Persona revisited : filling in the gaps via the original script

Abstract

In this article, I compare Bergman’s original script of Persona with its final film version and discuss several differences between the two. I focus on three larger alternations, namely on omitting several of Elizabeth’s replicas or transferring them to Alma as well as on a complete change of the ending scene. I speculate on how the dialogue and the scene would have changed the film if the director had not decided to modify or omit them, suggest possible reasons for such steps having been taken, and present arguments for how Bergman shifted to cinematic modernism and turned away from psychologizing during the process of making Persona. Furthermore, I breakdown and analyse the script version of the middle sequence of Persona, using positioning theory to uncover the motives behind Alma’s and Elizabeth’s verbal actions, and respectively the refusal of such action.