The Virgin Spring

(Jungfrukällan, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 1960, 89 min., 16mm, Swedish w/subtitles)

Academy Awards at 90. In 14th-century Sweden, two goat herders assault a peasant girl. Later, the assailants seek food and shelter at the home of their victim’s parents (Max von Sydow and Birgitta Valberg), who exact a cunning revenge. Bergman won his first Oscar for this deeply metaphysical film that undercuts the potentially sensationalistic material through its imagery, its allegorical undertones, and Sven Nykvist’s luminous cinematography. Remade by Wes Craven in 1972 into a cult shocker The Last House on the Left.