PERSONA

– a cooperation on track

Prior to the shooting of Persona in 1965, Evert Fagerberg did some of the pre-production work. A house was erected att Hammars, where the film was to be shot. A dolly track was also laid out for the camera dolly to be pushed along for long dolly shot in the film. The rail track was 175 meters long and ran along the shore just above the cliffs. The scene for which the rail track was built is the one where nurse Alma (Bibi Anderson) chases her upset patient Elisabet (Liv Ullmann) along the rocky beach, to seek atonement for having sneakily read her private letter.

EVERT FAGERBERG TELLS THE STORY:

PICTURE 1: The long rail track is finished.

PICTURE 2: In bygone days when you built a rail track, the last nail was to be a ”golden nail”. The same was to apply to the dolly track at Hammars. We quite simply painted a nail in gold. At first, Ingmar Bergman tried to hammer in the nail, but in the end it was my father-in-law, John Ohlsson, who completed the job. In the photo, Bergman is clapping his hands, signifying approval theat the last nail is in place.

PICTURE 3: First we cut a blue-and-yellow ribbon, then ngmar bergman gave an inauguration speech. Two of the locals, John Ohlsson and Anton Broman, listened attentively, and so did Gunnar Björnstrand and Lars-Owe Carlberg and several other members of the film team.

PICTURE 4: After the inauguration, we had an enormous coffee party with cream gateau and cakes, whic were served under the pine trees in the forest. Here the cake is being cut up, and Bergman himself can be seen in the middle of the queue. Then there’s Ivan Olofsson, who owned the property where we built the house and the dolly track.  Next to him we can see Arvid Hammarström and John Larsson, followed by Bo-Erik Olsson. Behind him is Lars-Owe Carlberg, the film’s production manager. Behind Ingmar Bergman you can spot med (Evert Fagerberg) wearing sun glasses and Katinka Faragó, in a striped blouse. She was Bergman’s script supervisor and production manager for fifty years.

PICURE 5: Seated here are three well-known Fåröese. Adolf Kalström, who at the time was Bergman’s ”man Friday”, the author and sexton Eric Fröberg, a neighbour of Bergman’s at Hammars, and then John Ohlsson and Bibi Andersson.

PICTURE 6: Between the pine trees in the picture is my father-in-law, John Ohlsson. Seated next to him is Bibi Andersson, dressed in a white wide-brimmed hat, and the other lady in a white hat is Liv Ullmann. Ingmar Bergman is sitting next to her. To the right is the cinematographer Sven Nykvist with a small, practical camera in his hands.  ”He was a very sympathetic guy.”

PICTURE 7: John Ohlsson and Bibi Andersson. Ohlsson later went with Bergman to Skåne to oversee the laying down on the dolly track for the shooting of The Hour of the Wolf.

PICTURE 8: Cinematographer Sven Nykvist.

PICTURE 9: We built this house in the forest by the cliffs at Hammars for the shoot of Persona. Here are the builders gathered on the terrace. Only local men formed the building team: John Larsson, Ott Olsson, Ivan Olofsson, Anton Broman. John Ohlsson, Evert Fagerberg, Bernhard Olsson, Frans Söderdahl, Eric Fröberg, Adolf Kalström and Bo-Erik Olsson.