rjnagle Reviews

Persona (1966)

magical moments

[1 October 2001]

It's been a while since I've seen Persona, a good 12 years. I did a presentation on the film for a university, and I studied it to death, as it deserves to be. I won't bore you with critical comments here, only to mention two moments that stay with me:

the patient left in the room after the nurse has left her. The patient is lying in bed, with the shadows taking over her face and the melodies of Bach permeating the room. Gradually her face is consumed with darkness, and there is the sound of sobs. She is lost in her consoling world of art, selfish person that she is. It is a hopeless almost self-imposed isolation, and yet it is also her saving grace, her simple willingness to be swept away by the melodies and darkness. And it is also the moments of her darkness and despair, moments of suffering and raw emotion in a very quiet movie, moments normally hidden from us except in the artificial world of cinema.

The other scene: she is staring transfixed at the tv images of war and buddhist monks immolating themselves in vietnam. The TV announcer droned on in English with meaningless talk about politics and wars and armies while the image flickered on. And of course, the Buddhist monks are suffering but are following their dharma and detaching themselves from emotional attachments in the world.

An actress needs to imitate and emphasize, but this actress somehow has stopped up her ability to do so. She wills to lose that human connection, that empathy, that is the source of so much suffering. Yet, even when she withdraws, she is again drawn into so many things, the nurse's stories, Bach, the monks. Just as the actress's willpower about not talking is ultimately worn down by the nurse, I think Bergman believes that this detachment (which is so vital to the artistic experience) cannot be sustained unceasingly. A person falls back into the world of taking out the garbage, telephoning one's family members, going to work, and going to the grocery store to keep from starving. .

I think the film calls attention to the allure of both worlds and the impossibility of pursuing one at the expense of the other.

The Lickerish Quartet (1970)

a charming, arty, thinking bit of erotica

[29 November 1999]

This was one of the films that brought Radley Metzger to the forefront of mainstream erotic films. The narrative is interesting and full of tricks. It uses flashbacks, pseudoflashbacks and multiple perspectives. Yes, it's a bit pretentious, but the plot keeps you watching. And how about that library scene? I laughed aloud when I saw it, being comfortably ensconsed in an apartment full of many books I haven't read either. Maybe what I need is a mistress to sweep everything away like that!!

Fearless (1993)

great character study

[11 October 1999]

I had heard about Fearless for a long time and was never in the right mind to see it. It's the story about how survivors of a plane crash cope with life afterwards, their neuroses, fears and personal demons. It is a quiet film, so quiet that one can barely hear the inner tremblings of the main character.

He is a survivor without fear. He has summoned up a supernatural lack of fear towards life and psychological health now that he has survived a plane accident. In times of crisis, he has the ability to block fear and to live on adrenalin alone. He has become in the eyes of the other plane passengers, a hero and an inspiration.

But even though this lack of fear is his saving grace, it is also threatening to jeopardize his life. He copes with the nightmares and emotional traumas with the same reaction that helped him along on that fateful day. But in real life, this way to cope is unhealthy and even dangerous. One must live afraid to be a normal person. One must worry about finances and loss of love.

The film is imperfect, as any great film should be. There are slow moments and perhaps a little too much pop psychology. (But the film is as subtle as it gets). There are marvelous character touches, such as a lawyer trying to file a lawsuit who keeps apologizing for his greediness. (The film exposes the genuine dilemmas of trying to compensate victims and their families).

Perhaps the most amazing scene is a reenactment of the plane crash itself. I won't give anything away about the story, but the scene is hauntingly beautiful; it shows the overwhelming force of the wind and the earth ripping apart the fusilade and all the parts of the luggage and cabin that humans normally deal with. It is a violent, horrifying scene and a horrifying memory, but for the main character, he can imagine it with the appropriate distance and without the pain. This accident was the defining moment for his life, and after that scene, we realize how amazing it is that he and the rest of them could have survived, and how fragile their life was in the face of overwhelming force.

This story imagines a disaster and how useless it is to be afraid of a force more powerful than any individual (and that is the main character's profound insight).