Watch this scene from Ingmar Bergman‘s Persona and try to imagine Natalie Portman delivering Bibi Andersson‘s monologue with, say, Jennifer Lawrence reclining and listening a la Liv Ullman. Doesn’t work, does it? That’s because this kind of frank eroticism has all but disappeared from mainstream cinema. This landmark Bergman film didn’t open in the U.S. until March 1967, but the “promotional premiere” (whatever that was) happened in Stockholm exactly 50 years ago today. You can’t beat that black-and-white Sven Nykvist cinematography. It may be that my all-time favorite Bergman flick is The Silence (’63).
