Persona and Close-Up Cinematography

In the movie Persona, Bergman effectively subjects Elisabet and Alma to a lot of close-up shots of their faces and I think by-in-large the reason that he does this is to effectively portray the two becoming the same person. Bergman strives for the audience to lose themselves in these two women overshadowing one another's identity and by shooting a multitude of face-shots he somehow makes it to where the audience is lost in the two women and also losing grips on the differences that set these two women a part. In one scene the women are stroking one anothers hair and although this scene personally was bizarre, Bergman uses this footage to portray the women becoming as one woman stroking her own hair.

Another scene that also portrays these two women meshing as one is when Elisabet's husband thinks he is talking to his wife when he is really talking to Alma. During this scene, Elisabet takes Almas hand and puts it on her husband's face. When this happens Bergman gets close-up footage and by doing this, in a way, blurrs the concept of the women being separate people because of the act of Elisabet urging Alma to do this. The focus in on the little details and actions that these two women play out is what really makes this movie effective in allowing the audience to get lost in these characters losing their identities to one another.