Review of The Virgin Spring (1960) by Ray D — 28 Mar 2009

Despite a run-time of barely 90 minutes, there's a lot going on in The Virgin Spring, an adaptation of a medieval ballad by Ingmar Bergman that would later be the inspiration as a modern day horror fable called LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

The story Bergman is telling is a tragedy--a young woman in medieval Sweden who, on her way to visit the nearest Christian church, is cursed by her pagan-half sister for being self-centered, and is accosted, raped and murdered in the woods by a pair of swineherds and their kid brother.

Later, the swineherds come to the farm of their victim's family, where her father (Max Von Sydow) is grieving and waiting for his daughter to come home. More bad things ensue, and the story comes to a slightly surreal, poetic conclusion that seems to be making a hopeful statement about faith and human's relationship with the divine (more hopeful than some of Bergman's other work, but appropriately so, given the source material).

The camerawork is black-and-white, but lushly detailed, with crisp blacks and shadows--Bergman fills the frame with all sorts of details, and there is a distinction drawn between Von Sydow's house, which is a place of order and warmth, and the forest outside.