701 Persona

[Matt]

Persona



By the mid-sixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema’s most unforgettable images. But with the radical Persona, this supreme artist attained new levels of visual poetry. In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays an actress who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema’s most influential ideas. Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark shadows and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist, Persona is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth.

Disc Features

- New, 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New visual essay on the film’s prologue by Ingmar Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
- New interviews with actor Liv Ullmann and filmmaker Paul Schrader
- Excerpted archival interviews with Bergman and actors Bibi Andersson and Ullmann
- On-set footage, with audio commentary by Bergman historian Birgitta Steene
- Liv & Ingmar, a 2012 feature documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, an excerpted 1969 interview with Bergman, and an excerpted 1977 conversation with Andersson

[domino harvey]

So, they didn't carry over the MGM commentary

[FrauBlucher]

As expected this is stacked to the gills. This will be pre-ordered immediately.

[Oedipax]

So, they didn't carry over the MGM commentary

One of the few times the absence of an extra is very much a bonus!

[Matt]

I don't remember any specific from that commentary, but I do remember turning it off about 10 minutes in.

[Bando]

As expected this is stacked to the gills. This will pre-ordered immediately.

I was really expecting this to be a bigger disc release with the Liv and Ingmar documentary and at least one of the Faro-Dokument films (one of which is already on Hulu).

But I guess this opens up the possibility that Faro-Dokument could be matched with The Passion of Anna, Shame, and the Hour of the Wolf in a box set similar to the earlier trilogy box, which now that I think about it, might be even better. Aren't those now out of MGM's hands, too?

I'm ecstatic for this release. Love the supplements, love the cover, and can't wait to own it.

[domino harvey]

I don't remember any specific from that commentary, but I do remember turning it off about 10 minutes in.

I know I listened to the whole thing years ago but the first part of your statement is still true for me

[Cash Flagg]

I don't remember any specific from that commentary, but I do remember turning it off about 10 minutes in.

Although no doubt delivered with The Best Intentions, Gervais' commentaries are comprised almost entirely of Cries and Whispers, with absolutely nothing of substance to offer on the Personas of All These Women in Bergman's films. By the time one reaches The Last Gasp of Gervais' offerings, one Thirsts for The Silence that will save them from this verbal Torment. You'd think, After the Rehearsal for his commentaries, one of The Image Makers at MGM, realizing that they were In the Presence of a Clown, would have confronted Gervais Face to Face, rather than trapping unsuspecting listeners in a auditory Prison. 'This Can't Happen Here at MGM!' they should have shouted. A Shame they did not, but Criterion have sagely avoided this Crisis, and any further wisdom from Mr. Gervais will have to be delivered as Private Confessions.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Being as great and as puzzling as Marienbad, I was hoping they'd have a few different scholarly essays in the booklet. Not that Cowie is a bad source to tap.

[adavis53]

The Elsaesser should probably be good, especially if its his Person and Persona one, although we should probably be expecting a pretty large booklet if thats the case in addition to the interviews.

[mteller]

I don't remember any specific from that commentary, but I do remember turning it off about 10 minutes in.

Although no doubt delivered with The Best Intentions, Gervais' commentaries are comprised almost entirely of Cries and Whispers, with absolutely nothing of substance to offer on the Personas of All These Women in Bergman's films. By the time one reaches The Last Gasp of Gervais' offerings, one Thirsts for The Silence that will save them from this verbal Torment. You'd think, After the Rehearsal for his commentaries, one of The Image Makers at MGM, realizing that they were In the Presence of a Clown, would have confronted Gervais Face to Face, rather than trapping unsuspecting listeners in a auditory Prison. 'This Can't Happen Here at MGM!' they should have shouted. A Shame they did not, but Criterion have sagely avoided this Crisis, and any further wisdom from Mr. Gervais will have to be delivered as Private Confessions.

bravo

[Moe Dickstein]

I don't remember any specific from that commentary, but I do remember turning it off about 10 minutes in.

