The fourth wall is a space that separates the performers from the audience, like a wall between fiction and reality. Breaking the fourth wall causes an intrusion into the audience’s viewing. It is an act when the performer directly addresses the audience.
What is the purpose of "breaking the fourth wall" in Persona?
This technique mostly occurs in comedy movies, where characters comment on the story's events for comic relief. To let the character speak their inner monologue, which is difficult to express through dialogue and expressions, Bergman's "Persona" is far from a comedy; it is a psychological drama film with elements of dread and misery.
Alma, a young nurse, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler, an actress who is physically and mentally healthy but chooses not to talk. One of the first instances, when the fourth wall is subtly broken, was when Alma applied the cream and talks about how her entire life has been pre-determined and does not think it is good enough even though it has a sense of security. She looks only for a couple of seconds, yet manages to give the audience an uncomfortable feeling. It connects the angst of her mind with the viewers; they feel as if they are a part of the story as well.
As the movie progresses, characters disturbingly break the fourth wall multiple times. Long shots of facial close-ups make it very intimate, which may or may not have been done to make the viewers feel closer to the two characters as much as they are with each other. It even comes to a point when it confuses the audience as to whether Alma and Elisabeth are speaking to each other or the camera.
An extremely significant scene of the movie remains when Elisabeth walks into Alma’s room and begins caressing her when she is simply sleeping. Further, the two look into the mirror and stroke each other’s hair, Bergman skilfully uses the mirror as a conceptual barrier between the two characters and the audience. Since the scene did not have any character speak or address anything to the audience, Bergman hoped it should be felt rather than understood.
As both characters spend time together, they tend to learn from each other. Alma shares her secrets to an understanding Elisabeth and eventually discovers that her personality has been merged with Elisabeth’s persona, almost as if they are the same person.
Bergman constantly reminds us of the film as a medium, as he even allows us to see his film crew at a point. This is one of the reasons that it is called a psychological masterpiece. Apart from being a thrilling and overwhelming piece of work, it is also visually stunning and dramatic.