He takes us to a beautiful place - the seaside - and includes fantastic shots such as the one of Andersson looking at her reflection in a small pond, and later following Ullman down a long stretch of the shore - and yet also tells us things are not always what they seem. The movie can be interpreted in different ways which makes it interesting, but it's not so far out there that you won't take anything away from it at all Bergman seems to get the balance right on that front.
There is a doubling here, and Bergman emphasizes it with this sequence. In one fantastic sequence, the reason for Ullman's guilt about not easily assuming the role of motherhood is revealed, shot first with tight shots of her face as Andersson speaks, and then shown again, verbatim, with the camera on Andersson. Andersson has almost all of the lines in the film, talking to Ullman about her own life in quite candid terms, both about a sexual adventure she once had on the beach (which is quite graphically described!), falling in love with a married man, and her guilt over getting an abortion, but Ullman does a good job with her part, conveying a lot with just her facial expressions.Īs the story plays out, Andersson gets a little unhinged herself, and the two then start to mingle together, either in their thoughts and dreams or possibly in reality.
Doctors can find nothing wrong with her mentally or physically, and put her in the care of a young nurse (Bibi Andersson), who takes her to the seaside. She withdraws from her husband and young son. It seems to be because of her feelings of the falseness of life (and indeed, 'Persona' in Latin means 'mask'), heightened by events in the world (we see a film clip of a Buddhist monk in Vietnam who set fire to himself in protest of the war, as well as a picture of Nazis holding guns on women and children). Ostensibly, an actor (Liv Ullman) has had an existential crisis while on the stage and suddenly stops speaking. As with many (all?) of Bergman's films, the script is fantastic, with real weight to it, and it's a cerebral film. The story is relatively straightforward, but discerning what's reality may be a little challenging.
We also have recommendations for the 50 best movies on Netflix and the 50 best TV shows on Netflix to watch right now.An avant-garde opening sequence of images, some disturbing, immediately sets the tone for this movie, as Bergman seems to say he will challenge us with 'Persona'. We do the same for Netflix's Top 10 TV shows, as well as Netflix's overall Top 10 list. So you could say there are two sets of movies from the same franchise on the list.īut which of the films in Netflix's Top 10 list of the most popular movies are worth watching? We break down the entire Netflix Top 10 Movies list and guide you through what to binge and what to skip. Further down the list, there are two prison-set Stephen King adaptations directed by Frank Darabont, The Green Mile at No. Tyler Perry's A Madea Homecoming, the first Netflix Original Madea movie, rounds out the top 5. 4 is The Weekend Away, a new missing person thriller that stars Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester. 1 is Shooter, the 2007 Mark Wahlberg sniper action movie, which jumped three places from yesterday to reach the top spot. Today, Thursday, March 10, is one of those times. Sometimes Netflix's Daily Top 10 Movies chart has two movies from the same franchise right next to each other.