Philadelphia Weekly

Persona

There are many powerfully reductive ways of reading Persona, Ingmar Bergman’s legendary 1966 mindfuck. Still, the most popular take is that it concerns two characters—a recently mute actress (Liv Ullmann) and her younger, far gabbier nurse (Bibi Andersson)—swapping personalities. It doesn’t, not if you’re paying attention. But honestly, any single, simple interpretation is bound to ruin what is a genuinely mysterious film, one whose impact on David Lynch is fairly aggressive. That being said, Persona does function as a surprisingly trenchant portrait of forced roommates. Ullmann and Andersson play an odd couple shifting from relaxed cohabitation into emotional violence so severe that one nasty interaction literally burns the film. Bergman’s bleak insights into human relations help ground a cryptic work—­but, of course, that’s only scraping at the most obvious aspect of an actual original. -Matt Prigge

7pm. $5-$10. L’Etage, 624 S. Sixth St. cinemathequeip.com
 

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WHEN
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Recurring: ONCE

TIME & PRICE
7pm. $5-$10.

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