Ingmar Bergman's Persona

The essays collected in this volume use a variety of methodologies to explore Bergman's Persona.

Lloyd Michaels (Edited by)

9780521656986, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 September 1999

208 pages, 32 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.31 kg

Long held to be among the world's greatest filmmakers, Ingmar Bergman shaped international art cinema from the 1950s to the 1980s. Among his many works, Persona is often considered to be his masterpiece and is often described as one of the central works of Modernism. Bergman himself claimed that this film 'touched wordless secrets only the cinema can discover'. The essays collected in this volume, and published for the first time, use a variety of methodologies to explore topics such as acting technique, genre, and dramaturgy. It also includes translations of Bergman's early writings that have never before been available in English, as well as an updated filmography and bibliography that cover the filmmaker's most recent work.

Introduction Lloyd Michaels
1. Bergman's Persona through a native mindscape Birgitta Steene
2. Persona and the 1960s' art cinema Wheeler Winston Dixon
3. Bergman's Persona Susan Sontag
4. Scenes from the class struggle in Sweden: Persona as Brechtian melodrama Christopher Orr
5. Persona and the seduction of performance Steve Vineberg
6. Feminist theory and the performance of Lesbian desire in Persona Gwendolyn Audrey Foster.

Subject Areas: Film theory & criticism [APFA]