Easily lost amid a brilliant career, The Virgin Spring once again shows Bergman's control in capturing the furthest ranges of emotion.
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06/07/08
The Virgin Spring (1960)
94
%
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Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:15
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.1/10
Runtime: 89 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Derived from a medieval ballad, THE VIRGIN SPRING was director Ingmar Bergman's first film to win an Academy Award. The movie represents a return to simpler themes for Bergman after the... [More]
Starring: Max Von Sydow, Brigitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Brigitta Pattersson
Director: Ingmar Bergman
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Reviews for The Virgin Spring
1 - 16 (sorted by date)
Bergman's instinctive approach to filmmaking %u2013 like his gripping use of long wordless moments filled with pictures of great power, is in evidence, with some unforgettable scenes that even today, almost 50 years later, have fresh impact.
02/14/08
Masterfully directed by Sweden's Ingmar Bergman.
12/22/06
Winner of the Foreign-Language Oscar Picture, the film represents the first peak of Ingmar Bergman's creativity, released right after The Seventh Seal and before Through a Glass Darkly, all three masterpieces.
10/21/06
[Auds] 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.
08/29/06
Although the 'jiggery-pokery' does mute the 'actual, horrible story,' Bergman still poses worthy questions, offering no answers, a key difference between art and baloney, or spirituality and dogmatism.
04/05/06
It is also a crucial film because it was the first to be shot entirely by Sven Nykvist, who would become Bergman's longtime cinematographer and would be largely responsible for shaping the visual aesthetic of his later works.
03/18/06
The master guides us through this heartbreaking tale with a delicate hand and a gorgeous, poetic touch. It's actually one of his simplest and most moving works -- a film to be savored and pondered.
02/16/06
Sven Nykvist's luminous black-and-white photography conspiring with the austerity of Bergman's imagery to create an extraordinary metaphysical charge.
01/26/06
Represents the primary nexus between Bergman's austere but accessibly recherché works of the 1950s and his downright ascetic 1960s cinema.
01/23/06
It is far from an easy picture to watch or entirely commend. For Mr. Bergman has stocked it with scenes of brutality that, for sheer unrestrained realism, may leave one sickened and stunned.
05/09/05
Top CriticBrutal and miraculous.
06/09/04
No review available.
12/05/03
Troubled, dark ambitious and highly intelligent film from the great Swedish director.
05/27/03
Although the story plays straightforwardly, greater enjoyment comes through pondering the meanings behind Bergman's symbolic tapestry.
12/26/02
The period details are magnificently worked into the narrative, and the pace and economy of the tortured Swede's storytelling make his metaphysics infinitely easier to take.
01/01/00
Top Critic1 - 16 (sorted by date)
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July 30, 2007:
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July 30, 2007:
Legendary Director Ingmar Bergman dies at 89
Ingmar Bergman, the "poet with a camera," died in his sleep at his home in Faro, Sweden Monday at the age of 89. The director of such influential films as The Seventh Seal,... More...
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