Toronto. The Virgin Spring.

"If asked to choose the highlight of the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival, despite the plethora of exciting new work I'd be hard-pressed to think of anything finer than the screening of a 47-year-old film presided over by a 78-year-old actor," writes José Teodoro at Stop Smiling.

"At the final Friday night screening of The Virgin Spring, the effortlessly charismatic Max Von Sydow discussed at length his decades-spanning collaboration and friendship with the late Ingmar Bergman, and had the by-then film-weary audience engrossed in a fluid, open dialogue about lives fully given over to filmmaking of the most passionate, personal sort. Rather than suffuse the festival air with twilight nostalgia, the event was genuinely inspirational, not the least because Von Sydow himself is very much alive and well and working - with two new films screening that week."

"Dramatically shot by Sven Nykvist (it was the first of many collaborations between director and cinematographer), the film is certainly not among my favorite Bergman films, but contains a lot of moving, quintessential Bergman moments, particularly von Sydow's harrowing spiritual (and physical) breakdown," writes Jesse Ataide at DVD Verdict.

Earlier: Ingmar Bergman, 1918 - 2007.

Posted by dwhudson at September 23, 2007 2:51 PM