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 13th-century ballad)
Release: 1960
Studio: Svensk
Filmindustri (SF)
Rating: -
MBiS score: 9.0/10
‟God alone knows where guilt lies.”
QuickView
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