THE VIRGIN SPRING
Sweden, 1960, 85 minutes, Black and white.
Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
The Virgin Spring is one of Ingmar Bergman's most celebrated films. It is based on a mediaeval folk-song and the screenplay is by Ulla Isaksson. As with most of Bergman's films, it was photographed by Sven Nykvist. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1959.
Once again the film has Max von Sydow in a strong commanding role. He is supported by an excellent cast which includes Gunnel Lindblom as the malevolent Ingeri. She was to appear in other Bergman films, including The Silence, and to direct her own films in the '70s and '80s.
Bergman has a religious background, especially from his Lutheran minister father. This film has Christian references and framework. It contrasts Christianity of the Middle Ages with the pagan traditions of Scandinavia - here in the God Odin. The film is full of visual symbols which lead to myriad interpretations, religious, social, psychological. Bergman is at home in the mediaeval world as he showed with the equally impressive, The Seventh Seal.
1. The place of this film in the Ingmar Bergman canon? An achievement of the '50s? In comparison with what went before, especially The Seventh Seal? Signs of films to come? Its quality? International recognition? Oscar?
2. The quality of the black and white photography? The mediaeval atmosphere, sets and decor, light and darkness, shadow - good and evil? The countryside, the houses? Day and night? The emphasis on detail - and the artwork of the middle Ages? The importance of tableau? The religious emblems and their use? The music - and its mediaeval style, religious sense?
3. The importance of light and darkness, black and white, good and evil? Realism, symbolism? Rituals and icons, tableaux? Karin as a wilful and spoilt girl becoming a martyr and saint? Tore, a loving father, an avenger in sacred ritual, remorseful? Ingeri as stepdaughter, jealous, pagan, malevolent, repentant? Themes of food, hospitality, water? Purging fire?
4. The film as a fable of good and evil, sin, death, cruelty, revenge, justice and forgiveness?
5. The darkness of the opening with Ingeri and her appearance, dark hair, worship of Odin? The contrast of the traditional pagan religions with Christianity? Yet the sombreness and emphasis on suffering of Christianity? Pagan rituals and superstitions? Christian rituals - how much superstition? Prayer, processions, pilgrimages, religious services, wax, the ritual birching, the bath? Penance?
6. The portrait of Ingeri: her place in the household, relationship with Tore? Worship of Odin? Dark, hostile? Her putting the toad in Karin's bread? The journey, the clash, the stone, her fighting, remaining, fearful in the forest, watching the rape, doing nothing, hiding in the staircase, the confession, the help? Leading the family to Karin's body? The water and the cleansing? Evil overcome?
7. The contrast Karin: blonde, white, good? The blend of pagan and Christian? The comparison of the pregnant illegitimate stepdaughter with the virginal good daughter? Her being wilful, vain and spoilt? Dutiful in terms of religion yet not devout? Her going at her parents' behest? The clash with Ingeri? Her delight in the forest? Her kindness to the herdsmen? Her becoming their victim, the audience reaction of horror at the attack, the rape and her death? The virgin martyr? The discovery of her body and the virgin spring? The cleansing water of forgiveness - with its biblical overtones?
8. Tore as the patriarch of the household, the Christian father, the mediaeval background of patriarchal rule? His attitudes towards Karin? Sending her on a mission, the food? his hospitality towards the guests? The discovery of the truth as they begin to sell Karin's clothes? The decision for immediate vengeance? The delay - the ritual birching for purification, the washing, the enthronement as a mediaeval judge to execute the murderers? The waiting, the details of the killing, the killing of the boy? His attitude towards Ingeri and her part in the process? The discovery of Karin's body and his prayer, remorse, penance?
9. His wife and her ritual, the dutiful wife of the Middle Ages, the fussing about Karin at length? Waiting for their daughter's return? Her reaction to the herdsmen with the dress? Her presence at their deaths? Her taking the blame?
10. The herdsmen as ordinary men? The importance of the presence of the boy and his participation, watching, guilt by association? Their finding Karin, the manifestation of their evil, the meal, the rape and the violence? The snow and the burial? Going to Tore's house, the meal and his hospitality, selling the clothes, the boy being ill, the screams in the night, the rituals of their deaths?
11. The presence of the monk in the household? A symbol of the Christian religion and its rituals? The May Queen? The comment on the condemnation to Hell of the murderers?
12. The portrayal of the detail of mediaeval life in the household, the servants, meals, the ordinary routines of the day?
13. Beryman's reliance on the detail of the scenes and their impact: the household, the meals, Karin and her dress, the journey, the shared meal with the herdsmen, the rape and murder, the poems, their ritual killings, the final tableau?
14. The psychological aspects of the film: (from the Monthly Film Bulletin review, 1961, p.92): The toad in the bread, the raven cawing from the branch as they set out to look for the girl's body, the father grappling with the single, phallic tree on which he enacts a sort of sexual ritual, the positioning of one of the dead herdsmen as if after crucifixion, the purging by fire of another.
15. Bergman's understanding of human nature? His portrait of society - the mediaeval microcosm? The importance of religion and religious values? The presence and absence of God?
