MovieChat Forums > Passion Fish (1992) Discussion > Influenced by Persona?

Influenced by Persona?

posted 17 years ago by fentress
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This has been a favorite movie of mine for a number of years. A friend of mine said she saw it rerun on some cable channel and apparently they gave some commentary about it. She told me that they said this movie was influenced by Imgmar Bergman's film Persona. There is a slight resemblance in the basic set-up, but this movie is much more grounded in everyday reality. It doesn't go for the metaphysical reaches that Persona does. Although, it's been many years since I've seen Persona.

Can anyone else shed any light on this?

[–] TemporaryOne-1 16 years ago

An interview extract with Sayles:

People had seen Persona by that time and would go on about the symbolism. I thought it was about a nurse and a patient, and I always reckoned it would be a good idea to do a comedy American version. What influenced me more was not going from the social to the personal, but the fact that I'd done three guy movies in a row, which is basically what politics still consists of. Maggie Renzi, my producer, asked me if I had any stories for women, so I thought we'd do the hospital one next.

Even though Sayles appears to be outright dismissive of Persona's mutli-layered thematics and symbolism, both films have one prime connection - women creating artistic personas that stifled their personal personas and personal passions. And both share the obvious framework - a hospitalized female actress and her quiet nurse both suffer from identity crises, the female actress attempts to recuperate at an idyllic location, and the nurse's personal problems are revelatory and help heal the actress (albeit that conclusion does not absolutely apply to Persona).

[–] fentress 16 years ago

That's a very interesting piece of information. Thank you for supplying that.