Persona feels like a dream. Or maybe a hallucination. Half the time I wasn’t even sure what was really happening, but somehow that made me like it even more. There’s this weird feeling that maybe Sister Alma and Elisabeth aren’t two separate people at all. Maybe it’s a Fight Club situation, maybe it’s all in one mind, maybe it’s neither. I honestly don’t know. I just know it had me thinking the whole way through, and it’s still bouncing around in my head now.
The real star here, for me, was the cinematography. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie shoot faces and closeups the way this one does. Bergman and Sven Nykvist make every tiny expression feel massive. It’s so intimate that it’s kind of uncomfortable at times, but in a good way. It felt like I was being let in on something really personal that I wasn’t always supposed to see.
I’m giving Persona 3 and a half stars right now. But honestly, I can already feel that score climbing the longer I think about it. It’s one of those movies that sits with you and grows. I don’t think I’m done with it yet.
