The Virgin Spring

Winner of the 1960 Oscar for best foreign film, Ingmar Bergman's stark study of the cruelty and superstition of the Middle Ages positively drips with symbolism. However, it also works as a powerful revenge tragedy, as Max von Sydow encounters the men who raped and murdered his daughter after she'd been cursed by her half-sister. Often considered one of Bergman's bleakest films, the story has a miraculous ending that dispels his doubts about the presence of God. The acting has an all-too-rare intensity and the photography of Sven Nykvist (working with Bergman for the first time) is a joy to behold. The film was to later provide the basis for Wes Craven's infamous horror nasty, Last House on the Left.