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The Virgin Spring

Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring)

1960

Ingmar Bergman

Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson ...

7.9

9,340

Drama Set in 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre fable of peasant parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by goat herders after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.

	Author	Review
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"Bergman has achieved a tremendous sense of mental heaviness, primeval passion and physical power."	POS
United States	Eric Henderson Slant	"While an undeniably powerful conclusion, one can be forgiven for wondering if Bergman’s taciturnity toward the film in print suggests he preferred cinematic ellipses and question marks (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	NEU
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Even Bergman himself wasn't convinced about this over-melodramatic and often sentimental film (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Keith Phipps AV Club	"It isn't hard to see why it divided viewers, since it seems divided against itself. Von Sydow questions his faith in God, but when he finds what looks like proof of God's existence, it doesn't clear up any of his questions."	NEU
United Kingdom	Nigel Floyd Time Out	"Sven Nykvist's luminous black-and-white photography conspiring with the austerity of Bergman's imagery to create an extraordinary metaphysical charge."	POS
Australia	Andrew L. Urban Urbancinefile	"The film's visual power takes us back to the Middle Ages with unsettling veracity (...) The setting, the images and symbols, the characters and the storytelling all stand out in this potent piece of cinema."	POS

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