In his memoirs, legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman said of Persona, “I had gone as far as I could go … I touched wordless secrets that only the cinema can discover.” A minimalist production about an actress who suddenly goes mute and the nurse who cares for her in an isolated seaside cottage, Personabegins with a prelude: a projector shows several brief images, including a crucifixion, an erect penis, a cartoon, a tarantula, children in Halloween costumes, a lamb being slaughtered and, finally, an emaciated boy who wakes up in a hospital and touches a blurry image of a woman’s face. The title cards feature more split-second images, including what appears to be a self-immolating monk in Vietnam. What follows is a three-act drama about identity, loss and memory, one that influenced directors from Woody Allen to David Lynch.
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