Persona
Initially, Alma was genuinely trying to help out of sympathy for Elizabeth Vogler. Over time, she thought she’d found something special a friend or even a sister someone she could truly trust and confide in about all the guilt and secrets she’d bottled up her whole life. But finding out she was just material being studied, and that Elizabeth didn't give a damn about her feelings, was utterly devastating.
Those random, jarring transition clips, along with the footage of the Vietnamese monk burning himself on TV, beautifully captured the raw mix of misery, love, anger, guilt, and betrayal right up to the blending of their personalities.
Both Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann delivered incredible performances, and Bergman powerfully portrayed a deeply raw story of identity crisis and attachment issues.