Persona (1966)

Ingmar Bergman's most personal and original film.

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Written by: Ingmar Bergman

Music by: Lars Johan Werle

Starring: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jörgen Lindström, Thích Quảng Đức

Genre: Drama

Released: 1966-10-18

Runtime: 85 minutes

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Persona (1966): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• MGM archivist John Kirk restored the censored material, based on four translations, and translated 30 to 40 percent more of Alma's dialogue in the censored scene.
• Fårö's weather was ideal during shooting; the crew redid much of the footage filmed in Stockholm, recreating the summer house on the Stockholm set and using a Fårö museum as the hospital.
• Bergman wrote Persona in nine weeks while recovering from pneumonia, and much of his work was done in the Sophiahemmet hospital.
• Bergman cast Jörgen Lindström as Elisabet's son after using him in his 1963 film The Silence.
• Much of the censored material was included in Region 1 in the MGM DVD released in 2004, and on The Criterion Collection's 2014 Blu-ray 2K restoration.
• The Village Voice ranked the film 102nd on its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics.
• In February 2002, it screened in the Retrospective section of the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival.
• In the 1972 British Film Institute Sight & Sound poll, Persona was ranked the fifth-greatest film of all time, the highest placing of a Swedish film.
• The censored content was reinstated in English-language restorations in 2001.
• According to Bergman, the story had its roots in a chance encounter with past collaborator Bibi Andersson in a Stockholm street.
• The film ranked 1st on Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1967.
• Persona was 41st in Sight & Sound's 2002 directors' ranking of the greatest films.
• Persona was released on 31 August 1966, and its promotional premiere took place on 18 October 1966 at the Spegeln cinema in Stockholm.

Source: Wikipedia

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