Persona - Bergman

"Persona" (1966) is a masterpiece of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. The films presents a relationship of vampirism between the two women protagonists: the actress Elisabeth Vogler (LivUllmann), admitted to a hospital, and the nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson), her specialist. Isolated in a coastal village, Elisabeth will be revealed as a dominant figure who tries to establish its particularpossession on the other character.
Bergman reveals in this film the values of paradigmatic reflection present in the Occidental society of the early 60’s. The existentialism and the psychoanalyticapproach are key values to be exposed here: fear of failure, insecurity, terror of nothingness, and the meaninglessness in life. In this production the idea of repressed sexuality and motherhood are alsohighlighted.
But Persona is primarily a vampire film with a continuous crossover between two women who devour each other. The actress, pathologically diagnosed as a sudden mute, is gradually absorbingthe personality of the nurse who takes care of her. However this other one, Alma, whose name means soul, constantly feels the need to talk. So in this interaction the practice of psychoanalysis isreversed when the psychoanalyst is being analyzed. At the end Alma discovers his fears by expressing her desires she heals herself.
The internal dialogue in Persona is constructed to remove the mask inAlma, and to the recognition of the inner self in Elisabeth. Nursing and family life are the two great pillars on which Alma tries to build her identity for the rest of the world. But the very waythat she brings to convince herself shows a fragmentation inside her personality. The way she lived by now does not correspond with the person she was meant to be, with the image of her real self.
Theusual environment for Elisabeth as an actress is the theater. However, the roles are reversed in the house of Mrs. Vogler and she becomes an observer of the action of Alma. The nurse transforms the...