The Seventh Seal, written (play and screenplay) and directed by Ingmar Bergman - 10 out of 10

The Seventh Seal, written (play and screenplay) and directed by Ingmar Bergman

10 out of 10

This is not just one of the best films of all time, as attested among others by The New York Times, with its list of Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/20 - it is a classic that is presented within other motion pictures and some scenes have become iconic, part of the History of Cinema, just like the genius film maker Ingmar Bergman, author of other masterpieces, such as Fanny and Alexander - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/fanny-and-alexander-by-ingmar-bergman.html - a work of art that struck the under signed as the best ever, when seen for the first time.

We could argue that most of the films that Ingmar Bergman has written, directed or both are such wonderful achievements as to be used in Art School…think of Through a Glass Darkly - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/through-glass-darkly-written-and.html - or the remarkable feature  that proves that the Master can create both drama and comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/smiles-of-summer-night-written-and.html - or to stop here with examples, The Virgin Spring - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-virgin-spring-written-by-ulla.html...

Aside from the tremendous skill of the incredible writer-director, The Seventh Seal benefits from a superb, divine cast,  with legendary Max von Sydow as Antonius Block, The Knight, resplendent Gunnar Bjornstrand as The Squire, Jons, the amazing Bibi Andersson as Mary, symbolically the mother of an infant, the archetype of life, set against Death, the character that haunts The Knight, shows on the screen from the very first scenes, plays chess with the main personage, engages in sophisticated, philosophical exchanges with Antonius Block, the one who has the chance to postpone with some moves on the table the fate and might remind one of the hilarious Monty Python’s Meaning of Life - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/monty-pythons-meaning-of-life-by-graham.html - wherein ‘a Mr. Death shows up at a party where he has to take guests and hosts alike, presumably on account of some poisoned salmon or another dish, but he is aghast at the manner in which he is addressed by Americans and others…’Well, you are dead, so shut up!’

Evidently, The Seventh Seal is the opposite of any Monty Python production, glorious and intelligent as they are, in that the tone is grave, depressing, the film is black and white, the attitude is gloomy, though we have inserted mirthful moments, such as when the blacksmith is fooled – yet again – into believing the man who had run with his wife is in such dire straits, let us not reveal details, that he comes to feel pity and sorry for the one whom he had just wanted to kill and before that torture…

It is a ‘rara avis’, one of those few magnum opera that deals with the most important questions of all, Meaning of Life, does the devil know, talk to God – the Knight tries to help a witch (well, what idiots that would vote with Trump today consider to be a witch and in fact a handsome, young woman) that is condemned to be burned at the stake, giving her water and something to alleviate, even make her pain disappear, perhaps with some herbs, opium from the Orient, where he had been traveling for ten years, with his Squire, during the Crusades, and he tells her that he would like to talk with the Devil, with whom she is supposed to be acquainted and in cahoots.

We can think of The Polyglots by William Gerhardie - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-polyglots-by-william-gerhardie-nine.html - and the question ‘why do men have to die’ and the answer that ‘they have to, to make room for other people’, which invites alas the other question of ‘what are the ‘other people’ for…and look at the presence of Death, the skeletons used by the travelling troupe of actors, the bones that the Squire asks about the way ahead – he had not known these are the remains of a dead man, when he approached them…

Men are very cruel in this film and we could argue that it is the middle ages, the dawn of time, when people were not ‘civilized’, but we can see this kind of behavior even today – again, The joker that sits on top of the world and his millions of fans come to mind as the most grotesque representation, a replica of the primitives from The Seventh Seal and the caves of the primordial people – and in an inn, they take a poor actor, Jof, and make him dance like a bear, well beyond the point where he is exhausted and they would have killed him, were it not for the intervention of the Squire, who punishes the ring leader, a demonic, vile scoundrel that had been on the point of raping an august, seraphic, admirable woman, when again, this same angel of Hope would have interfered…

The plague has been killing men, women and children in droves – we are much better off today, for there are means to stop the calamity that the Coronavirus would have provoked in another age, Insha’Allah – and it seems to be hitting even the land where the characters roam, some of them trying to act in a play for the community, interrupted when the procession of the Witch to be Burned is approaching – as a consequence of a ‘Real Witch Hunt’, not the phony scenario promoted by a deranged old fool, sitting in a White House and complaining all day long, when not showing disturbing, massive symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dementia and Paranoia combined, all in full display, for quite a few times during almost every day, but alas, not for the fans and the senators and leaders of a party that is so decadent and decaying now that it may never be resurrected…

The stupendous Seventh Seal has won the Jury Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, when it was not even considered for an Oscar or a Golden Globe, proving yet again that the French festival is the real thing, the one promoting the real, eternal values, while the Oscars are so much less relevant and sophisticated in terms of value…