Konrad and Nina want to leave it all behind. They break away from their high society parents back home in Vienna and start a life completely of their own, exploring the backyards of Greece and Egypt. They don't bother about the pyramids, it's dope they're after. They prostitute themselves in order to get the kicks they need. In the intervals between their regular drug sessions they hardly do anything, they mainly spend their time sitting around, at bar tables or in dump hotel rooms, staring into empty spaces. In one occasion Nina simply adds "to die", when Konrad and Ito, a Chinese friend, muse about their daily activities. But she is immediately hushed by her brother. Death is not admitted as being part of the game, although - as we'll find out later when he have to endure one of the most harassing agony scenes since Bergman's "The Silence" - the end of the road is disturbingly close.
The characters are aware of that fact, yet they will by no means prefer the physical safety of their homes. A short glance at the spacious emptiness of a Viennese living-room and an equally brief presentation of the kids' mother provide us more than sufficient explanation. Konrad and Nina just don't feel at home in such an icy atmosphere. There is nothing to fill their spiritual void. Therefore they can see no other option but to take the road back to hell.
Surely there must be some other purpose in life than just drugging oneself into death. But the characters do not seem to know any rewarding aims or at least are unable to formulate what they really need. Of course, we must ask ourselves how we can name that hidden goal which the protagonists don't see. The director's choice of title might give us a clue: It is the Virgin. But which one? Should we add a religious dimension to a film in which neither God nor the Virgin Mary are ever mentioned?
The same applied to the mentioned Bergman film, which was later rebaptized "The Silence of God" by some critics. Bergman quite obviously deplored the loss of spirituality of Modern Man - a situation that forty years later not only still persists, but even has aggravated.
The characters are aware of that fact, yet they will by no means prefer the physical safety of their homes. A short glance at the spacious emptiness of a Viennese living-room and an equally brief presentation of the kids' mother provide us more than sufficient explanation. Konrad and Nina just don't feel at home in such an icy atmosphere. There is nothing to fill their spiritual void. Therefore they can see no other option but to take the road back to hell.
Surely there must be some other purpose in life than just drugging oneself into death. But the characters do not seem to know any rewarding aims or at least are unable to formulate what they really need. Of course, we must ask ourselves how we can name that hidden goal which the protagonists don't see. The director's choice of title might give us a clue: It is the Virgin. But which one? Should we add a religious dimension to a film in which neither God nor the Virgin Mary are ever mentioned?
The same applied to the mentioned Bergman film, which was later rebaptized "The Silence of God" by some critics. Bergman quite obviously deplored the loss of spirituality of Modern Man - a situation that forty years later not only still persists, but even has aggravated.