8. Persona
For my money nobody could make a movie in black and white quite like Ingmar Bergmann. There was just something about the way that he told a story that colour couldn't improve on. This is why Persona remains his best film. It captures the darkness inherent in life that he frequently chose to explore but it also heightened the mysterious nature of his lead characters. Bergmann always favoured characters that were enigmatic and difficult to grasp and Persona offers the viewer two perfect examples of a quintessential Bergmann character. The story concerns itself with two women, one mute and one who is trying to communicate with her, but there is a layer of mounting dread just under the surface. To explain it any more really does an injustice to the narrative because it is so perfectly devised that you really should experience it for yourself. The nature Persona is very dark and mysterious which the black and white photography highlights naturally but also elevates.