Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Persona (1966) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jörgen Lindström DIRECTOR: Ingmar Bergman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sven Nykvist MUSIC: Lars Johan Werle PRODUCTION: SF Studios

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Persona (1966). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Some of Bergman's later films, such as Shame (1968) and The Passion of Anna (1969), have similar themes of the "artist as fugitive", guilt and self-hatred. Robert Altman's 1972 psychological horror film Images is influenced by Persona. Altman's 1977 film 3 Women takes cues from Bergman as Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek's characters (Millie and Pinky) shift roles and identities. A spoof of Persona appeared on the Canadian television program SCTV during the late 1970s. Woody Allen's films Love and Death (1975) and Stardust Memories (1980) contain brief references to the film.

David Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive deals with similar themes of identity and has two female characters whose identities appear to merge. With its thematic similarities, the film's "mysterious dreamlike quality" is evidence of Bergman's (and particularly Persona) influence. David Fincher's Fight Club refers to Persona subliminal erect penis. A stage adaptation, Hugo Hansén's Persona, played in Stockholm in 2011 and starred Sofia Ledarp and Frida Westerdahl. Another adaptation, Deformerad Persona by Mattias Andersson and his sister, Ylva Andersson, addressed multiple sclerosis and premiered at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2016. Ullmann and director Stig Björkman collaborated on a 2009 documentary, Scener från ett konstnärskap, with recordings of Bergman during the production of Persona.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Casting

Bergman had planned to cast Andersson and Ullmann in The Cannibals, a large project he abandoned after becoming ill, but he still hoped to pair them in a project. Ullmann said that she began to be cast in Bergman's films beginning with the mute character, Elisabet: "It was because my face could say what he wanted to say. That made me the one he wanted to work with ... because it was my face and I also understood what he was writing". Steve Vineberg wrote that, with the conception of the project with Andersson and Ullmann, Bergman parted with his past uses of ensemble casts in films such as Smiles of a Summer Night and focused on two leads. Vineberg called the roles of Margaretha Krook and Gunnar Björnstrand "abbreviated guest appearances".

Bergman cast Jörgen Lindström as Elisabet's son after using him in his 1963 film The Silence. Lindström (born 1951) was a child actor, and played children in other films. Bergman was the uncredited narrator.

▸ Filming & Locations

Principal photography took place on the island of Fårö (including Langhammars, with its rauks in the background, and Bergman's property at Hammars)

Although the scene where Alma describes her orgy was in the screenplay, Andersson said in 1977 that Bergman had been advised to remove it from the film. She insisted that it be shot, volunteering to alter dialogue she felt was too obviously written by a man. The scene took two hours to shoot, using close-ups of Ullmann and Andersson in single takes. Andersson later said that while she thought some of her performances in films such as Wild Strawberries were "corny", she was proud of her work in Persona. Ullmann described her response shots as an unprepared, natural reaction to the story's erotic nature.

For the scene in which Andersson and Ullmann meet in the bedroom at night and their faces overlap, a large amount of smoke was used in the studio to make a blurrier shot. Bergman used a mirror to compose the shots.

[Filming] Principal photography took place on the island of Fårö (including Langhammars, with its rauks in the background, and Bergman's property at Hammars)

▸ Post-Production

The screenplay called for a "close-up of Alma with a strange resemblance to Elisabet". On Fårö, Bergman conceived a shot where Ullmann and Andersson's faces merge into one. This was done by lighting what Bergman considered the unflattering side of each actress's face in different shots and combining the lighted sides. The actresses were unaware of the effect until a screening in the Moviola. Neither actress recognized herself in the resulting imagery, each assuming that the shot was of the other.

According to Ullmann, the scene where Alma describes Elisabet's motherhood was filmed with two cameras, one filming each actress, and shots of each were intended to be mixed in editing. Then Bergman decided that each angle communicated something important and used both in their entirety, one after the other.

Bergman was unhappy with the sound in the scene where Alma describes the orgy, so he told Andersson to reread the scene, which she did in a lower voice. It was recorded and dubbed in.

The score, by Lars Johan Werle, uses four cellos, three violins, and other instruments. Werle described his effort to meet Bergman's requests without a description of the scenes Werle would score:

In addition to Werle's score, the filmmakers used an excerpt from Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Concerto in E major.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award8 wins & 4 nominations total

Nominations: ○ International Submission to the Academy Awards

Additional Recognition: Persona won the Best Film award at the 4th Guldbagge Awards. It was Bergman's first work to win the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film; his 1973 Scenes from a Marriage was his only other film so honoured. Although it was the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 39th Academy Awards, the film was not accepted by the academy.

!scope="row" rowspan="1" | BAFTA Awards

!scope="row" rowspan="2" | Guldbagge Awards

!scope="row" rowspan="5" | National Society of Film Critics