Although no doubt delivered with The Best Intentions, Gervais' commentaries are comprised almost entirely of Cries and Whispers, with absolutely nothing of substance to offer on the Personas of All These Women in Bergman's films. By the time one reaches The Last Gasp of Gervais' offerings, one Thirsts for The Silence that will save them from this verbal Torment. You'd think, After the Rehearsal for his commentaries, one of The Image Makers at MGM, realizing that they were In the Presence of a Clown, would have confronted Gervais Face to Face, rather than trapping unsuspecting listeners in a auditory Prison. 'This Can't Happen Here at MGM!' they should have shouted. A Shame they did not, but Criterion have sagely avoided this Crisis, and any further wisdom from Mr. Gervais will have to be delivered as Private Confessions.

Ricky Gervais did a Bergman commentary? That sounds ah-mazing.

[manicsounds]

Ricky Gervais did a Bergman commentary? That sounds ah-mazing.

Everyone seems to picture that, but it's his distant cousin Marc Gervais that did the DVD commentary.

[bdsweeney]

There's no mention anywhere, but I'm assuming this will be an uncut presentation of the film with all of the opening shots included.

[colinr0380]

The only aspect I remember from that commentary is Gervais saying "What is happening here? What is Bergman wanting to tell us?", rhetorical questions to which the only answer is "shouldn't you be making an educated guess?"

While there is no commentary it is great to see a number of previous Bergman scholars teaming up on this release (similar perhaps to the way Criterion handled Seven Samurai as a keystone work) with Birgitta Steene who did the commentary on The Virgin Spring and Peter Cowie. I presume Cowie during the discussion of the prologue sequence is going to talk about the reappearance of Jörgen Lindström in his last to date screen role here, following on from his key performance as the boy wandering around the hotel and observing in The Silence.

[Feego]

There's no mention anywhere, but I'm assuming this will be an uncut presentation of the film with all of the opening shots included.

I don't see why it wouldn't be, considering that MGM themselves released the film uncut on DVD.

A visual essay on the opening prologue from Peter Cowie sounds great, but it will never be as illuminating as Gervais breathlessly observing, "Ooooh, a spider!"

[giovannii84]

English dubbing isn't included either

[Adam]

There's no mention anywhere, but I'm assuming this will be an uncut presentation of the film with all of the opening shots included.

I don't see why it wouldn't be, considering that MGM themselves released the film uncut on DVD.

A visual essay on the opening prologue from Peter Cowie sounds great, but it will never be as illuminating as Gervais breathlessly observing, "Ooooh, a spider!"

The MGM opening was cut differently from the Swedish version. The Swedish archives that toured a few years included 2 quick cuts of genitalia, including an erect penis, not in the MGM. I think there are other differences following those, but I've never had the Swedish version on disc to do a cut by cut comparison.

[Donald Brown]

The MGM has the uncut opening, complete with hard on.

[FrauBlucher]

Oh friggin my! Blu ray.com Review

[manicsounds]

Looks very nice and definitive, even if many of the extras are not carried over from the MGM set. No sign of Gervais on the Criterion set, and the only thing I see carried over is the 20 minute Bergman interview from Canadian TV. I haven't checked, but I assume there is much more picture in the frame compared to the very cropped MGM disc.

[Feego]

You know what they say, no Gervais is good Gervais. But I did enjoy the Andersson interview on the MGM disc, and there doesn't appear to be a recent interview with her on the Criterion edition, so it's worth hanging on to the older DVD just for that.

[lefeufollet]

DVDBeaver

[zedz]

Looks very nice and definitive, even if many of the extras are not carried over from the MGM set. No sign of Gervais on the Criterion set, and the only thing I see carried over is the 20 minute Bergman interview from Canadian TV. I haven't checked, but I assume there is much more picture in the frame compared to the very cropped MGM disc.

Have you heard the Gervais commentary? It's so bad that if Criterion had released this film bare bones it would still have had better extra features than the MGM disc. It's hard to overstate just how utterly worthless that commentary is,

[Fortisquince]

I couldn't agree with Zedz more! For all the ripping into Marian Keane on this forum that commentary on Persona is the worst that I have ever heard. The dramatic "close reading" by Gervais is so bad that it is somewhat amusing at first, but quickly becomes absolutely infuriating.