Monday, May 8, 2017

Top 10 Persona-lite Movies

Ingmar Bergman’s Persona is one of Top 3 favorite films of all time. It’s a fever dream masterpiece that I will continue to pick apart. Because, despite being only 83 minutes long, Persona is one of the most pleasantly complex films I’ve ever seen. I’ve spent more hours working over the film in my mind than I have actually watching the movie.

Classifying a film as “lite” in this post is not to suggest that the film is inferior to Persona. The purpose of this list is to draw attention to a particular group of films that remind me of a particularly unique film. Very few movies can even be considered in the same warped class as Persona, but these are a few of the best of them.

3 Women (1977)
dir. by Robert Altman
3 Women could be Robert Altman’s strangest film, which is probably why it’s one of my favorite Altman movies. The movie chronicles the increasingly strange relationship between the quite and awkward Pinky (Sissy Spacek), and a cocky chatterbox Millie (Shelley Duvall). Things start amicably between the women, but shortly after moving in together, their relationship grows hostile. After tragedy occurs, tempers subside and identities slowly begin to change, and the film sinks further into the bizarre. 3 Women was made just over a decade after Persona, and its influences are clear in all the best ways.


The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
dir. by Krzysztof Kieślowski
“All my life I've felt like I was here and somewhere else at the same time.”
So says Veronique (Irène Jacob) in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s masterpiece, The Double Life of Veronique. Veronique says this at a strange time in her life; a time when she’s feeling lost and alone. She’s grieving, but can’t quite place why. As viewers, we have some insight into Veronique’s melancholy. The first portion of The Double Life of Veronique concerns itself with Weronika (also Jacob), a Polish singer. We watch Weronika go about her day, landing auditions, having trysts with her boyfriend, living life. Something significant happens and, without warning, the film switches to Veronique’s perspective. Because both characters are played by Jacob, they look identical, yet neither character is consciously aware of the other. Veronique’s melancholic mood is directly connected to Weronika. But why? Kieślowski never explains. And neither did Bergman. Exactly.

Fight Club (1999)
dir. by David Fincher
Yes, believe it or not, Bergman’s film had a huge influence on David Fincher’s Fight Club. Both movies toy with the notion of identity and self-worth/preservation, but Persona’s impact is much more obvious than that. The scene where Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) addresses the camera as the physical film itself seems to unravel from the projector is a direct lift from Persona, in which the film comes lose, burns up, and the movie subsequently takes a whole new direction. And then there’s the dick. Bergman spliced in a single frame of a man’s penis into the insane opening of Persona. No reason is ever given for the choice; it’s simply just there. Tyler splices a single frame of a penis into a children’s film for anarchic purposes, but the idea is the same. Where is my mind, indeed.

Mulholland Dr. (2001)
dir. by David Lynch
Shifting identities, dual females, psychosexual fervor, a foreboding melancholic strangeness – Mulholland Dr. is arguably the most Persona-lite movie there is. David Lynch’s fever dream masterpiece is certainly a film that stands on its own, but Persona’s thematic influence is clear. The visual parallels are apparent as well. The first time Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring) lay in bed together, Lynch frames their faces in a way Bergman popularized in Persona. It’s amazing how a simple bit of framing can help recall a movie from 35 years earlier. I’ve watched Persona and Mulholland Dr. back-to-back before; there are few films better suited for a double bill than these.

Vanilla Sky (2001)
dir. by Cameron Crowe
Vanilla Sky is a pretty straight film. Until it’s not. Once David (Tom Cruise) is woken up in the street by his love, Sofia (Penélope Cruz), the film shifts into a frenzy of psychological paranoia. Unlike many films on this list, the reasons for the shift are spelled out clearly in Vanilla Sky, but I’ve always appreciated the film’s journey. Crowe is far more obsessed with pop culture than Bergman ever was (in that regard, perhaps Abre Los ojos, the film Vanilla Sky is based on, is better suited for this list), but Persona’s influence is all over the second half of Crowe’s film.

Talk to Her (2002)
dir. by Pedro Almodóvar
It’s hard to pick a favorite Almodóvar film, but Talk to Her is right up there, and the impact of Persona is undeniable. Talk to Her is about two men who independently care for the women they love as the women lay in comas. The film shows us how each man met their respective lady, and how they grew to have such affection for them. This being Almodóvar, the reasons are more complex than we initially think. Perhaps better than any Almodóvar film, Talk to Her expertly explores ideas of loneliness, grief, emotional isolation, and fractured love. All themes present in Bergman’s film as well.

