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Ingmar Bergman has made
one of his finest film dramas
By W. Ward Marsh
Heights and "The Silence" and "All Westwood-Art
"Persona"
Bergman creates one of
his drama on the confused
These Women."
"Wild Strawberries" not only evoked memories with in his characters but, curi-
his strongest films, building ously, also within his spectators. Lives paralleled and experiences revealed were thoroughly and gently hu-
"psyches of
a look-a-like
merse and actress.
* PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA direct-
led by Ingmar Bergman
'S
2
12
who also
wrote the script. An Ab Svensk FilmIndustri Production, distributed by Lopert Pictures Corp., ond played "by the following cost: "Nurse Alma
Blb! Andersson
Ullmann
Actress Elisabeth Vargaretha Krook Woman doctor Mr. Vogler ......Gunnar Bjornstrand
The famed Swedish director-writer, Ingmar Bergman, has fashioned one of his more plausible-at least seemingly more easily understood-dramas in "Persona," now at the Heights and Westwood-Art Theaters.
To report that it is his best since "Wild Strawberries" is intended to be more than faint praise. I was not too enthusiastic over his
man.
NOW with "Persona" the report is somewhat different. It is the story of two women who strangely resemble each other, both inwardly and outwardly.
One is an actress, Liv Ullmann, who suffers an unaccountable traumatic shock while she is performing. Her voice goes and her sudden dumbness cannot be considered an ordinary ailment. The other is a special nurse into whose care she is placed by her doctor.
From this point the film becomes a psychological drama with Bergman toying
dramatically with two "patients" who look alike. The nurse also has deep-rooted emotional problems, and each brings out the others emotionally "sick" points.
The repetition in dialogue and in pictures may be momentarily confusing. However, they lead up to the climax when the nurse writes a letter to the doctor and, singularly, leaves it unsealed for the patient to post.
IT BRINGS a wild flareup between the two and serves to show that they are in their own way in love with each other. The lesbian
quality is buried in righteous anger between them.
Miss Ullmann creates an infinitely temperamental stage star, one who very likely could suffer the afflictions which Bergman thrusts upon her. She is the mòre emotional of the two, given to tantrums and petulant fits of anger.
The lovely Bibi Anderson, a gifted player, easily imitates the actress as Miss Ullmann does the nurse.
However, "Persona," Bergman's 27th picture, is one of his most readily understood and one of his best movies.