Persona

i fucking love how older directors just don't tell you shit. modern movies will have a plot twist at the end of the movie with a "hey, this character isn't real! they're a figment of XYZ's imagination!" and if its a bad movie they'll have a corny flashback to all the scenes that had that character but this time without that character, and if they're good, they're sprinkled throughout the movie and you have to rewatch it, and the director is clever cause look, this character is never on screen with more than one character, and its gonna get discussed so hard on reddit threads. but no, my man ingmar (we're on a first name basis) decides to make a story that's pretty much just two characters, either one could be fake, and the clues are held within single scenes, single shots, single camera movements. there are a lot of scenes where Elisabeth is behind curtains or just far off in the background. does this mean she's more of a premonition, just a thought in Alma's head? then there's one scene where Elisabeth walks through a pair of curtains, does this mean that while she is fake, this does not matter as she is as real as Elisabeth needs her to be? then again, there are multiple scenes of just Alma droning on about her life, with Elisabeth just listening. maybe these are just Elisabeth's experiences but as she doesn't want to express them, she has a vessel for them. Alma is also very physically intimate with Elisabeth, so maybe that's a way to show Elisabeth's desire for physical touch? ALSO the FUCKING Mr. vogler scene, like huuuuuh???? is it that Alma is Elisabeth's true form or that Elisabeth is a guiding spirit for Alma? are they the same person, and saying one is fake while the other is real lessens each of them as half of the same person? which scenes are ones that actually happen, which happen in someone's brain, and which ones of those happen in whose brain? then again, they could just both be real. this could just be a story about two fucked up women living for a bit in a summer house. maybe every single thing in this movie is objective and Elisabeth just sat on the edge of Alma's bed while she and Mr. volger made love. it's 1966, anything can happen ig. WHO KNOWS?! can't wait to come back and watch this in college or something, maybe I'll get it more then? idk dude I just think its good. someone pls buy this for me from the criterion collection please and thank you :)