FilmFan
11-02-2009, 10:47 PM
http://aflmak.com/upload/up_down/7959thevirginspring.jpg
The Virgin Spring aka Jungfrukällan
Running time: 89 minutes
Directed by: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Max von Sydow
IMDB rating: 8.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053976/
The film begins with a young pregnant woman, Ingeri, secretly praying to Odin, before being made to help her adopted family with the chores. Soon after, the mother of the family goes to wake up Karin, the daughter. We quickly realise that the two girls are polar opposites. While Ingeri is dark, scowling, pregnant, and made to work hard on the farm, Karin is blonde, smiling, virginal and spoiled by her parents.
Some candles need to be taken to the church, and so the two girls set out together on horseback. Along the way they separate as Ingeri feels unwell and needs to rest. Three brothers, spying Karin on her own, approach her and ask her to have lunch with them. Due to her trusting nature she accepts, but their intentions are far from honourable. This sets off a chain of events involving rape, murder, revenge and regret.
I guess my initial reaction was one of slight dissapointment. Bergman is regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, and I saw The Seventh Seal a few years ago and liked it a lot, so my expectations here were pretty high. According to an article I read online (which could be inaccurate, of course) Bergman didn't regard this too highly. It's certainly true that he didn't write it (as he did his other films) and perhaps this meant that he wasn't able to tell the kind of story that he would've done otherwise.
A major issue is that this film is based upon the same 13th century Swedish ballad from which Wes Craven's Last House On The Left took its inspiration. As I'd seen LHOTL before, this meant that I was pretty sure about what was going to happen and how the events would unfold, and this turned out to be the case.
As I've said before, I rate films by how much I enjoyed watching them, rather than trying to judge their qualities in some kind of 'objective' way, and while The Virgin Spring is probably better than some of the films I've rated higher, I didn't enjoy it as much I've enjoyed most of the foreign-language films so far. Still, even if all the events of TVS were new to me, I think I'd consider it inferior to The Seventh Seal by a fair distance.
Despite all of that it's a film that I've wanted to see for a while, and it was still pretty good even knowing the basic plot beforehand, so I'm glad I watched it.
6.25
The Virgin Spring aka Jungfrukällan
Running time: 89 minutes
Directed by: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Max von Sydow
IMDB rating: 8.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053976/
The film begins with a young pregnant woman, Ingeri, secretly praying to Odin, before being made to help her adopted family with the chores. Soon after, the mother of the family goes to wake up Karin, the daughter. We quickly realise that the two girls are polar opposites. While Ingeri is dark, scowling, pregnant, and made to work hard on the farm, Karin is blonde, smiling, virginal and spoiled by her parents.
Some candles need to be taken to the church, and so the two girls set out together on horseback. Along the way they separate as Ingeri feels unwell and needs to rest. Three brothers, spying Karin on her own, approach her and ask her to have lunch with them. Due to her trusting nature she accepts, but their intentions are far from honourable. This sets off a chain of events involving rape, murder, revenge and regret.
I guess my initial reaction was one of slight dissapointment. Bergman is regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, and I saw The Seventh Seal a few years ago and liked it a lot, so my expectations here were pretty high. According to an article I read online (which could be inaccurate, of course) Bergman didn't regard this too highly. It's certainly true that he didn't write it (as he did his other films) and perhaps this meant that he wasn't able to tell the kind of story that he would've done otherwise.
A major issue is that this film is based upon the same 13th century Swedish ballad from which Wes Craven's Last House On The Left took its inspiration. As I'd seen LHOTL before, this meant that I was pretty sure about what was going to happen and how the events would unfold, and this turned out to be the case.
As I've said before, I rate films by how much I enjoyed watching them, rather than trying to judge their qualities in some kind of 'objective' way, and while The Virgin Spring is probably better than some of the films I've rated higher, I didn't enjoy it as much I've enjoyed most of the foreign-language films so far. Still, even if all the events of TVS were new to me, I think I'd consider it inferior to The Seventh Seal by a fair distance.
Despite all of that it's a film that I've wanted to see for a while, and it was still pretty good even knowing the basic plot beforehand, so I'm glad I watched it.
6.25