Word: bergman
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Your fine review of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring approaches the film from the only possible angle-that of the myth that it is. It could serve as an example to other reviewers, too, many of whom fallaciously judge films (and books and plays) on the basis of what they are not, rather than what they...
...Virgin Spring (in Swedish). Ingmar Bergman's beautifully filmed, holy if horrible Gothic myth in which good and evil, Christian and pagan powers collaborate in the continuous nativity of love...
...Virgin Spring (in Swedish). Ingmar Bergman's mythical and violently beautiful miracle play, derived from a medieval ballad about a farm girl's rape-murder and her father's vengeance, is as clear and grave as a Mass...
Then, there is the film's theme--I found, among many contenders, the conflict between Illusion and Reality most consistently referred to. Bergman seems especially fond of dropping hints that the real danger lies deeper than surface appearance. He emphasizes the unreal disguises of the magician and his wife as one of the reflections of this metaphysical concept--a crude and uninventive metaphor, I find. These admirable, is unoriginal, sentiments appear in a morass of conflicting counter-theories. Accident and the completely gratuitous introduction of the bizarre for mere effect add to the confusion--though they contribute immeasurably...
Though it does insist on this shadow-boxing with Symbol and Idea, Bergman's film remains a thrilling experience for its technically perfect rendition of the mysterious. As a work of surface brilliance, The Magician represents Bergman at the zenith of his considerable powers...