Yeah, I was trying to think of depressing films and couldn't believe I left out Bergman. Then I remembered you liked the Seventh Seal. Then I saw that thematically perfect still.
By the way, I just realised why you didn't like Persona: obviously you couldn't understand how somebody could choose to not talk.
No, that's not the whole point of the film. It's a psychological drama. The main character isn't even the actress, it's the nurse.
At the beginning people question why she stopped speaking but they accept it pretty quickly. Or they give up trying to figure it out. It's worth rewatching.
A Romanian woman, a French woman and German woman complain that their men ignore them. So, they agree to stop cleaning and cooking and start doing nothing all day. After 3 days the Frenchwoman meets up with the German woman and says:
- I left my man without doing anything and right away, he asked me if I was OK, he cooked for me, he cleaned and he also brought me flowers.
The German woman:
- I left my man without doing anything for a day and I saw nothing. The next day, however, he asked me if I was OK, he cooked for me and he cleaned the house.
After a week, seeing that they hadn't heard from her, they call up the Romanian woman:
- I left my man without doing anything for a day and I saw nothing. The next day, I saw nothing. The third day, however, I started seeing a little bit with my left eye.
