![]() In interviews, he's given conflicting accounts of which image came to him first. Lying in a hospital bed for weeks, unable to work, Bergman got the idea for Persona. Bergman spent months in the hospital and The Cannibals was cancelled. What had started as a cold turned into pneumonia complicated by an ear infection, and antibiotic poisoning. He was preparing to shoot a new film, The Cannibals, when he became ill. In 1965, Bergman was an internationally acclaimed director of such films as The Seventh Seal (1957) And Wild Strawberries (1957). Persona has been much discussed and interpreted since its release, but Bergman himself refused to elucidate, writing in the preface to the published screenplay, "On many points I am unsure, and in one instance, at least, I know nothing." The title, a Latin word, refers both to the masks worn by actors in classical drama, and to a term used by psychologist Carl Jung to describe an artificial personality used to hide the real self. Gradually, the two women, who resemble each other physically, begin to assume each other's identities. Her doctor sends her to a remote seaside cottage, where she's cared for by a loquacious nurse, Alma (Bibi Andersson). Liv Ullmann plays Elisabeth, an actress who has stopped speaking in the middle of a performance. The final images leading into the film's story are of one woman's face turning into another's. Bergman called it "a sonata for two instruments." It begins with film leader being projected, then comic bits from silent film, followed by more disturbing images: a spider, a nail driven through a hand, corpses in a morgue. One of Ingmar Bergman's most complex films, Persona (1966) on the surface appears simple and accessible. Alma finally breaks down, and the two women silently pack their bags and leave the house. During the recrimination, Alma seems to become Elisabeth and experiences all the pain that had forced Elisabeth into her retreat. Feeling betrayed by Elisabeth's apparent indifference, Alma angrily rebukes her patient for her selfish withdrawal from life. For Alma, the relationship becomes an almost complete merging of personalities, until she reads a letter Elisabeth has written to her doctor describing how she has drawn strength from listening to the somewhat naive confessions of her nurse. As the days pass, a warm friendship develops between the two women the nurse gradually bares all of her innermost secrets, and the actress silently absorbs all that she hears. She is attended by Alma, a trained nurse who attempts to penetrate the silence by freely talking about herself. When hospital tests and examinations fail to identify the source of her problem, her psychiatrist sends her to an isolated beach house on the Baltic Sea for a rest. ![]() The next day she withdraws completely into a mental and physical inertia. During a performance of Electra, noted stage actress Elisabeth Vogler stops speaking for a moment before continuing with the play.
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