uncensored version wasn't widely available in the U.S. until 2004, when MGM's home video department reissued Persona on DVD, utilizing Kirk's work. Other filmsDavid Lynch's film Mulholland Drive (2001) shares strong similarities with Bergman's Persona, and this has led many film scholars to speculate that Mulholland Drive may have been either wholly or partially inspired by this classic Bergman film.Woody Allen's film Love and Death references Persona in its final minutes; two characters are lined up, one facing the camera, the other at a 90-degree angle, with their mouths in the same space, just as in Persona. External link*Roger Ebert's review
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