- Joined
- Jun 20, 2004
- Messages
- 3,527
- Real Name
- Richard W
Does MGM still own the rights? I want to see this film on Blu-ray. PERSONA (1966) is one of the great works of art of the 20th century. Literally. Pure cinema. I saw it for the first time in 1974 on a double-feature with HOUR OF THE WOLF (1967) at the Mini-Cinema, a repertory theater on Long Island, NY. I have never forgotten the experience of watching the determined silence of Liv Ullman provoke Bibi Andersson into talking endlessly about herself. How their relationship evolves from the professional to the personal, from a kind of hero-worship into a symbiosis that is as intense and scary for us the viewers as it must have been for the two actresses. What these two lovely ladies are capable of! The moment when their two faces merge into the same face, finally representing the meeting of minds one of them has always wanted and the other has been trying to shut out, is unforgettable. Some people think there is only woman on the island, and the other represents her argument with herself. I don't know, but it's an intriguing interpretation in a film that is beyond limits. When the film breaks, as if some kind of boundary has been crossed that should not be or as if a metaphysical crime has been committed. In the end they are two sides of the same coin, the same persona. Or something like that. PERSONA taught me what cinema is capable of in the hands of a genuine artist. It's a visionary work that rewards repeated viewings. Everytime I see it, I find another dimension in it that makes me shake my head in wonder. I'd seen one other Bergman film before that, CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972) at the Loft in Tucson, when I was too young to understand it. But I knew as it unfolded that it would become important to me later. Who else would like to see PERSONA on Blu-ray?
