Splendid Murder
Review ? ?The Virgin Spring?

Sitting calmly in the cinema chair, relaxing and waiting for the film, the cinemagoer is always wondering if his money spent on the ticket is wasted or not. By losing 15zl people are given enormous boost of special effects, gaudy costumes, perfectly-looking and colourfuly-painted characters, live and rapid action, and vivid plot. The word ?losing?, unfortunately, is not a a mistake or a misspelling. Nowadays almost every new film is the same. Only details differentiate 21. century films from one another. However, there is one forgotten by the ordinary people cinema where the time has stopped on the 60s, the golden decade of European, especially Swedish, film. Different from the modern style, climate and inner character, Muranów cinema has recently dusted the shelves containing the old director`s films, e.g. the films of Ingmar Bergman.

I would like to shed some light on a dusty film lately performed in the Muranów cinema, titled ?The Virgin Spring?. The story of making the film begins in 50s, when the great director, Inger Bergman, was offered a cooperation with the great scenarist, Ulla Isaksson. Moreover, they got to work on the, colloquially saying, great piece of literature, the 13rd century ballad ?Tore`s Daughter from Wagne?. On the 8th February 1960 the film was brought to daylight. The people greeted the Ingmar`s production with open arms. It gained well-deserved position in the art of cinematography. It is not surprising that the film has won many awards, including Academy Award. ?The Virgin Spring? is also lauded for the splendid cast, including Birgitta Pettersson, Gunnel Lindblom, or Max von Sydow. The team of genius filmmakers and marvellous actors made this film gripping and compelling.

?The Virgin Spring? tells us the story of medieval Swedish family. Two sisters, Ingen (G. Lindblom) and Karin (B. Pettersson) are heading towards the church. When Ingen feels sick, Karin must undertake the journey on her own. Unfortunately, during the travel she is attacked, raped and murdered. Not revealing too much of the plot, I would only add that the film abounds in symbolism, and without having the knowledge of basic symbols (e.g. a toad means evil) the whole film may seem impenetrable. The plot is set in the 14. century Sweden, so that the perceptive observer can admire beautiful and breathtaking landscapes of middle age Scandinavia. The costumes realistic and not too excessive. The music created by Erik Nordgren, the music genius, is suitable, well-composed and gives us a magnificent background to the film.

What is worth attention, is that there have been created a pale imitation of this film. Unfortunately, ?The Last House on the Left? appeared to be a complete fiasco. Instead of two ladies, marevellous panoramas, and evil animals, there are youngster girls, drug dens, illegal substances. Comparing ?The Last House on the Left? with ?The Virgin Spring?, the second one is undoubtedly the better one.

While in most cinemas in Poland you can see new films like ?Apocalypto?, ?Holiday?, or ?The Fountain?, there is still the place where you can find classic cinematogrpahy performed. In the last lines of my review, let me to vent my spleen on the length of time that Polish had to spend on waiting for the premiere. We have waited for 46 years!