"Persona" Intro thoughts?

So I understand Bergman’s “Persona.” ….but what was with the intro scene involving the cadaverous folks and the film? Any of you know what Bergman was saying there? I’m at a loss.

What did you think of the tachistographed phallus?

acording to bergman the cadavers repersent the corpses he could observe from his hospital bed ,persona was concieved while bergman was feverish in hospital,the visual poem ,as bergman refered to the intro was a reflection of his mental state at the time

Checkout Roger Ebert’s review of the film on his site under the great movies section. He has some good insights into what the opening sequence means.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010107/REVIEWS08/101070301/1023

from bergman on bergman ‘’i had it in my head to make a poem,not in words but in images,about the situation in which persona had originated.i reflected on what was important ,and began with the projector and my desire to set it in motion.but when the projector was running ,nothing came out of it but old ideas,the spider,gods lamb all that old stuff.’’

What other Bergman film besides The Silence is used in the opening of Persona. I’m thinking of the spider imagery, is that from another film of his?

the spider alludes to the spidergod of through a glass darkly ,the silent film shown in the intro comes from a early film of his called prison .

There’s images of a grim reaper too in the opening that alludes to The Seventh Seal.

What is the reference to The Silence?

the young boy in the intro is the child actor from the silence

The sound of the woman in anguish as the nail gets pounded in comes from The Silence, so it’s a sound reference.

so thats ingrid thulins death scream then,

It’s Gunnel Lindblom’s cry of frustration in the bedroom with Birger Malmsten

Sorry, I was mistaken, what I was referring to happens later in Persona, was the actual spider imagery used in a prior Bergman film, was it also from Prison, that had the projector scene, which the Wild Strawberries interview supplement had as a clip?

Wow, consider my question answered. Sweet deal, folks. Thank you.

Aside from Ebert’s analysis, there’s a very comprehensive breakdown of the into scene in John Simon’s book, INGMAR BERGMAN. I used it as a handout in film classes.

And, by the way, it was very difficult casting an actor who was willing to have a nail pounded into the palm of his hand! :-)

@

This film is an exploration of nothingness and creativity in a blank page. ideas that come from a kind of limbo. The deepest level of subconciousness where after all, there is nothing, just an empty space.

“The Latin word persona was originally used to denote the mask worn by an actor”

Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto, 1969) is about identity, performance, masks… it makes sense that in the film there are some breaks to depict the crew and the making of the film itself because cinema is one of the most obvious representational arts and with photography very useful to articulate ideas about reality and truth. Then I prefer to think the imagery at the beginning of Persona (related to film) means nothing beyond its very concrete function of reminder, reminder of the filmic nature (and because of that the representational nature) of what we are watching.

Is there a wide-screen version of this film?

It was shot in 1.37 : 1, I believe.

Was it made for tv?
I watched it a few hours ago. I had seen it about 4 years ago. What a difference 4 years make..

It would be great if the hand getting the nail hammered into it had a mouth smudged onto it a la Cocteau, and the nail was a penis instead. Now that’s art.