The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

182 Atom Egoyan
That had a huge influence on a film like Exotica with the role of the
person who is trying to navigate through someone else’s mythology. It’s also
humorous as well. I think that when you think you have something figured
out, and it’s not at all what you expect—like the scene where Bruce Greenwood
is driving a young Sarah Polley home after the club, you assume that
Sarah Polley is a young prostitute. He’s trying to pay her, and the pieces
all connect in a certain way. And then later, you understand that she’s a
babysitter. All these things begin to compound as your mind is racing with
possibility. To me, one of the most erotic experiences is when your mind is
just racing with possibility: What might be happening? What could be happening?
What’s about to happen?
I remember as a fourteen-year-old kid, after the very erotic story, I
expected release, I expected it to lead to something. In the next sequence,
Bibi Andersson is in the bed, and Liv Ullmann mysteriously appears from
another room, approaches the bed, and then turns away. Bibi Andersson
then gets up, and there’s this very famous shot of the two women’s heads
where Liv Ullmann caresses Bibi Andersson. I found that incredibly charged.
This is where Bergman bleeds himself into the film a little bit. He was
just finishing his relationship with Bibi Andersson, and this was Liv
Ullmann’s first film with him.
Egoyan: See, I didn’t know that. That’s fascinating.
Knowing that, does that add anything to the film for you?
Egoyan: Yes, I think so. But, again, I’m thankful I didn’t know that, in a
way. It’s fascinating, though, this idea of transference from one relationship
to another, and that the actresses would both be involved. Does Bergman
talk about that himself?
In his book The Magic Lantern he talks about the filming, because
Bibi Andersson had been with him in Wild Strawberries. I think it
was during that film that they were finding the end of their romance.
But yes, Persona is the very time he becomes involved with Liv. It
seems to telegraph his life, because Persona was filmed on Faro, the
island he ends up retreating to for thirty years, and in fact lived on