A highly cerebral film from Ingmar Bergman. This is the first of his movies that I am seeing. Exhiliarating watch. Revolves around the life of two character played by Bibi Anderson and Liv Ullman. Bergman later married Ullman.
Bibi plays an actress Elizabet who stops speaking in the middle of performing a play, Electra. She is admitted in a hospital and the nurse Alma (means soul in Spanish) is charged with taking care of her. They together move into a beachside house, where Alma pours her soul out to Elizabet. Soon Alma finds that her identity is being coolly sucked away by the actress. As their identites merge, question arises as to whether there are two person at all in the movie...
Twisted and superbly contrived plot. Bergman is consious of the movie he makes and keeps us that way too. This movie along with Cries and Whispers is among his best.
The beginning of the movie which starts with the spools of film sequence is one of the most famous opening in the history of cinema. The cinematography is brilliant, especially a long track shot of Alma running after Elizabet along the beach side. Some of most poetic images ever committed to film. Defenitely belongs in my top 20 movies.
