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Last night I watched a film called "The Virgin Spring". It was directed by the great Ingmar Bergman and based on a 14th century Swedish folk ballad. Set in the medieval era, the film tells the story of a virginal young woman, who is sent to deliver candles to the church by her father (played by Max von Sydow). However the girl's pregnant, though unmarried, half-sister hates her and places a curse upon her, and also puts a live toad in the bread that she bakes for the woman's journey. Along the way, she encounters three goat herders who end up raping and murdering her. The next day the herders take refuge in the home of their victim's parents, although the herders don't know who they are. The parents realise who the herders are and what they've done when they try to sell the parents the clothes that the woman was wearing. The film is an unremittingly bleak look at the savagery of life during the middle ages. It is however beautifully photographed in black and white, and features startling perfomances, especially from Max von Sydow, as the tortured, vengeful father. An admittedly minor work from a great artist, the film is still touched with greatness (Bergman himself was unhappy with the film, calling it a "poor imitation of Kurosawa"). Over a decade later it was very, very loosely re-made as "The Last House on the Left", Wes Craven's debut film, which is certainly not touched with greatness and is instead inept, exploitative trash.

No mice in the traps this morning and all the chocolate is still there, which is good. There is also, yet again, no word from the people from the speed-dating, which is depressing. I really do wish that I could get dates, but I don't know how, or even if I can. It's actually very important to me.

This afternoon, after getting the groceries for the week, I saw "The Bad and the Beautiful", a 1952 film directed by Vincente Minelli, about a famous director, actress and writer who are brought together by a once successful producer, who has now fallen on hard times to help him make his come-back film. However, it's revelaed in flash-backs how the producer worked with all three before and built their careers while at the same time destroying their personal lives. It is a great Hollywood melodrama and a lot of fun.