The Seventh Seal

Det sjunde insglet; fantasy drama / art-film, Sweden, 1957; D: Ingmar Bergman, S: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Bibi Andersson, Maud Hansson
Sweden, 13th or 14th century. Antonius Block, a knight, has returned from the Crusades with his squire Jöns. On the beach, he meets Death in human form. In order to save his life, he challenges Death to a chess match and wins, returning to his village. At the same time, Jof, a traveling entertainer, spots what he thinks is the Virgin Mary in the meadow, but his wife Mia doesn't believe him. Together with their little child, they are traveling through villages to perform acts. They meet Antonius and join him, together with blacksmith Plog and his wife Lisa. On their journey they witness a mob preparing to burn a "witch". Antonius plays once more with Death, distracting it so that the couple can get away. At his home, where his wife awaited him, Antonius and his gang meet Death who takes them all with them.

The legendary image of Death personified by a pale man with a dark cape and a hood in Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" became one of the most quoted characters in 20th century cinema. Besides creating an icon, Bergman also offered a surreal essay about the search for the meaning of life, once again questioning God's existence and the mad religious rituals of medieval traditions that have stayed even today. Despite its incredibly high reputation, "Seal" is still a little bit overrated: it is very good, yet placing it among the greatest masterworks of cinema is rather overblown due to its monotone rhythm, tedious mood, some banal moments, weak structure with a vague storyline all over the place (just as Antonius meets Death, this encounter is interrupted and he wonders across the country, meeting too many characters who are useless for the plot) and cold approach. Still, through heavy symbolism Bergman manages to create an ambitious and clever metaphor about some existential questions in life which reveal its contradiction: for instance, Antonius has spent ten years fighting in the Crusades for God, but when he returns home, the only reward he sees is the Black Plague and death all around him—why is there such a divine indifference towards suffering on Earth? Bergman decorates the film with great little details: in one of the most imaginative, Death is sawing a tree with a character called Skat on it. The tree falls, but a squirrel seemingly instantly jumps on the newly created log. 

In another one, a long row of religious crowd passes right next to the still camera. And Antonius is constantly saying bleak statements: "Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call." The whole film is a giant "memento mori" allegory, depicting the fear of death and emptiness. During the episodic story, Bergman displays the struggle to accept a cruel reality, in the end stating how compassion is the only salvation in life. Antonius disappoints several times, since he is a too passive character—for instance, he doesn't even try to help stop a poor girl from getting burned at the stake for being accused of cooperating with the devil. On the other hand, his squire Jöns is much more active, willing to intervene against injustice—in one sequence, the ex-theologian Raval, who persuaded Antonius to join the Crusades in the first place, wants to either rob or rape a girl in a barn, but Jöns stops him: "I suddenly understand the meaning of those ten wasted years. We were too well-off, too satisfied with ourselves. The Lord sought to chasten our smug pride. So he sent you to spew venom and poison my master's mind." Jöns stabs his knife on the log and lets Raval go unharmed, but warns him: "Next time I catch you, I'll mark up your face like they do with petty scoundrels of your kind". Sometime later, Raval is seen bullying and humiliating an actor in a pub, but then Jöns interupts and slashes Raval's face: "Remember what I said I'd do if we met again?" Among the demanding films for intellectuals and serious movie goers, this is one of the most famous ones, ironically avoiding becoming too morbid, yet its is hindered by sometimes overlong, ponderous monologues and a couple of uninspired sequences (Raval dying in exaggerated fashion from the plague in front of everyone; the anticlimactic final scenes).

Grade:+++