Persona (1966)
After seven hours with Bela Tarr, Bergman is outright cheerful.
The impressive takeaway from this very unique character study of a film is how much can be conveyed with only one character actually saying anything. It is not a traditional dialogue, but not quite a monologue either, because Alma and Elisabet have a very personal communication. Alma opens up about herself to a degree that the first roles of caretaker and patient breaks down - even to a point where the viewer starts doubting whether there are actually two different people.
The performances here by Ullmann and Andersson are beyond impressive, but the film also got a tad too avantgarde for me and while it is clearly a film that can be picked apart and analyzed from here to eternity, I didn’t personally get as much out of it as with Wild Strawberries and Autumn Sonata.
Rating: 4