esrosedotblog

ART FILM

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Ingmar Bergman's

Persona (1966)

When you are not sure what a picture is about you are in art film land.

I do know that this is about artifice and identity and it is also about the art (of) film itself.

The opening shows the carbon arc of a film projector igniting. Then the film loop. The leader countdown 10, 9, 8, etc. A cartoon from the old luminaire device. Keystone Cops. Other images. Fast and furious. The history of cinema—even porno (an erect cock)— in a few minutes. And then, the show—Bergman!

You will like it I think.

It is engrossing.

The surest way to ruin an art film experience is to try to figure it out or rationalize it although, I think, that the messages here are quite straightforward.

There is a story sort of. An actress who does not speak and her nurse. Or is it the other way around?

Liv Ullmann, so beautiful, and Bibi Andersson; the Bergman muses.

It is a 5 out of Netflix5.

I think that Ebert has a good handle on it in the linked review.

He did a second 'appreciation' thirty-five years later..

But you should really see it for yourself.

Labels: bergman, best films