Movie Masterworks

“God…Odin…come!”

Synopsis: One of the most visually beautiful of all black-and-white films, The Virgin Spring won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1961. The picture remains a powerful parable of good and evil, of faith lost and recovered. Adapted from a folk ballad, it is a study in contrasts, but not extremes. Set in a society struggling with the transition to Christianity from Norse paganism and a feudal economy, the film depicts savage violence that begets savage retribution. But there is also hope, and light and shadow, dappled in shades of gray both symbolic and literal, as with the stunning chiaroscuro cinematography—one of many quiet wonders in this rich, deeply moving cinematic experience.

An emotionally devastating experience, The Virgin Spring elicits a deep appreciation of life through its depiction of senseless death and the futility of revenge. Bergman urges his audience to cherish the time we do have, even in the face of incomprehensible cruelty. That sweet sentiment softens a harsh reminder of the fleeting hours ahead.

Steve Evans, DVD Verdict

Critique: In October 2005, Ang Lee took time out from Brokeback Mountain’s festival circuit to record a video introduction for this Criterion edition of Ingmar Bergman’s austerely beautiful The Virgin Spring. In it, Lee says that when he first saw this black-and-white Scandinavian film as an 18-year-old in Taiwan, it “dumbfounded” and “electrified” him. He stayed in the screening room to view it a second time, and “life changed afterward,” he declares. Its quietude coupled with brutal violence, and its whispering fundamental questions — particularly “God, where are you?” — expressed for Lee a “microscope into humanity.” He adds, “Watching that movie made me a different filmmaker.” Lee probably didn’t set out to speak thematically of The Virgin Spring in terms of a filmmaker in transition, though it’s fitting given the film’s place in Bergman’s canon. Released in 1960, it marks the final title associated with the auteur’s classical period, those major films of the 1950s such as Wild Strawberries, The Magician, and The Seventh Seal. Although its visual and existential aesthetics strike us here and now as unmistakably “Bergmanesque,” the director himself became critical of his reliance on imitating the visual styles of other filmmakers, chiefly Kurosawa. Beginning with his next major work, Through a Glass Darkly (’61), we see Bergman’s own distinctive style assertively developing. And in terms of practical professional transitions, after The Virgin Spring ended up winning Bergman his first Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1961, the newfound acclaim brought a financial and prestige boost that helped him ascend to the next phase of his career.

—Mark Bourne

“Adapted from a fourteenth century Swedish legend by screenwriter and novelist Ulla Isaksson, The Virgin Spring is a harrowing, yet ultimately affirming portrait of faith, humanity, and atonement. Using chiaroscuro imagery that interplays light and shadows, Ingmar Bergman reflects the process of spiritual illumination in the transitional era of the Middle Ages where mysticism, amorality, and paganism coexisted with the period of intellectual, artistic, and religious enlightenment: the opening image of Ingeri performing her chores that transitions into an illuminated crucifix as Töre and Märeta pray; the physical dissimilarity between the fair haired Karin and the dark haired “adopted” Ingeri; the stark visual contrast between the dark and claustrophobic interiors of the farmhouse and the sunlit path along the stream; the light precipitation of snow after the brothers’ unconscionable act. As Ingeri (the allusional fallen sinner, Mary Magdalene) becomes a witness to the manifestation of secular discord and divine grace, she follows her own figurative path from religious darkness and moral bankruptcy to a state of spiritual baptism and enlightenment.”

-Acquarello, Strictly Film School

My thoughts: There are emotions that films commonly elicit from people like desire, happiness, interest, surprise, wonder and sorrow. “The Virgin Spring” is the only movie in which I have experienced hate. It’s testimony to just how emotionally brutal this movie is. It will test you, and for some viewers, it will change you.