Ingmar Bergman Centennial: THE VIRGIN SPRING

Director: Ingmar Bergman

1960, Sweden, 89

Cast: Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson.

 

(Jungfrukällan) Winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Bergman’s The Virgin Spring is a harrowing tale of faith, revenge, and savagery in medieval Sweden. With grim austerity, the director tells the story of the rape and murder of the virgin Karin, and her father Töre’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance, set in motion after the killers visit the family’s farmhouse. Starring Max von Sydow, the film is both beautiful and cruel in its depiction of a world teetering between paganism and Christianity.

“Light can be gentle, dangerous, dreamlike, bare, living, dead, misty, clear, hot, dark, violet, sensual, poisonous, calm and soft.” – Sven Nyquist.