Comment on persona

Tressie 2022-03-24 09:01:52

It is said that Bergman once saw Bibby Anderson and his friend Liv Uman chatting together. The two girls looked so close, as if they were indistinguishable from each other, so he created a mysterious and beautiful work - fake noodle.
Its mystery comes from the idea of ​​two women becoming one, from the early silent films at the beginning of the film, from the tense and gloomy soundtrack, from the repeated scenes, from the dream, from Liv Ullman's Eliza Bai, the actress who suddenly refuses to speak, has all the mystical qualities about her, her mysterious black dress, deep, quiet eyes, and her strong willpower that fascinates and terrifies Beebe's Emma. And to say that the film is beautiful, I think it all comes from the mystery itself. Like Emma's feelings for Elizabeth, Masquerade is a movie that we both love and fear.
The film begins with a screening of Light and Fire, accompanied by a rushing and quirky soundtrack. We see video clips, including some early silent film clips, which are eerie, horrific, with nailed palms, dead rabbits, spiders, guts, barren snow. Then there are close-ups of people, partial close-ups and facial close-ups, mainly old people, including a child. The figures lie dead, and the voiceovers are the sounds of the living world: dripping water, footsteps, and telephone calls. The kid was woken up by the sound of the phone, and that's when I knew he was alive. He stared at the camera and reached out to touch something, I thought he spotted the camera, and a reverse shot I saw him touching the projection on the wall of a close-up of a woman's face, which could be his mother.
The story begins after the opening credits, which are interspersed with close-ups of the protagonist's faces and fast switching. In the hospital, the whole scene is very staged, looking cold, pale and empty. Here we meet the two heroines for the first time, Emma is gentle and warm like a lively deer, while Elizabeth looks nervous, depressed, fearful, silent. In the hospital scene, everything is so alienated and indifferent, even though it is full of dialogue (or speaking and listening) between characters, there is no sign of communication, because the shots are almost all single shots, we can't see To the shots where the two are in the same frame (although there are two or three double shots of Emma and Elizabeth, they are basically panoramic shots or half-length shots; in the "conversation" with the psychiatrist, Elizabeth is sideways. In addition, in the dialogue of the characters, we cannot see the front and back shots, the reaction of the listener or the speaker, and the lack of communication. However, this sense of alienation is effectively alleviated, even a huge reversal, in the expression of the passage of the seaside villa. Emma and Elizabeth live in an independent, closed space in the seaside villa. In this temporary special situation, the two women are the objects of each other's inquiry, and the two begin to communicate - talk and listen, and present in multiple doubles. in the lens. Elizabeth was gentle and patient with Emma, ​​and Emma told her everything about herself, including forbidden secrets buried deep in her memory. Everything seemed to be in idyllic harmony until Emma read Elizabeth's letter to the doctor, and the single shot appeared frequently again. However, the single shot at this time was no longer just alienation, but also tension and confrontation.
In the whole movie, Elizabeth only took the initiative to say one sentence, "Don't". This is her fear and resistance to infringement and even death. This instinctive survival instantly overcomes her silent will. She is not numb, she is eager to live, in fact, choosing silence itself is a kind of rejection, and rejection is a strong will to life. She needs a mask to stay alive. Persona means the role played by a character in a play, and also refers to the disguised appearance of a public figure. Most people need a persona to live. Elizabeth removed one mask through silence and put another mask on through Emma. Bergman, on the other hand, set Elizabeth's career as an actress. I finally understand why Elizabeth, who is in the hospital at the beginning of the film, is so fragile and sensitive, she has taken off her old persona but not the new one.
In Emma's relationship with Elizabeth, it can be seen that Elizabeth is the strong side, she is tall and strong-willed, and she dominates everything despite not saying a word. We can see Elizabeth marching forward and Emma like a stumbling child, running after her when they are at odds. It was she who chose Emma and herself in a dream (or not) to become one (in the dark, two women faced the camera, Emma let Elizabeth stroke her hair, this scene is too attractive); Let Emma touch her husband for herself, make love to him and take on the pain and remorse of being a wife and mother. This union of oneness is culminated in the story of Elizabeth and her son. In the telling of the story, Bergman asked Emma to repeat it twice, once with Elizabeth and once with Emma. Although the two narrations came from Emma's mouth, it was actually a taboo secret about Elizabeth. The first time the camera was aimed at Elizabeth, Elizabeth told the secret through Emma's mouth, and the second time the camera was aimed at Elizabeth. It's Emma who is telling the story, and because she's one with Elizabeth, it's also her secret (followed by the spooky image of the two faces coming together). But we also see Emma resisting, shouting "no" after the narration, and confirming her identity by changing into her nurse's uniform (Emma and Elizabeth always wore black or white pajamas at the same time).
There are also many scenes in the film that I don't understand but I think are extremely beautiful, such as the montage of the film inserted into the opening scene after Elizabeth was punctured by the glass that Emma deliberately put, and then jumping back to the progress of the story, we see Elizabeth emerge from a phantom. In slow motion, the camera followed her to find Emma, ​​and suddenly it changed from an upgraded shot to normal, and then suddenly from defocused to clear. And at the end of the film, the huge human-faced statue that appears, we will find how similar this statue is to Elizabeth's play.
For such a film, it may never be exhausted or truly understood, as is the case with all charismatic works. You shouldn't embarrass yourself, it's better to feel the beauty and mysterious core of its images half-guessing.

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Extended Reading
  • Angus 2021-12-07 08:01:40

    Very ultimate movie experience. The combination of visual, audio, abstract and reality, arbitrary editing and performances by actors are all at their peak. But at the same time I thought that Bergman should be someone who has been trying to reject and escape the real world.

  • Deangelo 2022-03-21 09:01:54

    What's reality when everything's cheap fiction friction fission fraction fusion faction fashion...total "full of sound and fury signifying nothing" shit *smiley face

Persona quotes

  • Sister Alma: At the hospital where I took my exam, there's a home for old nurses who were nurses all their lives and lived for their work and were always in uniform. They live in their little rooms there. Imagine believing so strongly in something that you devote your entire life to it. Having something to believe in, working at something, believing your life has meaning. I like that. Holding on tight to something, no matter what -- I think that's how it should be. Meaning something to other people. Don't you agree?

  • Sister Alma: He was married. We had an affair for five years. Then he got tired of it, of course. I was terribly in love, and he was the first. I remember it all like one long torment. Long periods of agony, and brief moments when -- your teaching me how to smoke reminding me. He smoked constantly. In hindsight it all seems so dreary. A real dime store novel. In some strange way it was never quite real. I don't know how to explain it. At least, I was never quite real to him. But my pain was real, that's for sure. But that was somehow all a part of it in some nasty way, as if that's how it was supposed to be.