The Virgin Spring (The Criterion Collection)
by Ingmar Bergman
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Actor: Axel Düberg, Birgitta Pettersson, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Max von SydowDirector: Ingmar Bergman
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Original Language); Swedish (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of The Virgin Spring (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Lyrically Wicked Drama of Lost Innocence...
Summary: 5 Stars
A thirteen-century ballad provides the conceptual source for the Virgin Spring written by novelist and screenplay writer Ulla Isaksson. The ballad is titled, Töre's Daughter at Vänge, and there are evidently several versions of this ballad. Isaksson used the ballad to retell the legend of a virgin's harrowing doom amidst the dark ages. As the legend goes, a virgin met a brutal demise and the location of her death became the origin of a spring with healing powers. Those interested in the legend should know that there is a spring connected with the legend located in central Sweden where people gather to celebrate midsummer and enjoy the healing powers of the spring. Whether the spring actually has healing powers is for each reader to decide, but the legend serves as terrific base for a brilliant story.
The Swedish director Ingmar Bergman found the idea appealing and gave it his own cinematic treatment, which went on and won his first Oscar. What is interesting is that Bergman usually writes his own material, but with the Virgin Spring, he made one of a few exceptions and directed a film based on someone else's written work. For a film such as the Virgin Spring, Bergman is the best possible choice as a director, as he has a keen understanding for Christianity and human psychology. Bergman's awareness captures the audience much like Munch's paintings where the anxiety and emotional pain emerge in the moment when the work connects with the audience. It is all in done through his meticulous direction that does not leave anything aside, as his cinematic artistry evolves into something grander than illustrated on the silver screen. Thus, Bergman has the perfect mind and creativity to seize the psychological oppression of the dark ages where guilt and fear are the driving forces behind humanity and divinity.
Over a fireplace stands Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom) in the opening of the film with fierce wildness in her eyes, as she breathes life back into the fire. Symbolically, it offers a notion to pagans that frequented the countryside when Christianity had just begun to spread in the northern nations of today's Europe. Ingeri is up early before anyone else, taking care of the important chores on a farm somewhere in the dark woods of Sweden in a time when people still believed in the trolls, witches, and other sinister creatures. Her back is aching from an illegitimate child that she bears within, as she carefully checks the room to see if she is alone. When she is certain of her solitude, she looks through the ceiling hole towards the sky and pleads to the highest god in Norse mythology, Odin, for aid. At the time, if caught it could possibly mean a certain death for Ingri, if reported to authorities. The opening presents a time of fear and spiritual oppression, as Ingeri performs this early morning ritual in great secrecy.
Contrastingly, an introduction to Christianity of the time emerges through Töre (Max von Sydow) and his wife Märeta (Birgitta Valberg) praying before a crucifix. They pray to God for protection from temptations, shame, and dangers. It is evident that both Töre and Märeta are devoted Christians, and live strictly by the gospels of the lord. The scene initiates a strong presence of Christian values that continues throughout the film, including the seven deadly sins and the seven virtues. Märeta even demonstrates her apprehension to what might happen, if they are to do wrong. The whole film seems drenched in heavy guilt burden by fear of misdoing, or of past transgressions. The guilt and fear becomes two overwhelming forces that steer the film in its intended direction, as it displays how each sin emerges from of a previous sin.
The film's opening leads the audience to learn that Märeta spoils her daughter Karin (Birgitta Pettersson), as the fear of loosing her only daughter has dug its claws deep within her. It leads Märeta to have a relaxed attitude towards Karin, which seems to trouble Töre, because Karin has become both vain and lazy. In addition, the mother's constant sheltering of the daughter has brought about an extremely naïve character within Karin, as she is completely unaware of the dangers in the world. Meanwhile, Ingri has a deep-rooted envy for Karin, probably due to her tedious and difficult chores from which Karin is completely protected.
As a virgin, Karin is the only one suitable to deliver Virgin Mary candles to the only church that lays some distance away. Unaware of Ingeri's hatred, Karin requests that she come along. However, before they set off Ingri curses the ration intended for Karin with a toad in the hope of her demise, or other evil misfortune. Whether the curse works or not depends on the fate of the believer. On the trip they come across a number of interesting characters before Karin stumbles upon her looming fate. They all play stimulating roles, which adds additional drama while it helps convoluting the story in an interesting way. However, it is not until Karin meets three brothers that she enters the phase that will seal her fate. The tension of wickedness lingers like the big bad wolf circling the little red riding hood, but here there is more than one perpetrator.
An interesting thought in regards to innocence emerges during the viewing, as Karin naïvely expects nothing but goodness from all she meets. It is obvious she is unaware of the lurking dangers of the world, and as previously mentioned much is due to her mother's overprotective tendencies. This innocence is incapable of harming anyone, as it clearly embraces the virtues of Christianity with zealous dedication. The notion of her virtuous ideals appears clearly, when she welcomes the three brothers to break bread with her before they make her realize the existing evils. In the light of the crime, the concept of virginity provides a symbolic reference to goodness.
Amidst the thick Christian theme burden by both anguishing guilt and psychological fear of what if captures the true spirit of the medieval times. Bergman even suggests that no one is without sin, even the virgin Karin shows signs of sloth while all others present one or more of the seven deadly sins. Ingri, who witnesses the dreadful event in the wood opening, plays a significant part in regards to the sin. Both Märeta and Töre also display error that takes the shape of one of the seven sins. The gruesome, yet excellent Se7en (1995), where a serial killer carries out his heinous crimes after the seven deadly sins - gluttony, lust, greed, envy, sloth, pride, and eventually wrath vaguely resembles the path of the Virgin Spring. In the end, the Virgin Spring provides a strongly spiritual film that provides an authentic ambiguous atmosphere that displays the anxiousness and guilty conscience of the time. It also offers much contemplation in regards to the moral values and the importance of ethics among people, which ultimately turns into a truly spectacular cinematic experience.
Description of The Virgin Spring (The Criterion Collection)
VIRGIN SPRING - DVD MovieMade in 1960 and set in medieval Sweden, Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring is based on a folk ballad. It also examines a society in transition from Norse pantheism to Christianity. The film starkly contrasts Ingeri--a dark, feral, Odin-worshipping foster daughter to a Christian family headed by Max Von Sydow--and their own daughter, a pretty and blond but also vain and naïve girl named Karin, whom Ingeri resents. They travel out together to a distant church where Karin is to offer votive candles to the Virgin Mary. However, en route, Karin is raped and murdered by two desperate goatherds, accompanied by a 13-year-old boy. By coincidence, the goatherds then seek refuge with Karin's parents and even try to sell them her clothes, which proves to be a mortal error.
Bergman was greatly influenced by Akira Kurosawa when he made The Virgin Spring, as evinced in its ominous use of dark and shade and lengthy sequences without dialogue. However, this is more than pastiche. Although the Christian ending with which Bergman feels obliged to conclude the film doesn't quite sit well in a movie in which God is as palpably absent as in any Bergman movie, the slow, remorseless pace of the murder and subsequent retribution bring to mind Krzysztof Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing in their sense of the futility of vengeance. --David Stubbs
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