![]() ![]() The story even owes a really strong nod, though that’s more complicated. There’s a direct reference in Fight Club to one of the images in Persona, and the techniques in the film further this reference. This is the inspiration for the elements of the story in Fight Club where a projectionist cuts together horrific things to shock audiences. That’s a very weird way to start one of the greatest films of all time. You’re supposed to be disoriented, maybe even frustrated, and to wonder what the point of this is. I was horrified, immediately, but you’re supposed to feel that way. If you don’t like Persona, the math suggests that you must be wrong, which is always a weird place to approach a film. This is one of the greatest films of all time and there’s consensus, such as it is possible for that to happen, beyond reasonable doubt. The character we do see, a boy, isn’t identified until much later and we only see that he sees other people before we get anything that could pass for narrative. We see brutality even beyond that and we are shocked, immediately, before we even see a character. We see a spider walking and we see nails being driven into hands. A series of horrific images mixes with a projector showing a film. Persona reminded me of that experience because the opening is the most daring thing I’ve ever seen put to camera. You don’t owe any movie that level of work, but as Lynch says, it’s a sadness if you aren’t willing to try, given the assumption that the movie is worth it. It’s since become one of my favorite films. ![]() I liked a lot of it, but some of the more expressionistic stuff felt impenetrable, as though it wasn’t just that I didn’t get it but that there wasn’t something to get. I felt like it was a joke, somehow, and that everyone kept telling people it was a classic because they wanted other people to have to deal with it because they’d had to sit through it. The experience of Persona reminded me of seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey as a teenager. I’ve watched a few other Bergman films since then, but only recently did I tackle Persona, the top of the mountain, and not on a phone. David Lynch famously gave a profane quote about watching movies on your phone and called it “such a sadness.” I watched Wild Strawberries on a DVD I got in the mail, which must sound like a very silly thing to do to someone who isn’t a very specific age. I didn’t know, then, and I’m not sure I do now, but I’m at least closer to it than then. You need to know what you’re doing, which seems a little crazy to say but is definitely true. There’s a lot that’s been written about how you’re supposed to watch movies. I didn’t like it or dislike it, it just washed over me and I went on to other things. I specifically didn’t look up anything, I just knew it was a movie I was “supposed to” see, so I saw it. Ingmar Bergman is one of those names you know even before you spend any time with serious film, but I had no idea what I was going to see. Read the full archives here.īack in an era where it was much harder to watch “classic” films, I sought out Wild Strawberries. This is Best Movie of All Time, an eternal search for the greatest film ever.
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