The Virgin Spring
Synopsis
Set in creepy 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of wealthy land-owning parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by goat herders after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.
Production Budget Analysis
The production budget for The Virgin Spring (1960) has not been publicly disclosed.
CAST: Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson, Axel Düberg, Allan Edwall DIRECTOR: Ingmar Bergman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sven Nykvist MUSIC: Erik Nordgren PRODUCTION: SF Studios
Box Office Performance
The Virgin Spring earned $700,000 in worldwide box office revenue.
Profitability Assessment
Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
PRODUCTION NOTES
▸ Filming & Locations
By the time The Virgin Spring began production, Bergman's relationship with his usual cinematographer Gunnar Fischer was strained, due to Bergman's abrasiveness. When Fischer found another project to work on, Bergman replaced him with Sven Nykvist, who became his regular collaborator. In shooting The Virgin Spring, Nykvist favoured more natural lighting than Fischer had.
Bergman said that in filming the rape scene: :It shows the crime in its naked atrocity, forcing us, in shocked desperation, to leave aesthetic enjoyment of a work of art for passionate involvement in a human drama of crime that breeds new crime, of guilt and grace ... We must not hesitate in our portrayal of human degradation, even if, in our demand for truth, we must violate certain taboos.
[Filming] By the time The Virgin Spring began production, Bergman's relationship with his usual cinematographer Gunnar Fischer was strained, due to Bergman's abrasiveness. When Fischer found another project to work on, Bergman replaced him with Sven Nykvist, who became his regular collaborator. In shooting The Virgin Spring, Nykvist favoured more natural lighting than Fischer had.
Bergman said that in filming the rape scene: :It shows the crime in its naked atrocity, forcing us, in shocked desperation, to leave aesthetic enjoyment of a work of art for passionate involvement in a human drama of crime that breeds new crime, of guilt and grace ... We must not hesitate in our portrayal of human degradation, even if, in our demand for truth, we must violate certain taboos.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Summary: Won 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 2 nominations total
Awards Won: ★ Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (33rd Academy Awards)
Nominations: ○ Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (33rd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (33rd Academy Awards) ○ International Submission to the Academy Awards
Additional Recognition: The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, marking the first time Bergman won the award. The film was also entered into competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.
!scope="row" | Golden Globe Awards
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