Anniversary of The Virgin Spring
On February 8, 1960 the film of Ingmar Bergman "Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring)" was released on the screens of Swedish cinemas.
3 months after the premiere in Sweden, "Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring)" was nominated for the Palme d'Or of the Cannes International Film Festival. But the matter was limited only to a Special mention, since the main prize was awarded to another movie masterpiece - "La Dolce Vita" by Federico Fellini.
By November 1960, "The Virgin Spring" had reached the screens of American cinemas. But! In a number of cities and states of the United States, the film was banned for showing, and in the rest it went with serious cutbacks. The reason is the prohibitions established by the censorship committees, which saw excessive naturalism in the depiction of rape scenes.
However, the views of the censorship committees were practically agreed by the New York Times film reviewer Bosley Crowther. In his review, published the day after the premiere in New York, he emphasized as a main feature of Bergman’s film its naturalness of violence: "But for all its directness and simplicity—its barrenness of plot and perplexities—it is far from an easy picture to watch or entirely commend. For Mr. Bergman has stocked it with scenes of brutality that, for sheer unrestrained realism, may leave one sickened and stunned." - By Bosley Crowther, Nov. 15, 1960, The New York Times
However, to the credit of the US cinematic community, these censorship attacks did not prevent Bergman’s creation in early 1961 from receiving the Golden Globe and then the Oscars. Both awards - in the nomination Best Foreign Language Film.
However, just 40+ years have passed, and the perception of the film is changing. At least at the Russian film critic Sergei Kudryavtsev, who writes in his 2006 review: “This film by the Swedish film master Ingmar Bergman ... is still striking. But it’s by no means due to a naturalism and frankness of the desecration scene. Simplicity, clarity, purity and like the transparency of the director’s chosen manner unobtrusively makes us feel the innocence and holiness of the modest people who are secluded in the wilderness of the most uncomplicated world ... Ingmar Bergman in a creative alliance with the wonderful cameraman Sven Nyquist ... amazing before it’s a tragedy that happens as if by the reaction of nature itself, which does not accept evil and the idea of the indestructibility of the good, the inescapability of life itself, reviving again and again, only in a different form, is peculiarly refracted in the style of a medieval legend, strict and at the same time poetic, tragic gorgeous and at the same time sublime, pathetic - and perhaps this is the last time that illuminates Bergman’s work with such strength and inner passion, allowing you to experience a feeling of catharsis. "
This is what distinguishes a masterpiece film from a one-day film: each generation finds its own in it, and what turned out to be incomprehensible to one generation is perceived by the following generations of viewers. The Soviet cinema viewer was deprived of the opportunity to see and evaluate this masterpiece by Ingmar Bergman. As, however, many of his other film masterpieces.
And Bergman himself considered the "The Virgin Spring" a "real work-related injury," defining it as a film designed "for the needs of tourism and ... a wretched imitation of Kurosawa (in particular, the film "Rashomon"- FG). It was, - said the director in one of the later interviews, - my most enthusiastic period of passion for Japanese cinema, then I almost became a samurai myself "(Bergman about Bergman. M .: Rainbow, 1985. P. 199).
But moviegoers gave the film "The Virgin Spring" their mark. 70% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users around the world gave this film a rating of 8 to 10.
Based on the above indicators of film success, its rating according to the version of FilmGourmand was 9.254, which allowed it to take 116th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
