Movie Substrate · Film

Persona (1966)

★ 8.1 · 2,395 ratings on TMDB

Ingmar Bergman's most personal and original film.

Persona poster★ 8.1

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.

DirectorIngmar Bergman
CastBibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jörgen Lindström, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook
GenresDrama
The emergence reading

Persona keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing identity, memory, performance, gender, silence.

zero-distanceSEidentitymemoryperformancegendersilence
Also inFilms about memoryFilms about identity
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Same rung, same subject

Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.

Inland Empire (2006)E8 · identity, memoryInception (2010)E8 · identity, memoryInside Out (2015)E8 · identity, memoryOblivion (2013)E8 · identity, memoryBlade Runner 2049 (2017)E8 · identity, memoryToy Story 3 (2010)E8 · identity, memory

Same subject, different rung

The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.

Frozen II (2019)E7/E9/E10 · rare rung · identity, memoryBarbie: Spy Squad (2016)E9/E10/E11 · gender, identity

Same people

Shared director or cast.

The Seventh Seal (1957)dir. Ingmar BergmanWild Strawberries (1957)dir. Ingmar BergmanAutumn Sonata (1978)dir. Ingmar BergmanBabette's Feast (1987)Bibi Andersson