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The Virgin Spring

1959, Movie, NR, 88 mins

The Virgin Spring: Review

VIRGIN SPRING, THE | JUNGFRUKALLAN
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The Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar awarded to THE VIRGIN SPRING was director Ingmar Bergman's first Academy Award, and the film still numbers among the director's classics. The story takes place in 13th-century Sweden, as Christianity and folklore vie for dominance in the popular belief. Karin (Birgitta Pettersson), the spoiled young virgin daughter of wealthy landowner Tore (Max von Sydow), is to go to church to light candles for the Virgin, and is allowed to wear a special gown, handmade by 15 virgins, on the occasion. Riding in the woods, Karin is raped, and then killed, by shepherds. The men take her gown, hoping to sell it, and move on, arriving at Tore's house, where they receive food and shelter. Their crime is discovered, however, moving Tore to enact bloody revenge and testing the bereaved father's faith. THE VIRGIN SPRING is based on a medieval ballad, and is full of the folk-tale oppositions (a good sister and a bad one) and motifs (the tell-tale gown, the trio of shepherds) so beloved by Bergman (the film is also true to its origins in its extreme violence). As always, those with little affinity for Bergman's preoccupations will find the film overlong and overdone. Most, however, will be rewarded by the depth of the director's moral and religious questioning, the emotional power of the story and acting, the haunting and symbolic imagery, and the excellent black-and-white photography of Sven Nykvist. Nominated by the Academy for Best Costume Design. leave a comment
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The Virgin Spring - Criterion Collection
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