movie reviews for the crazies.

Persona (1966)

Wow I had almost finished my review of this film, and then I when I went to *proofread it I was so disgusted with my own arthouse pretentiousness that I deleted the whole thing! I don't know what was up with that sudden moment of clarity, if I did that every time I wrote like a jerk I would've deleted the whole blog by now. I must say that "Delete my Blog" button on blogger's homepage always tempts me so. I'll try this again, keeping the proletariat in mind. Moving on...

I watched this movie because I hadn't seen any films by Swedish master director Ingmar Bergman but I had a feeling I would love him. I recently read that in the director's own opinion Persona is his best film so I figured it was a good place to start. I adored it so much, everyone should watch it and embrace their inner dopplegangers!

Let me take a step back, some people might not like this movie. If you don't know what a doppleganger is and don't care to know, don't see this movie!

If you went to art school, do see this movie!

Visually this movie is so beautiful, Bergman uses his mad cinematography skills to create a mysterious yet realistic world that's soaked with symbolism. A lot of the symbolism is daunting, but it looks so pretty that you get over the fact that you might not "get it." There's one scene towards the end where one character slits her wrist open with her fingernail, then another character leans forward and kisses it, and then the bleeding character lashes out and slaps the other one. I was like "I have no idea what's happening but it looks really neat-o."

Movies don't have to be entirely about the plotline. Sometimes it's okay to just sit back and say "Wow, that looks freakin' cool." Even if your Carl Jung textbooks are collecting dust in the basement and you don't recall the prevailing theme in the Greek tragedy Electra (referenced in this film) or you've never even heard of either of those things, everyone can appreciate the way this movie looks. Or on an even more base level than that, you can watch this movie and say "Damn, those two chicks were hot and they cuddled a lot."

*Yes! I do proofread on occasion.