Jungfrukällan

English title: Virgin Spring (The)

Also known as : Source (la)

Genre: period drama (in black and white)

With: Max von Sydow (Töre), Birgitta Valberg (Märeta, his wife), Birgitta Pettersson (Karin), Gunnel Lindblom (Ingeri), Gudrun Brost (Frida, first maidservant), Axel Düberg (Thin Herdsman), Tor Isedal (Mute Herdsman), Oscar Ljung (Simon), Allan Edwall (Beggar), Ove Porath (Boy), Axel Slangus (the Bridge Keeper)

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Screenplay: Ulla Isaksson (adapted from a 13^th-century ballad)

Release: 1960

Studio: Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Rating: -

MBiS score: 9.0/10 

 

‟God alone knows where guilt lies.”

 

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Story-line: in the Swedish countryside of centuries past, Töre’s family and employees tend to the usual duties of farming. Among the group, maidservant Ingeri stands out – for she is a naughty, ungrateful and unreliable girl – while Töre’s daughter Karin shines so brightly that she is treated like a princess even when she shouldn’t be. One particular day, when Karin is sent to church to deliver a traditional gift of candles, Töre allows her to take Ingeri along. What will happen to these two girls ‟as different as rose and thorn”?

Pluses: great acting by Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Birgitta Pettersson and the whole cast, sober, world-class direction, a flawless and dramatic screenplay highlighted by vivid dialogues and a few terrifying scenes, meticulous production values (period detail, natural settings), superb cinematography (by Sven Nykvist), a relevant musical score and an ending so remarkable that it leaves you speechless.

Minuses: none.

Comments: this riveting film begins like a fairy tale but avoids feel-good pretensions and never succumbs to excess. As a result, it succeeds in showing human pain to a degree rarely attained on the silver screen. Ingmar Bergman’s perfect work (and winner of the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 1961 Oscars and Golden Globes) is considered a masterpiece and it truly is. THE VIRGIN SPRING will haunt you with its themes of innocence, lust, remorse and morality.

MBiS

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Medea

Genre: Greek tragedy

With: Maria Callas (Medea), Massimo Girotti (King Kresus/Creonte), Laurent Terzieff (Centaur), Giuseppe Gentile (Jason), Margareth Clémenti (Glauce), Paul Jabara (Pelias), Gerard Weiss (Second centaur), Sergio Tramonti (Apsirto, Medea's brother)

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Screenplay: Pier Paolo Pasolini (based on the play by Euripides)

Release: 1969

Studio: San Marco S.p.A., Les Films Number One, Janus Film und Fernsehen

Rating: -

MBiS score: 8.4/10 

 

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.* 

 

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Story-line: in ancient times, a little boy named Jason learns that the centaur who raised him is not really his father and that he is heir to a faraway kingdom now ruled by his uncle. Once he reaches adulthood, the centaur instructs him to go home, where his uncle will give him back the kingdom if he can gain possession of the golden fleece, a symbol of power now in the hands of barbarians.  

Pluses: irreproachable acting by a commanding Maria Callas and a solid cast, daring, arty direction, a potent and eventful screenplay that develops a strange, mythical mood, adequate and sometimes bizarre cinematography, meagre yet eye-popping production values (decors, exteriors, costumes… I really liked those Pop-Tart men!), an odd musical score (vuvuzelas? Oriental kazoos?) and a stunning climax.

Minuses: the synopsis above should get you through the first 30 minutes or so but you will better appreciate the movie if you have some sense of Jason’s legend in Greek mythology. A word of advice... this film is not for everyone; it is spectacular yet very enigmatic.  

Comments: Pier Paolo Pasolini has fashioned several abstract works (TEOREMA being another) but the more cryptic his movies are, the more they make me laugh out loud. True to form, the otherworldly MEDEA provided me with a few good yuks but I also watched it for Maria Callas – in her only role for the cinema – and she doesn’t disappoint; after all, opera singers are fine actors and Maria was undoubtedly the best on both accounts. Shades of sorcery, the loneliness of exile, infidelity and ruthless vengeance in an epic package… that’s what MEDEA is all about. And the lady sure knows how to make a point…   

 

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*William Shakespeare, adapted from William Congreve.