The Virgin Spring

This has long been my favorite Bergman, and now that I’m in the middle of the thirty-nine films of the Criterion boxset, I think I can begin to understand why.

Bergman is an intellectual direction, exploring ideas, themes, and people in convincing and compelling ways, but he’s rarely a visceral director of experience. We do get moments of compelling truth in Scenes from a Marriage as two people spit vitriol at each other. We do get moments of involving contemplation around the existence of G...