One shot from the persona
1. The place the shot occupies in the narrative of the film
This shot takes place after Alma finds out that Elizabeth has revealed her secret. She feels that she has been fooled by Elizabeth. At the same time, she feels herself more and more look like Elizabeth and hopes to be closer to Elizabeth. But after that, their relationship changed subtly, from intimacy to hurt each other. Alma begins to collapse again and again. She hopes that Elizabeth could talk with her, but Elizabeth's refusal made her more painful. In one of Alma's debunks of Elizabeth, Alma infuriates Elisabeth. Alma chases Elisabeth on the beach and asks for her forgiveness. But Elizabeth does not choose to forgive. Alma cried in despair. She strokes and observes Elizabeth while she was asleep, and then she meets Mr. Vogler in the wood. Then Alma is mistaken for Elizabeth, and make love with Mr. Vogler, act like Elizabeth. In this shot, the boundary between Alma and Elizabeth is completely broken, Alma's identity begins to become blurred. From Alma meets Mr. Vogler to the screen goes white. It takes three minutes from the beginning to the end of this shot.
2. The visual composition and sound of the shot
Visually, Alma cuts into the woods from the room. Suddenly, a man's hand is on her shoulder. Then the camera is aimed at Alma's head. The man begins to speak. At this time, only Alma is in the camera. Twenty-six seconds later, Elizabeth begins to step into the frames, standing behind Alma and watching the man speak. At the moment, Elizabeth stands at the back of Alma, wearing a black dress and black hair band. Although this is a black-and-white film, Elizabeth and Alma still form a sharp contrast in the lens, Alma is white, Elizabeth is black. The whole picture makes people feel that Elizabeth is in the dark, and Alma is the person standing in the light for Elizabeth. This moment, Elizabeth is like a background image of Alma. The screen is mainly composed of Alma, and Elizabeth is a dynamic image behind her. Her eyes sometimes look at the man, sometimes at Alma. Alma's hand has been placed on her neck, which is a gesture of insecurity. It seems that she is controlled by Elizabeth behind her and pinches her neck. This shot lasted forty-one seconds, and Mr. Vogler has been doing the talking all this time. (Look at picture 1)
(picture 1)
Then Elizabeth naturally took Alma's hand and began to touch it Mr. Vogler When you switch to the man's face, you can see two women's hands overlapping on his face, like two fused women's hands touching him. (Look at picture 2)
(picture 2)
And then Alma and Mr. Vogler holding together, Elizabeth blends into the tree in the background and looks at them from behind. (Look at picture 3)
(picture 3)
Soon there was only Elizabeth's face in the lens. Mr. Vogler keeps talking, and a shadow could be felt moving behind Elizabeth's face. As the camera zooms out, Elizabeth and Alma each take up half of the screen, with Elizabeth in the front and Alma in the back. At this time, Elizabeth and Alma still have a black and white contrast, Alma is like Elizabeth's background, and Elizabeth is still like a controller, staring at the screen with empty eyes. Behind Elizabeth is the intimacy between Alma and Mr. Vogler. At this time, Alma is like Elizabeth, while Elizabeth is like a body without a soul, just standing there. (Look at picture 4)
(picture 4)
This shot lasted 48 seconds, and then the shot turned to Elizabeth's face again, and the scene changed. At this time, the picture shows Alma and Elizabeth's husband lying on the bed after love. Alma begins to resist, collapse and cry. The camera immediately switches to Elizabeth's face. Her face is still expressionless, and her eyes are empty. With the sharp, scary sound of an instrument, Elizabeth's face turned to a white screen. That was the end of the scene.
3. Performance of the actors
Liv Ullmann, the actor of Elizabeth, plays the existence of Elizabeth to the weakest state in this shot, with empty eyes and expressionless face. Elizabeth's only eyes movement, although the facial expression did not change, but people can feel the power of a manipulator.
4. Camerawork
In this shot Bergman uses Montage technique of expression, but does not put the Mr. Vogler what happened with Alma is shown one by one, but every shot switch takes Elizabeth's face as the switching point, highlighting the connection between Elizabeth and Alma at this time, that is, Alma at this time is Elizabeth's language system and emotional description.
5. Meaning
In this shot, the connection between Elizabeth and Alma becomes clear. From Mr. Vogler "you love someone, or rather you say you do." He said after meeting Alma. Although Alma denies that she is Elizabeth, Mr. Vogler ignores her denial. In the picture, Alma and Elizabeth are black and white. Alma says what Elizabeth wants to say and does what Elizabeth wants to do. At this moment, Alma is Elizabeth's language system, and they are integrated. At the moment when Alma and Elizabeth's husband make love, she realizes her dream of becoming Elizabeth (Gado, 1986). And Alma's collapse, crying and resisting. It implies Elizabeth's resistance to her marriage and husband, so the camera moves to Elizabeth's face when Alma cries. Then the screen suddenly turned white, just like a wonderful short play. When audiences are still immersed in it, it suddenly pulls the audiences back to reality. Campbell (1979) mentioned that this is a film about self, the self of the film itself, the self of the audience, the self of Elizabeth and Alma. The sudden interruption of the plot makes the audience return to the "Id" and realize that they are outside the film. This is the reflexivity of persona, which enables the audience in front of the screen to realize their "true" self rather than relying on the role. It's not only the personas of Elizabeth and Alma, but also the personas of the audience and Bergman. At the same time, we did not realize the real self, but our personas.
Reference
Campbell, P. N. (1979). The Reflexive Function of Bergman's "Persona". Cinema Journal, 19(1), pp.71-85.
Gado, F. (1986). Persona. In F. Gado (Ed.), The passion of Ingmar Bergman (pp.320-344). Durham: Duke University.