Persona

"Persona is one of Bergman's most impactful, shattering films. A work of art that makes you look inside yourself, explore your fears, be devastated - and at the same time, filled with reflection.

 Sometimes we face the danger of "breaking", of losing our inner strength, of falling into the silent daze of silence. Elizabeth is a successful actress at the peak of her career, but this very success is one of the reasons that triggered her illness. Suddenly something changes in her, she realizes the futility of words and gestures. She comes to doubt the value of art. The art that is in her, part of her personality. All her life the actor plays different roles. Gradually they settle in the quiet recesses of his mind, become part of his being. The roles erase Mrs. Vogler's individuality. Elisabeth stops acting and sinks into silence in search of the unreal, intoxicated by her own indifference to others, even to her own child. She longs to encounter the true Meaning, but seems to drift further and further away from it in her silence. Elizabeth also feels a sense of guilt because she cannot be a good mother - this is clear in the look on her face when Alma tells her own story, and twice... Alma psychodramatically steps into Elizabeth's role, distancing herself from her but accepting her feelings as her own. The warm screaming "soul" wants to break the icy loneliness, to wrench sound from the silent mask. The real and the social have made a strange but inevitable alliance - sensual and mystical.

The mother figure is questioned - Alma has an abortion while Elizabeth feels no love for her child. She may have been deprived of her own mother's attention and love and for that reason - she does not want to show her true personality. She has constructed a false self to protect her from reality. She feels dislike for her son while he is strongly attached and needs her love. He is a "lamb", another victim of her indifference. If we consider the two female characters as one - we can see how many contradictions a person striving for self-knowledge faces. Guilt is pushed away, but at any moment it can surface and cause suffering. 

Two women on the beach - reading books, browsing, comparing hands... Their faces are half hidden by straw hats - before they merge in an enigmatic union. They are so different and at the same time - the same. The expressive Alma and the cool Elizabeth - this is them before their identities disappear - as the waves erase the occasional footsteps on the lonely beach. The spaces in the film can also be seen as psychic. The cottage on the beach is a cosy refuge, a place of revelation, of sharing, but at the same time a dwelling place for the ghosts of the past, of old photographs and uncomfortable memories. The hospital at the beginning of the film is associated with the fear of death, illness and old age. The motionless bodies at the beginning reinforce the suggestion of the impermanence of existence, of its insidious inevitability. At the same time, the hospital is also a place where Alma works, revealing that serving someone, living for others, is part of her essence. She followed the example of her mother, who was also a nurse. The meaning of the name "Alma" is soul - she is also the victim who must face indifference, participate in a game whose rules are unknown to her, but only temporarily, because then she changes them forever.

Many symbols are recognised in the film - their main focus is on the feminine, creativity, sacrifice and death (spider, water, phallus, lamb, bells, nails driven into flesh, etc.). The whole film is reminiscent of a dream, where the line between time is blurred and there is only a strangely magical dialogue between emotion and silence.

 Persona as a concept is a compromise between the individual and the social regarding what one appears to be. In film, the real seems to be swallowed up by the visible. The mask hides the face. Yet Elizabeth Vogler dissolves into the image of Alma. A man without a soul can achieve nothing. Art without emotion is "nothing". Not surprisingly, this is the word the actress says at the end of the film.

The scene when Elizabeth's husband recognizes his wife in Alma is interesting. The two heroines merge into one person. Alma speaks to him of the love that binds them, of their need for each other. The nurse is capable of love, of feeling, of seeking contact with the Other, while Elizabeth is fierce in her silence. Two sides of the same person. The famous shot shows the two halves of the women's faces, and the "less good-looking" one at that, because each face is known to have a more photogenic half and not so good to photograph. The soul and the mask in an unavoidable union. A persona that is Nothing and its world is the illusory existence.

 In the ancient theatre the term "persona" means a mask through the opening of which the actor declares his role, and Bergman himself takes the term from Jung's theory, where a "persona" is a mask expressing a certain role in society, but through which it is difficult to see the true self. In this connection is what he wrote: "Often the Persona, being too violent, negates the rest of the personality - aspects of the personal and collective unconscious - and its isolation in its role leads to the absence of the natural emotional response. The other danger is that in changing the mask and learning a new way of responding to the external, one may lose the usual supports, and this is seen as a destruction of the personality" (Semira "Jungian Archetypes and Astromythology").

            The movie Persona is also reminiscent of ancient myths - in many of them, the hero's initial weakness is counterbalanced by the emergence of powerful patrons who care for him and help him solve superhuman tasks. The examples are many: Theseus had a patron god of the sea Poseidon, Perseus was helped by Athena, Achilles was mentored by the wise centaur Chiron. These divine personages are actually symbolic representations of the overall psyche. The main task of the heroic myth consists in the development of individual self-awareness i.e. to become aware of one's own strengths and weaknesses in order to overcome complex life situations. When the individual copes with the first serious trial and enters the mature phase of life, the heroic myth loses its significance. The symbolic death of the hero is a sign of reaching maturity. This idea can be applied to the film's finale because it is as if one part of the personality plays its part and dies. In the cases of betrayal or loss of the hero found in European mythology, the theme of ritual sacrifice can be as a punishment for excessive hubris. Elizabeth is too arrogant and cold, so she sacrifices herself, leaving behind an even greater void.

            In Jung's analytical psychology, the concept of the "Shadow" plays an important role - it contains the hidden, repressed and unpleasant aspects of the personality. But the "Shadow" is not just the opposite side of consciousness, for in addition to destructive attitudes, it also has good qualities - normal instincts and creative impulses. The ego and the "Shadow" are separate but also inextricably linked, intertwined as our thoughts and feelings. The two women in the film can also be seen through this prism - their images flow into each other, showing the jarring kaleidoscope where the rational and the irrational, Reason and Shadow, meet. This theme is also associated with Goethe's famous literary character, Faust. He accepts Mephistopheles' challenge and falls under the influence of the "shadow", which the writer describes as "part of that power which desires evil but creates good." He is a man detached from real life and an incomplete man, who has lost himself in the fruitless pursuit of metaphysical goals that are never realized. He is not yet ready to accept life as it is, with all its good and bad moments. Elizabeth doesn't want to accept the world either - she challenges it with her silence, but suffering and loneliness await her at the end of this hard, different path she has taken.