The Virgin Spring

“Bergman’s masterwork, the most lyrical, the most compassionate, the most selfless of his films.”—Vernon Young

Winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Virgin Spring is a harrowing tale of rape, murder, faith, revenge, and savagery set in medieval Sweden. Starring an elemental Max von Sydow, the film is both beautiful and cruel in its depiction of a world teetering between paganism and Christianity. Remade by Wes Craven as The Last House on the Left, the film is also one of the rare occasions when Bergman didn’t write his own screenplay; the author was screenwriter Ulla Isaksson, who also scripted Bergman’s Brink of Life. (89 mins., 35mm)