Persona

"The important thing is the effort, not what we achieve." Mr. Volger

☆☆☆☆☆  Masterpiece

Persona (1960) is a cinematic jewel from Sweden.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Starring Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson among others.

The essence of Persona is, one person taking on the persona of another person to help them heal mentally. The taking on of anothers persona plays an important role at the end of Jean-Luc Godard's A Bout De Souffle (Breathless) when Jean Seberg's character takes on the persona of Jean-Paul Belmondo's character who was taking on the film persona of Humphrey Bogart. Persona is Ingmar's personal journey of finding truth in the Illusion and Reality we create for ourselves. The end result is a breathtakingly poetic visual journey into who we are and how others perceive us.

As an actor I add the Persona's of humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects to my being on a daily basis. I take on these persona's in my real life and the film characters of movies I'm watching. This helps me to understand that person and their world better and helps me grow as a human being. Children naturally take on  persona's of people, animals, plants and inanimate objects and create imaginary friends and worlds. These persona's help children to understand and cope with the ever increasing complexity that this world slowly unwraps as they are growing up. My childhood friends found one persona they liked, understood and went about developing it fully. I found myself developing many persona's and storing them away to play with later at my choosing. I don't know and care why I never outgrew this childhood ability and just stuck with one persona. Maybe I'm still a child who has not learned how to cope with the complexity that the universe unfolds for me daily.

Anyways, in the scene below Bibi (In the background with Liv's husband) has taken on Liv's (foreground) persona to help Liv to such a deep level that Liv's equally mentally disturbed husband thinks Bibi is really his wife Liv. Basically, in this visually operatic scene Ingmar is showing us through his cinema that we create our truth from the illusion and reality that the universe gives us.  Enjoy!

Film Scene

Trivia - Alma's name in Spanish means "Soul".

Film Trailer

A Bout De Souffle - Breathless

"Are you afraid of getting old? I am." Patricia

☆☆☆☆☆ Masterpiece

A Bout De Souffle - Breathless (1960) There was before Breathless and there was after Breathless.

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

With one brilliant editing idea to solve an overly long film, Godard ushered in the modern movie era with its revolutionary use of "Jump Cuts" (a cut in a moment within a scene, regardless of continuity to the scene or next moment within the edited scene).

Godard was not satisfied with the long version of the Breathless and his  asked mentor, Jean-Pierre Melville (who's film, Bob Le Flambeur (1956) had influenced his own film making aspirations)). Melville is considered the Godfather of The French New Wave, of which, (Breathless is one of the key films) for advice. Jean-Pierre suggested to Godard that he should cut scenes entirely, including his own (Melville plays the writer who is interviewed by Jean Seberg's character). Godard in a flash of inspired genius created the cut within scenes or "Jump Cuts". Melville is said to have declared the cuts, "Excellent" and the modern film was born. Breathless is to cinema what Marlon Brando is to modern acting.

Jean-Paul Belmondo is what makes Breathless, so... Breathless. Belmondo is playful, arrogant, but above all a likable killer. My only gripe with Godard's film, is that he doesn't properly explain, visually to the audience Belmondo's signature character trait(the swiping of his thumb across his lips). My first, second and third viewings of Breathless left me erroneously blaming Belmondo. I have a Method Acting background that requires me as an actor to fully express any and all character actions in a way that audience members can easily comprehend and or relate. As audience member I knew the action was  somehow related to Humphrey Bogart and his movies. Belmondo's character was constantly quoting from and trying to emulate Bogie's fictional persona in his own life. It wasn't until I researched Humphrey Bogart and discovered that Bogie had a natural tick which caused him to swipe his lips with his thumb. With this new insight I watched Belmondo's work again and discovered that it was Godard at fault for me as an audience member not being able to understand Belmondo's swipe. What Godard had needed was a scene from a film where Bogie swiped his lips and Belmondo imitated this action silently in a movie theater. Godard does have Belmondo swipe his lips with his thumb, as he looks at Humphrey's movie poster outside a movie theater, but I as a modern audience member, who has never observed Bogart do his natural tick in a movie could not put the two together on my own. What is strange is that when Jean's character rubs her thumb across her lips at the end of the film as an audience member, I immediately understood that Jean's character had taken on Belmondo's persona.

In the scene below, there are no "Jump Cuts", but there are "Jump Cuts" within the overall larger apartment scene that this scene is a part of. The scene below really captures the incredible chemistry between Belmondo and Seberg. They are both mesmerizing to watch.

One last point about Breathless, is that it truly is a film made by a collaborative team. It's the collaboration between director, actors, cinematographer and editors. It was made as they went along. Godard would write new scenes and give them in the morning to the actors and everyone involved would contribute as they shot it. This is a great film, that looks as good today as anything Quentin Tarantino makes. Enjoy!

Film Scene

Trivia - Godard fed the actors their lines as he was filming. To give their performances more spontaneity.

Film Trailer

Jean-Luc Godard Interview

Jean Seberg Interview

Jean-Paul Belmondo Interview

Film Posters - Photos

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Breathless Pressbook

Film Transcript

Saturday Night Fever

"You hit my hair" Tony

☆☆☆☆☆ Iconic

Saturday Night Fever (1977) is a showcase for John Travolta's acting and the Bee Gees music.

Directed by John Badham

Starring John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney among others.

I had never seen the entire film Saturday Night Fever until a few nights ago. The scene below hit me hard because, I realized that John had taken a selfish, egotistical, jerk and imbued him with his gentle humanity. Underneath all that bravura was a decent, gentle soul. Watch how his scene partner Karen in the scene below kisses him when she feels his humanity come through the facade of his Disco Dance King persona. John's humanity reminds me of Jean-Paul Belmondo's work in Jean-Luc Godard's, A Bout De Souffle - Breathless (1960). Both bring out the good in shady characters. John brings out his own humanity several times throughout the film. The scene below is his most revealing.

As I watched this scene I just want to give him a hug. It's very hard for human's to reveal their inner most self. An actor has to blend his humanity with his characters humanity and be uttterly truthful and honest. The more open an actor is, the more a scene partner will connect and the more the actor will engage the audience. If the actor is not truthful and honest the audience will see right through the lies. We all have opened and revealed ourselves to others that we care about and can see when someone is faking it or lies to us.

John gives a truely mesmerizing performance that earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. From the opening scene through the entire film Travolta is his character Tony Manero. The sequences at the disco nightclub showcase John's ability to physically interpret his character through his danceing.

The music throughout the film helps to keep the story moving forward. The songs by the Bee Gees, are timeless and a time capsule of the late 1970's disco subculture. The film holds up well after all these years. The  music is iconic to the Disco era.

Film Scene

Trivia - The story is based on a fabricated article by British Rock journalist Nik Cohn called, "Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night" that appeared in New York Magazine in 1976. Cohn, in the 1990's said that the character that became Tony Manero in the film, was a Mod, who he knew in the early 1960's from Shepherd's Bush in West London.

Film Trailer