Persona

“things aren’t so simple for me. or so funny either. but you always have your laugh.” from the first spark on screen, this film so expertly leads you down a muddled, dazed rabbit hole that makes you question: what is the reality? it unravels into a steady but unruly frenzy as the two women’s supposed friendship starts to erode, the effects of honesty tearing apart the act we’ve assumed was truthful to the story, a sequence still impactful (if not even more) despite the already odd but otherwise calm circumstances before the reading of the letter happened. it all became a sham, lies, and so fast.  we see film reels of costumed and almost cartoonish characters performing jump-scares and a nail hammering into a human hand, both exploitations of the pain and fear in humans as a means to entertain, that almost exactly mirror the significance of alma and elisabet’s dynamic. at times, elisabet was society, setting the standard and ideal of the woman that alma felt she had to be. she observed alma’s every move, every word, not be be her friend (although she appeared to be at first) but to study her—to exploit alma for her own gain, and on top of that, for her own entertainment.  but elisabet also represents the persona in every woman. in the monologue alma gives about elisabet’s motherhood, although separate, the two women become one. elisabet is the woman that doesn’t abide by society’s standards, even through she is the one that seems to assume society’s role in the film, and we discover her disdain for motherhood and her yearning for her own personal development. meanwhile, throughout the film, alma reveals her compliance to these standards through sleepless speeches about her future after marrying and her customary views on becoming a mother. of course, these all eventually begin to evolve as we become to understand alma’s true opinions on the the matters, all the more supporting the existence of the turmoil in identity woman have that had been propagated by “our masters”. it’s almost as if to say that as much as woman inherently reject titles, like mother, imposed on them, the responsibility to carry them are so heavily ingrained in their mental that they proceed to act in the play they were forced into regardless of their own intention. and aside from the plot or characters, this film is a blessing to watch. from the eerie morgue-like setting we first see with elisabet’s son looking as if he’d just been embalmed and restored for viewing to the glitching of faces that so brilliantly foreshadow the proceedings, i was enraptured by bergman’s cinematography and vision in a singular minute. the scene where elisabet almost floats into alma’s room like a ghost was so soft and graceful. it was intimate and kind of reminded me of a portrait of a lady on fire. and the way this film flowed! i will be thinking about persona for a very long time.