FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Ingmar Bergman - Persona (engl. subt.) 

The essential human question in Ingmar Bergman comprises only two words: "No, don't!" No, I don't want to feel pain! No scars to keep! No, I don't want to die! In the end, however, with "No, don't!" she does admit that she exists. I first saw Persona as a teenager and over the years I kept returning to this film! Addicted to the beauty of the images and eager to uncover its secrets! Yet I wouldn't call Persona a difficult film at all, because everything we see is perfectly clear. Even the dream sequences are clear: as dreams. Persona, however, suggests deeper truths and you despair of finding them. As a teenager, there was no way I understood Persona. Today I believe it is best taken literally. It is about exactly what we assume! We see ordinary everyday actions and hear an ordinary conversation. This is conveyed by the haunting images of the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist. What does a Bergman film look like? One face frontally, one behind it in profile. Everyone who loves CINEMA knows this image! At the centre is the actress Elisabeth (Liv Ullmann), who quite suddenly stops speaking during a theatre performance of Electra. A psychologist thinks it might help if Elizabeth spends the summer with her sister Alma (Bibi Andersson). Isolated, in a house. Locked in a box of space and time, the women try to merge. Elizabeth says nothing, Alma talks and talks and talks. Both look very much alike. At one point, Bergman even combines half of Elizabeth's face with that of Alma. Later, the faces overlap. Anyone who loves Bergman knows that the face is his big theme. The merging of the two faces suggests a psychic attraction between the women. The mute Elizabeth is stronger than Alma, after all, the soul of the stronger overpowers that of her sister. Why did Elizabeth stop speaking? We see footage of the Vietnam War and the Warsaw Ghetto. Are the horrors of this world the reason for Elizabeth to refuse to speak? For Alma, the horrors are much closer to home. Alma doubts her relationship and her ability to stand up to Elizabeth. In a dream sequence, however, we learn that Elizabeth is also driven by private worries. Her husband appears, caresses Alma's face and calls out "Elizabeth".... Through one of Alma's monologues we are also told that Elizabeth has a deformed child whom she gave away in order to continue her theatre career. An unbearably painful story. During the monologue, the camera focuses on Elizabeth's face. Then the story is told again, but this time we see Alma's face. Even more famous is Alma's monologue about her sex on the beach. Have you ever heard of it? It's one of those scenes that even those who have never seen Persona for themselves can describe. Elizabeth breaking through the reveries of her life in pain, Alma in her ecstasy there on the beach. And when are we "WE" in direct contact with the world? Is our "WE" not based on mere ideas and hopes? Elizabeth is strong enough to choose to be "HER". Alma can't do it. She is too weak to decide NOT to be Elizabeth. Now you understand the title persona. In the singular.