sertonim-seratonin

[sertonim-seratonin]

Persona (1996)

Ely’s Take:

basically this movie is about an actress, elizabet, who forgets her lines in the middle of a performance and has a bit of a break down and stops speaking. then she gets assigned a nurse (alma) to take care of her and the Dr. Boss Lady tells alma that they can go to her home by the sea to hang out until elizabet feels better. they do that then alma opens up to elizabet about an orgy she had. then alma writes a letter to Dr. Boss Lady and alma reads it (without elizabet’s consent!) and alma starts to really be a rude bitch to elizabet. but actually!! they’re the same person. this isn’t that clear like in a Fight Club kind of way, thought. this movie was made before big reveals like that. so it’s really up for interpretation.

since im a huge carl jung girly i immediately picked up on the shadow vs. self, or unconscious vs. conscious stuff. i initially thought that elizabet represented the shadow. she’s unspeaking, visits alma at night, speaks through whispers, signs... watches scenes of horror. she is silent about her situation with her son (that she doesn’t love him), until alma figures it out. alma on the other hand is super chatty and outgoing. she just talks and talks and says whatever is on her mind. i figured she represented “the self.” she also is the one that calls elizabet out on not loving her son. also alma means “soul” in spanish.

what makes you think they’re the same person?

-always wearing the same thing/ dressed similarly

-elizabet’s husband thinks that alma is elizabet

-mirror scene

-morphing into one person scene

-scene with the same dialogue, twice

-when elizabet speaks and alma confuses it for her own thoughts and repeats what elizabet had said 

 so after some researching ive come to some notes

-from a freudian point: elizabet would be the id, alma the ego... and the Dr. Boss Lady, the superego. superego is basically one’s moral code. so when alma finds elizabet’s letter “ratting her out” (thought that was not her intention) to Dr. Boss Lady, she becomes hurt and angry.

-read a perspective that alma is the shadow and elizabet is the ego. i could see this in a way because elizabet is this big actress. after an embarassing moment she is forced to hang out with her shadow self, the one who had an orgy, the one who is maternal in a way that she (elizabet) could never be. alma the shadow wants to heal the self. but alma also can self-sabotage (like the glass shard incident). 

a quote: Alma to Elizabet: “But your soul would be too big. It would stick out everywhere.”

anyway gorgeous movie. ive seen the seventh seal with shahak. it was a bit more simple and linear. the first scene in this film are really just flashing horrible things and it kind of reminded me of color of pomegranites. i said that to shahak when we watched, that is seemed like ingmar bergman was influinced by color of pomegranites. turns out c-o-p was released before! so maybe. it just gave a similar vibe. some great stills

[sertonim-seratonin]

THE GREEN KNIGHT!!! (ely)

Rating: 4.5/5

Loved this movie so fucking much. Loved the awkward pacing and beats that remind me of the pacing of actual legends/myths/epics. Loved the “dream/myth logic.” I think a lot of movies that put old stories onto the screen try to make them more realistic, more like “what really happened” or “the true telling” but this movie felt like the way you would imagine it if someone were just telling it to you around a fire. Also you would thing that Dev Patel playing a tenth/eleventh century knight in England would be a weird vibe but it really was not.

OK random notes now

- lots of amazing symbolism

-i noticed some possible The Fool symbolism with the fox... kind of makes sense, Gawain is definitely on a Fool’s Journey... 

-5 virtues of a knight s and how he failed every test 

-- friendship (was mean to the fox), generosity (only gave one coin to the creepy dude), chastity (was horny for the guy’s wife), piety (was having sex on xmas instead of being at mass)... he didn’t fail “courtesy” which was getting that girl’s head out of the water but he ALMOST did bc he was like WHAT WILL YOU GIVE ME IN RETURN. lol foolish man

-in the real story apparently he does NOT have sex with the wife and tells her no every time! he does kiss her though and then he has to kiss her husband. also the husband turns out to be the green knight and it was all Morgan le Fay’s plan (the witch) to test Sir Arthur’s knights... which I’ve read interpretations about this movie that say that it was all his mom’s plan (the witch) to help her son become a good knight because at the beginning he is really useless

-mom and wife lady both give him a sash... i think the sash is like umbilical cord mommy protection and he has to let that shit go. like if you keep the green sash around you forever you won’t grow up and you’ll just be an asshole and your life will suck. you have to accept the consequences to your actions...

-GREEN lots of interpretations... wife lady was saying it is sickness and what is left over after lust... but also it is green, fresh life, it is a lush forest. 

- the portrait the wife lady makes for him turns green in his vision... he has become rotten, decayed, etc bc he didnt take off his green little sash instead of facing his choices 

-theme of cycles in the movie aka the puppet show and the shot of him in the forest/dead in the forest... cycles and alternate realities 

-great amazing movie loved it. makes me want to do a fairy tale movie 

-from reddit: the sash is like a deus ex machina but ultimately it is the wrong choice... the world will always provide you with an easy way out to not do the right thing, but it is never as rewarding. also you taking the easy way out can become a habit and you just keep doing it over and over until BAM you’ve lost your kingdom and u steal ur GF’s baby and your portrait turns green