Swimming Pool (2003)
dir. by François Ozon
The increasingly panicked psychosexual elements of Swimming Pool are what correlate most directly with Persona. Successful writer Sarah (Charlotte Rampling) attempts to curb her writer’s block by visiting her publisher’s country home alone. A few days into her stay, the publisher’s rambunctious daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), shows up and disrupts Sarah’s life. And what begins as a combative relationship between the two slowly forms into something far more intricate and unsettling. By the end, the viewer is left questioning everything that has come before. Swimming Pool is a deeply satisfying Persona-lite psychothriller. I never tire of wondering what it all means.

Black Swan (2010)
dir. by Darren Aronofsky
To be clear, there’s nothing “lite” about Black Swan. The film is a deeply twisted headfirst dive into the macabre, and I couldn’t love it more. As Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) falls deeper into the persona of “The Black Swan,” the film’s narrative becomes increasingly tangled. What is real and what is imagined? Was Lily (Mila Kunis) ever really The Black Swan? How much of Lily did Nina manufacture – if any, or all. Like Persona, when you look at Black Swan from a psychological perspective, the film is far deeper than what is on its crazed surface.

Queen of Earth (2015)
dir. by Alex Ross Perry
In many respects, Queen of Earth plays like a modern, low-budget remake of Persona. Like Persona, Queen of Earth is about two women in a remote location who slowly start to unravel and consume each other’s identities. Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) and Virginia (Katherine Waterston) are childhood friends enjoying their annual trip at a lake house together. But this year is different. Catherine is combative and hostile. Her sanity is slipping drastically, as is any control Catherine has over it. This culminates with Catherine’s breakdown at a party, a devilishly manic sequence reminiscent of Naomi Watts losing her shit in her apartment in Mulholland Dr. I could stand to see Queen of Earth again, but the first time I saw the film, I couldn’t get Persona out of my head.

Personal Shopper (2016)
dir. by Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas fantastic new film, Personal Shopper, was the direct inspiration for this list. The film is about a despondent young woman (Kristen Stewart) who goes about her fractured life, shopping for designer clothes for her celebrity boss, attempting to maintain a long distance relationship, and trying to develop her inherent skills as a spirit medium. The entire time I watched the film, I kept thinking of Persona – the unease of it all, the darkness (Personal Shopper is so photographical dark), the notion of lost identity, of isolation and paranoia. The more similarities I saw in the two films, the more I grew to love Personal Shopper (it will linger around my Best Of 2017 lists). And as Personal Shopper reached its well-earned conclusion, the term “Persona-lite” popped into my head. That’s what Personal Shopper is, a Persona-lite psychological thriller. Not “lite” as in inferior, “lite” as in respectful homage.
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20 comments:

  1. I just did a recent post about clones/doppelgangers for the Thursday Movie Picks as Persona mentioned as the film I feel fits in with that description as I would also list 2 other films that was obviously influenced by Bergman's film.

    I can't believe I overlooked The Double Life of Veronique as it totally fits in with that theme as does Fight Club, Swimming Pool, and Black Swan. I still prefer Abre los ojos over Vanilla Sky as I feel the latter's emphasis on pop culture references becomes more dated as I'm still reeling from the stench that is Aloha. I really want to see Personal Shopper mainly because of Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart as you now have me intrigued for Queen of Earth as I'm glad Elisabeth Moss is getting a damn good career post-Mad Men.

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    1. I would love to read your review on Personal Shopper. It's certainly one of my favorite Assayas films, and Stewart's best work. A tricky little film that creeps in. You're so right about the pop culture references in Vanilla Sky. When you put that many in, you're bound to date your film.

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  2. Ha as I was reading I kept wondering if you included Queen of Earth :) I saw 8 out of those other than Talk to Her and Personal Shopper because I just love movies like these.

    3 Women is underappreciated as hell Duvall in that makes my top 10 all time petformances. And I think because VS stars Cruise people fail to notice the depth of this movie

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    1. Love this comment. 3 Women definitely deserves more attention. Too weird for mainstream I guess. And I do think VS has a depth to it that many ignore. It's a pop culture frenzy on the surface, but I've always dug it. Gotta love a young Michael Shannon in there too. What does he call Tom Cruise? "Face"? Hilarious.

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  3. Here's something fun: I have seen zero of the movies, including the ever-popular Fight Club, yet I have seen Persona itself, which is my favorite foreign-language film. Now that I know what movies are Persona-esque, I'm going to go out of my way to watch these. Great list!

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    1. Wow, that is actually kind of awesome. Well, if you love Persona, you have some great movies ahead of you. I love movies that live in the type of world Persona creates.

