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Persona + Introduction by Ronja Blight (15)

Queer 60s

— ,Cinema 1
A black and white film still of two young women from the shoulders up, standing close together with one behind the other. The woman behind is stroking the woman in front's hair.

A nurse and an actress who has suddenly stopped speaking form a deep, intimate connection in Ingmar Bergman’s brilliant psychological drama.

Bibi Andersson gives one of cinema’s greatest performances as Alma, a nurse who cares for Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), an actress who suddenly refuses to speak mid-performance. As the actress remains silent, Alma talks with great intimacy about her life, and gradually the women’s identities shift and overlap, culminating in one of the most famous images in all of Bergman’s works. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.

While the relationship between Alma and Elisabet is not explicitly sexual, writers such as Susan Sontag and Sarah Schulman noted the film’s extraordinary intensity, with the latter stating: 'The first important lesbian images in cinema for me were: Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona… where their intensity of feeling burned up the celluloid'. 

Tagged with: Cinema Queer 60s

In Swedish with English subtitles

Both screenings will have an introduction by Ronja Blight. 

The screening on Thursday 11 June will have a recorded intro.

Film information
  • Release year   1966
  • Country of origin   Sweden
  • Director   Ingmar Bergman
  • Runtime   1hr 24mins

Ronja Blight is a film programmer, cinema worker, and MSc Film Curation student at the University of Glasgow. She co-curated the Divine Trash: The Films of John Waters season at The Garden Cinema in 2025. She has just completed a curatorial placement at the National Library of Scotland's Moving Image Archive, with a focus on queer video art.

 

Queer 60s

Cinema 1

Location
Barbican Cinema 1 is located within the main Barbican building on Level -2. Head to Level G and walk towards the Lakeside Terrace where you’ll find stairs and lifts to take you down to the venue floor.   

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.