Answer the following questions about this sequence from Persona by clicking the reply button below (copy/paste your answer as text, do not attach a file). This assignment is due at the beginning of class on September 27. Please divide your answers into separate paragraphs and write at least 500 words. When you quote a passage or refer to a concept from an assigned reading, please identify the full name of the author(s) in the body of your essay and then use parenthetical citations – e.g. (Bordwell and Thompson, 362). The sequence can be viewed here:
(Scene where main character opens up to mute character about her sexual past. As well as suspicions raise that the mute character is able to speak)
1. To what extent does this sequence from Persona conform to the psychological realism and ambiguity that David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson associate with modernist cinema? What aspects of human psychology are explored?
2. What parts of this sequence can be read as authorial commentary? What is reflexive or antagonistic about Bergman’s authorial interventions? Refer to David Bordwell in your answer.
3. What existentialist themes are explored in this sequence? Refer in your answer to Douglas Burnham’s discussion of existentialism in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.