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  4. Funny, most of these movies I'm dying to see, meaning The Double Life of Veronique, Queen of Earth, 3 Women, Talk to Her, Vanilla Sky, Swimming Pool, and, yes, Persona itself. But oddly, the films I have seen, meaning the rest of them, I only liked Fight Club (to be fair, that's one of my all-time favorite films. And the satire is so misunderstood by so many people it makes me sad). The rest, well, I said enough about Mulholland Dr., but Black Swan didn't grab me the way it's grabbed so many (then again, it's been a really long time), and Personal Shopper, well here's my facebook review.

    "Personal Shopper is not a bad film, and I respect it for trying something new. It has a nice aesthetic, and it matches the nervous energy of Kristen Stewart's justly praised performance beautifully. Unfortunately, there are too many ideas unexplored, too many opportunites untaken, that the resulting picture just falls flat. Add a pointless ending and some pretty bad performances (aside from Stewart of course), and what should have soared as a spiritual ghost story in the modern world ends up in frustrating tedium.

    Rating: **+ (2.5/4)"

    Odd. I really like the idea of this theme. I gotta check out those other titles.

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    1. You know, I actually agree with a lot of your Personal Shopper review. I kept getting annoyed that it would introduce something then let that new idea fade away, but then I realized, that's kind of like life. You set down one avenue and realize it isn't worth while, so you start fresh again. A lot of my favorite movies/TV shows about detectives or mysteries or "searchers," do this. But, granted, it isn't something I want to see in every movie, so I get where you're coming from here.

      I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the other films, particularly The Double Life of Veronique.

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  5. Love these choices, some of my all-time favorites. Swimming Pool is an unexpected pick, a film I saw for the first time recently, and as you say that ending is a head-scratcher(in the best sense of the word) . The only one I disagree with is Personal Shopper, I just couldn't get into it at all.
    I thought Enemy w/Jake Gyllenhaal might show up on your list, I remember you are a fan, but I realize you've got to stop at ten.

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    1. Enemy, man, that's a great one. Definitely could've made the cut here. Personal Shopper was so weird for me. I honestly wasn't into it, until that final scene. Then it made everything click. I "got" what I thought I was supposed to get, even if some of the other stuff in the film still doesn't fully work for me.

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  6. I really need to see 3 women. I've had Queen of Earth in my Netflix queue for ages, I need to get on that too.

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    1. Ohhh I think you'd like both a lot. Queen of Earth is so bizarre, but a real trip. 3 Women is just so out there. Unlike anything Altman ever did.

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  7. I guess i need to check out Personal Shopper then. Sounds good. I also really need to watch Persona again. I have only watched it once during class in high school many years ago so i can barely remember a thing from it. I remember being one of the very few people in my class who enjoyed it though. I also met Liv Ullman once and she was super nice. I just had to brag about that.

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    1. Wooowwwww that is so cool. Was she goddess-like? What I would give to sit with her over dinner and some glasses of wine and pick her brain. The stories. So cool that you got to meet her!

      Personal Shopper is an interesting one. Very obscure, very bold. I enjoyed it a lot; would love to hear your take on it.

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    2. Yeah, it was pretty cool. She was in town with a play she was directing, Private Confessions, which was also written by Ingmar Bergman. We just ran into her in the lobby before the show so it was just a quick thing, but i told her she was one of my favorite actresses and she complimented me on my shirt. I think she was just being nice, but that is now my favorite shirt.

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    3. That's so cool. Love it. And hey, even if she was just being nice, she took the time to be nice. Which is more than a lot of people do.

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  8. What a fabulous post -- it makes me want to see all these movies. (I've already seen a handful, including Mulholland Drive--I actually had to study up on it before I had a clue what it was really about. :-) What a strange trip down the rabbit hole that movie was!)

    I had no idea Persona had a dick spliced into it (for no apparent reason). In Fight Club, the reason is clear, since it was lifted from the story. But a dick spliced into a Bergman film? Interesting.

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    1. The first 6 minutes of Persona are nuts. Like a frantic Dalí short in which nothing makes sense, but everything does at the same time. The dick in Persona is actually erect, so... there's that. But I promise it's a great great movie!!

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  9. I love pretty much all of these films (the 'pretty much' being reserved for Queen of Earth - I've never quite been able to get behind Alex Ross Perry's whole schtick), but I've somehow never seen Talk to Her so that's going right on the watchlist!

    Related: Alex, did you see last year's Persona riff Always Shine? Not a masterpiece but right up your alley, I expect.

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    1. I haven't even heard of Always Shine! I'm a fan of Sophia Takal's, so I'll have to check that out soon. And I hear you on the ARP schtick. It's tough for me to get into as well.

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