It is almost impossible to praise this movie without sounding smart and cultured and it's almost impossible to criticize this movie without sounding like a bit of a philistine but...yeah, I don't like it.Now, I'm all for stylized cinematography, when "If" switched from color to black and white for no obvious reason I was so impressed because it's the kind of movie that can do that.But here I don't feel it works because, firstly, it makes the whole thing kind of risible, especially given how stone faced the tone is and secondly, the essence of the thing kind of gets drowned in bizarre angles and sudden blurriness.It could have been a fairly effecting exploration into the way, despite superficial differences we are all alike, and part of the same universal journey yet still determined to analyse others. It's ambitious in being mostly just 2 characters (one of whom is almost mute by choice) but ambition doesn't equal skill.I don't think I totally missed everything the movie was trying to say: we see the nurse as the one who has it together and is so different from her but then we see that she is more like simply being at a later stage in her life with elements of her being already visible in the Nurse with her problematic relationship with her fiancé. Or maybe that's tripe but it's the impression I got.And the motif of film: the literal film reel and that she's an actress...the artificiality of the persona...we get it. Oh, and one of them is called "Alma". Seriously.But ultimately I'm a bit "so what?" about it all. There's a tendency for the characters in Bergman's movies to be complex but in the way a psychiatric case study is complex without any relatable human qualities or individuality within except for what is strictly and obviously relevant to the plot or central themes; a tool for movie rather than someone I could meet. So the incites the movie has may be intelligent but also a bit pointless and irrelevant.And while I won't reveal the ending, I didn't even realise it had finished when it did because I saw it with ads on Film4 and there are no credits. So when I found it had finished I was like "wait, is that it?"It's a dense, not very accessible piece of "arthouse" cinema that really exemplifies what people imply by "arthouse" though of course all films are art. It may have been good if it had been half the length and one third the stylization. It has some great atmosphere, the sense of the cold desolate Nordic beach is intensified by its creepy arrhythmic score. The acting is quite stilted, it is first year performing arts academy stuff. Kind of interesting but that doesn't stop it being dull and giving every impression it's convinced of it's own genius. Really just for cinematic curiosity.

A film that starts with a collection of clips, from old movies to spiders to scenery to a lamb being slaughtered to a crucifixion. After which we delve deep into the psyche of two women and start asking questions. Is there or can there be a clearly defined self? If we are to assume that everything is a lie based on the fact that all of our existence is merely our brains interpreting signals sent by our senses, the truthfulness of which we have no way of confirming, is it then the most truthful thing of all to stop interacting with the world so as to not add to the lie? Can someone become someone else by knowing everything there is to be known about then, and even then are we that person or something else because we have our own memories as well?You know... art.Sometimes referred to as the Mount Everest of film critics, Persona by Ingmar Bergman is not an easy movie to get into. Countless papers have been written about it, and for a reason. Its plot is hard to follow and complicated, but at the same time you're keenly aware that it means something. Quite what that something is... well, that's up for debate.The story goes that a great actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann) had ceased talking. She has been deemed mentally and physically healthy, but still she remains silent. She is sent to a distant beach-side house with Sister Alma (Bibi Andersson), her personal nurse, to heal. But soon Alma, being the only one who wants to talk, finds herself revealing more and more to this great presence, this great personality. More than she has ever revealed to anyone. It's almost like Elisabet is learning everything there is to know about her, but at the same time she's learning about her. And the blurring starts.The only clear theme in this film is that of identity. We are complex creatures. Our personalities are shaped by countless little things, from past events to falsely remembered memories, from something we once heard to the expectations of the society, from learned habits to the whims of nature. But how often we truly think about this. How malleable are our personalities? You are you, naturally, but who are you really?The film asks the questions, but doesn't provide much in the way of answers. But if there are no answers to be had or if the questions themselves are the journey's end, what then? Hard to say, but your first step on this path could be this film.

I am waking from a dream. And as I look out the window it seems I should see the ocean.Not much feels right as the memory of what I've seen fades.Light and the absence of light control my face as it did hers. One pale one unseen.To what to wonder. What a wonder too.I am still stuck.

After a series of images including a crucifixion, tarantula and the killing of a lamb, a boy wakes up in a hospital or morgue and pulls up to a large screen, which shows a blurred image of one or two women. One of these women is possibly Alma, a young nurse who is assigned by a doctor to see a patient, Elisabet Vogler. Elisabet is a stage actress who has suddenly fallen silent and still, although the doctors have determined it is not a result of physical illness or hysteria, but willpower. While at the hospital, Alma reads Elisabet a letter from her husband, which comes with a photo of their son that Elisabet tears. She also becomes distressed seeing TV footage of monk Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation in the Vietnam War. The doctor decides Elisabet will recover better in a cottage by the sea, and sends Alma and Elisabet there.While at the cottage, Alma talks to Elisabet, remarking no one has ever really listened to her before. She speaks about her first affair and her fiancé, Karl-Henrik. One night, she relates how, while in a relationship with Karl-Henrik, she was sunbathing in the nude with a woman she had just met named Katarina, when two young boys came along. Katarina initiated an orgy in which Alma became pregnant, and she had an abortion, feeling guilty about the matter.