Persona

The partnership between Bergman and Nykvist is perhaps the most famous one between a director and a cinematographer in the entire history of film. Persona centers on the relationship between two women spending days at a summer retreat on an island in Sweden: Elisabeth (Liv Ullmann) is an actress who has become unable to speak, and Alma (Bibi Andersson) is the nurse who cares for her and tells her stories. It’s a scenario that yields deep, dark, and complex psychological meanings. Persona has become a landmark in the history of cinema, not least for the ways in which Bergman and Nykvist selfconsciously foreground the very process of filmmaking.