“Jungfrukallan” (aka “The Virgin Spring”)
Brigitta Pettersson
1960 SF
** I.V.
Taking her gown, the shepherds hope to sell it for profit and then move on. They arrive at Tore’s house, where they’re greeted with hospitality. However, when their crime is discovered, Tore is determined to take revenge on the killers, and a spring begins to flow from the site of the girl’s death.
Based on a medieval ballad, the haunting tale takes place in thirteenth-century Sweden, when Christianity and primitive folklore clashed for acceptance (and co-existence).
The movie continues to explore thematic motifs in all of Bergman’s work, such as moral and religious questioning of life, the testing of human faith in God, folktale oppositions (there’s a good sister and a bad one), mythic ideas, and symbolic imagery (the killers are a threesome of shepherds).
“Jungfrukallan” (aka “The Virgin Spring”)
Max von Sydow, Brigitta Pettersson
1960 SF
** I.V.
The grim but beautifully made fable was written by Ulla Isaakson and photographed by Sven Nykvist, the first film in a long and fruitful collaboration with Bergman that will win both artists followers all over the world.
“Jungfrukallan” (aka “The Virgin Spring”)
Max von Sydow
1960 SF
** I.V.
Following the 1957 “The Seventh Seal” and preceding the 1961 “Through a Glass Darkly,” “The Virgin Spring” was made in 1959, but it was released in the U.S. later at the peak of Bergman’s creativity and international popularity.
“Jungfrukallan” (aka “The Virgin Spring”)
Brigitta Pettersson 1960 SF ** I.V.
Oscar Context
Winner of the 1960 Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar, The Virgin Spring was also nominated for B/W Costume Design, by Marik Vos, but the costuming award went to Edith Head and Edward Stevenson for “The Facts of Life.”
In 1973, Marik Vos was again Oscar-nominated for Cries and Whispers, which he again lost again to Edith Head, who did the period costumes for “The Sting.”
Nonetheless, for his third nomination, the lush costumes of the period family drama, “Fanny & Alexander,” in 1983, he finally won the Oscar.
