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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
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All Critics (21) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (2) | DVD (13)
Sven Nykvist's luminous black-and-white photography conspiring with the austerity of Bergman's imagery to create an extraordinary metaphysical charge.
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.
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.
Overwrought and ineffective...
The Virgin Spring is Bergman's murder ballad: Bloody, remorseless, and tragic.
A film of terrible beauty.
That it's shot like a fairytale forest showcases the glory of God's creations, which are of course marred by the hideousness of men's hearts.
Fleshing out the source material, director Ingmar Bergman and writer Ulla Isaksson have created a powerful examination of Old Testament ire coupled with New Testament redemption.
Easily lost amid a brilliant career, The Virgin Spring once again shows Bergman's control in capturing the furthest ranges of emotion.
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.
Masterfully directed by Sweden's Ingmar Bergman.
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.
A virginal girl is brutally raped and murdered, and her killers unwittingly take refuge in her parents' home. Simply stated, this is Bergman at his best. While there is a touch of the misogyny that Bergman featured in The Seventh Seal, as Birgitta and her sister turn into metonyms for light and dark female sexuality rather than fully fleshed out characters, the film nevertheless explore tough questions about the existence of God and humans' duties in response to cruelty and despair. Is revenge ethically, morally, or religiously justifiable? If God exists, why do bad things happen to good people? Should we or can we celebrate a deity in a world this fucked up? Filmmakers like Bergman aren't didactic enough to tell us the answers to these questions; instead, we get round characters who struggle with ethical dilemmas in intelligent and compelling ways. Overall, Ingmar Bergman is rightly celebrated as one of the world's best for good reason.
Super Reviewer
easily one of the most devastating films i've ever seen. an all time favorite. the images are penetrating and the film builds tension so well that every moment feels like the precursor to something bigger, and it always turns out to be. the themes of faith and morality take center stage and in the end we are reminded that kindness and innocence in this world are often rewarded with violence, darkness, and suffering. a deeply emotional film.
Ingmar Bergman's films are declarations. Declarations of doubt, declarations of fear. Somehow in his confrontation of death, he tries to find the meaning of life. In The Virgin Spring, Bergman revisits medieval times (as in 1957's "The Seventh Seal"). This time, the scene is a fourteenth century farm. Töre is the landowner and patriarch of his little family which includes wife Märeta and daughter Karin. The family, being devoutly christian, have an "adopted" family of farmhands and runaways, as well as one "fallen", heathen woman who is carrying an illegitimate child. It's with her the story begins as she prays for Odin to come and curse the daughter Karin. Karin is the perfect one, always getting her way, not having to do anything and getting spoiled by the masters of the house. So when she and Karin are sent to the church to deliver the candles for the virgin mother's mass, she gets her wish most brutally answered. Watching Töre's penance towards the end of the film, you have to wonder about the level of ritualism and meditation that precedes an act motivated almost entirely by blind retribution. As observers, we can only feel sorrow at this destruction, regardless of what end it seeks to achieve. What can we take away from the Virgin Spring? That God, if he exists, works in mysterious ways? That life is cheap? That one's notion of existence can be swept away in one callous motion? It's not enough to just exist, you have to know why you are doing it. Once upon a time, we built churches to give our lives purpose, and to try and provide some higher understanding of why we were here. With The Virgin Spring, we have a film etched hard into the celluloid, an artistic rendition of the question that plagues our human nature.
Remade twice (both times under the title The Last House on the Left), this is a drama set in medieval Sweden about a deeply religious man who seeks revenge after his daughter is raped and murdered. Unlike the remakes, this is more of a drama than a horror film, although the events that take place are horrific. The way they are handled is makes it distinct. The big push here is this film's focus on themes of religion, forgiveness, faith, heavy questions about the nature of crime and punishment. In a way, and I'm not trying to diminish the film here, you could possibly call this (if you had to) an arthouse exploitation film. Because really, it is art, it just happens to be punctuated byt two very strong (but surprisingly tasteful (as it were)) scenes of violence. I loved this movie because it has Bergman's traemark playing around with light and shadows, and gorgeous cinematography, and the participation of his long time collaborator Max von Sydow (who is excellent). It has wonderful atmosphere, and everything is made more effective and unsettling due to the lack of a soundtrack (most notable during the violence) and the fact that the film doesn't ever go out of its way to see creepy or frightening. Everything is very peaceful, quiet, and serene, and that is far more intense than being overtly gritty. The version I watched had an introduction by Ang Lee, and he really does a great job of explaining the film as being so powerful and moving because of the things I've mentioned above, and because the film is an overall classy affair despite the subject matter. Now, I'm giving this the same rating I gave to the first The Last House on the Left, but that doesn't mean the films are equal. In fact, you really can't put them in the same league, despite their similarities. They are both great in their own way. One just happens to be an artsy film with strong symbolism and heavy themes awhile the other is a gritty, disturbing, and unrelenting exploitation thriller (yet still has some subtext). As a film overall though, I think this one is better, as I see the other working better as more of an experience than as a movie. You should definitely give this one a watch, It's some great stuff.
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