Top 10 Persona-lite Movies

Ingmar Bergman’s Persona is one of Top 3 favorite films of all time. It’s a fever dream masterpiece that I will continue to pick apart. Because, despite being only 83 minutes long, Persona is one of the most pleasantly complex films I’ve ever seen. I’ve spent more hours working over the film in my mind than I have actually watching the movie.

Classifying a film as “lite” in this post is not to suggest that the film is inferior to Persona. The purpose of this list is to draw attention to a particular group of films that remind me of a particularly unique film. Very few movies can even be considered in the same warped class as Persona, but these are a few of the best of them.

3 Women (1977)

dir. by Robert Altman

3 Women could be Robert Altman’s strangest film, which is probably why it’s one of my favorite Altman movies. The movie chronicles the increasingly strange relationship between the quite and awkward Pinky (Sissy Spacek), and a cocky chatterbox Millie (Shelley Duvall). Things start amicably between the women, but shortly after moving in together, their relationship grows hostile. After tragedy occurs, tempers subside and identities slowly begin to change, and the film sinks further into the bizarre. 3 Women was made just over a decade after Persona, and its influences are clear in all the best ways.

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

dir. by Krzysztof Kieślowski

“All my life I've felt like I was here and somewhere else at the same time.”

So says Veronique (Irène Jacob) in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s masterpiece, The Double Life of Veronique. Veronique says this at a strange time in her life; a time when she’s feeling lost and alone. She’s grieving, but can’t quite place why. As viewers, we have some insight into Veronique’s melancholy. The first portion of The Double Life of Veronique concerns itself with Weronika (also Jacob), a Polish singer. We watch Weronika go about her day, landing auditions, having trysts with her boyfriend, living life. Something significant happens and, without warning, the film switches to Veronique’s perspective. Because both characters are played by Jacob, they look identical, yet neither character is consciously aware of the other. Veronique’s melancholic mood is directly connected to Weronika. But why? Kieślowski never explains. And neither did Bergman. Exactly.

Fight Club (1999)

dir. by David Fincher

Yes, believe it or not, Bergman’s film had a huge influence on David Fincher’s Fight Club. Both movies toy with the notion of identity and self-worth/preservation, but Persona’s impact is much more obvious than that. The scene where Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) addresses the camera as the physical film itself seems to unravel from the projector is a direct lift from Persona, in which the film comes lose, burns up, and the movie subsequently takes a whole new direction. And then there’s the dick. Bergman spliced in a single frame of a man’s penis into the insane opening of Persona. No reason is ever given for the choice; it’s simply just there. Tyler splices a single frame of a penis into a children’s film for anarchic purposes, but the idea is the same. Where is my mind, indeed.

Mulholland Dr. (2001)

dir. by David Lynch

Shifting identities, dual females, psychosexual fervor, a foreboding melancholic strangeness – Mulholland Dr. is arguably the most Persona-lite movie there is. David Lynch’s fever dream masterpiece is certainly a film that stands on its own, but Persona’s thematic influence is clear. The visual parallels are apparent as well. The first time Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring) lay in bed together, Lynch frames their faces in a way Bergman popularized in Persona. It’s amazing how a simple bit of framing can help recall a movie from 35 years earlier. I’ve watched Persona and Mulholland Dr. back-to-back before; there are few films better suited for a double bill than these.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

dir. by Cameron Crowe

Vanilla Sky is a pretty straight film. Until it’s not. Once David (Tom Cruise) is woken up in the street by his love, Sofia (Penélope Cruz), the film shifts into a frenzy of psychological paranoia. Unlike many films on this list, the reasons for the shift are spelled out clearly in Vanilla Sky, but I’ve always appreciated the film’s journey. Crowe is far more obsessed with pop culture than Bergman ever was (in that regard, perhaps Abre Los ojos, the film Vanilla Sky is based on, is better suited for this list), but Persona’s influence is all over the second half of Crowe’s film.

Talk to Her (2002)

dir. by Pedro Almodóvar

It’s hard to pick a favorite Almodóvar film, but Talk to Her is right up there, and the impact of Persona is undeniable. Talk to Her is about two men who independently care for the women they love as the women lay in comas. The film shows us how each man met their respective lady, and how they grew to have such affection for them. This being Almodóvar, the reasons are more complex than we initially think. Perhaps better than any Almodóvar film, Talk to Her expertly explores ideas of loneliness, grief, emotional isolation, and fractured love. All themes present in Bergman’s film as well.

Swimming Pool (2003)

dir. by François Ozon

The increasingly panicked psychosexual elements of Swimming Pool are what correlate most directly with Persona. Successful writer Sarah (Charlotte Rampling) attempts to curb her writer’s block by visiting her publisher’s country home alone. A few days into her stay, the publisher’s rambunctious daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), shows up and disrupts Sarah’s life. And what begins as a combative relationship between the two slowly forms into something far more intricate and unsettling. By the end, the viewer is left questioning everything that has come before. Swimming Pool is a deeply satisfying Persona-lite psychothriller. I never tire of wondering what it all means.

Black Swan (2010)

dir. by Darren Aronofsky

To be clear, there’s nothing “lite” about Black Swan. The film is a deeply twisted headfirst dive into the macabre, and I couldn’t love it more. As Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) falls deeper into the persona of “The Black Swan,” the film’s narrative becomes increasingly tangled. What is real and what is imagined? Was Lily (Mila Kunis) ever really The Black Swan? How much of Lily did Nina manufacture – if any, or all. Like Persona, when you look at Black Swan from a psychological perspective, the film is far deeper than what is on its crazed surface.

Queen of Earth (2015)

dir. by Alex Ross Perry

In many respects, Queen of Earth plays like a modern, low-budget remake of Persona. Like Persona, Queen of Earth is about two women in a remote location who slowly start to unravel and consume each other’s identities. Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) and Virginia (Katherine Waterston) are childhood friends enjoying their annual trip at a lake house together. But this year is different. Catherine is combative and hostile. Her sanity is slipping drastically, as is any control Catherine has over it. This culminates with Catherine’s breakdown at a party, a devilishly manic sequence reminiscent of Naomi Watts losing her shit in her apartment in Mulholland Dr. I could stand to see Queen of Earth again, but the first time I saw the film, I couldn’t get Persona out of my head.

Personal Shopper (2016)

dir. by Olivier Assayas

Olivier Assayas fantastic new film, Personal Shopper, was the direct inspiration for this list. The film is about a despondent young woman (Kristen Stewart) who goes about her fractured life, shopping for designer clothes for her celebrity boss, attempting to maintain a long distance relationship, and trying to develop her inherent skills as a spirit medium. The entire time I watched the film, I kept thinking of Persona – the unease of it all, the darkness (Personal Shopper is so photographical dark), the notion of lost identity, of isolation and paranoia. The more similarities I saw in the two films, the more I grew to love Personal Shopper (it will linger around my Best Of 2017 lists). And as Personal Shopper reached its well-earned conclusion, the term “Persona-lite” popped into my head. That’s what Personal Shopper is, a Persona-lite psychological thriller. Not “lite” as in inferior, “lite” as in respectful homage.

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