World Famous Comics: The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection
The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection
Starring: Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson Directed By: Ingmar Bergman Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC Label: Criterion Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Region Code: 1 Release Date: January 26, 1999 Running Time: 96 minutes Theatrical Release Date: October 13, 1958
Description: After a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight challenges Death to a fateful game of chess. More than forty years after its initial release, Ingmar Bergman's stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of filmmaking and an essential building block in any collection. Criterion is proud to present The Seventh Seal in a pristine new transfer.
Amazon.com essential video: Ingmar Bergman's 1956 film has been parodied by everyone from Woody Allen to Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, but it remains one of the strangest and richest classics of world cinema. Max Von Sydow plays a knight returning from the Crusades to encounter an apocalyptic scenario inspired by the Book of Genesis. He plays chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot), sees a manacled witch, watches a band of flagellants go by--all of it foretelling an inevitable end to life. Unabashedly allegorical and lyrical and existing in a world unto itself, the film is enormously mesmerizing no matter what one thinks of the weighty meanings Bergman has attached to it all. The DVD release has English subtitles, audio commentary by critic Peter Cowie, theatrical trailer, and Bergman's filmography. --Tom Keogh
One of the best movies ever made For me, the Seventh Seal, along with Casablanca, is one of the best movies ever made. In terms of asking the question, "Is there meaning in life and Is there a God?," no other film dares to so boldly ask such questions and give such existential answers. There appears to be a Mother Mary and a Christ Child, but there's also Death in this film, and Death, disguised as Clergy, or with the help of ignorant people as well as the clergy, tortures people wholesale in this film. Each person in this film tries to find meaning in his or her own way, as a Knight playing chess with Death tries to find the meaning of his life, before losing and dying to Death at the end of the chess match. At first, the Knight, Antonius Block, appears to have the upper hand in the match, as we do when we feel young and strong, but by the end of the film, as near the end of our lives, Death has the upper hand. In the end, the Knight finds meaning by appearing to help a young family escape Death, but I'm not sure if Death made it appear that Death lost the family just to let the Knight have some meaning before his own end. I highly recommend the film in case you haven't already seen it if you wish to explore these religious questions of meaning and "Does God exist?," all mixed in with life during the Middle Ages with a Crusade, and a Plague to boot to get people to thinking. . .Don't be put off that the film has sub-titles. Once you get used to reading them, they can be quite funny. Worth watching and worth owning, particular the Criterion Collection, because of the work they have done to restore the original film. Definitely a must see.
One of the Greats Religious allegory is packed into this film. It is definitely one of the great films.
The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection Just aweful! Can't figure out why it's so much talked about! Boring and stifled and far too slow!!
Bleak, dark but with a ray of hope BEWARE SPOILERS and needless interpretations.
It really is impossible to consider an Ingmar Bergman movie without immediately running to an interpretation. At least for me that is the case. In particular The Seventh Seal seems to demand that we ask what was Bergman's intention. Was it to show that Christianity and superstition are brothers in arms? Was it to suggest a kind of fatalism that allows some to live and others to die without rhyme or reason?
The story, set in the 14th century during the time of plague, concerns a knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) lately returned to Sweden from the Crusades. Bergman combines realism with supernatural elements, such as the appearance of Death (Bengt Ekerot) with whom Antonius Block plays a game of chess, and the visions that the traveling troubadour, Jof (Nils Poppe) sees that nobody else can see including his wife Mia (Bibi Andersson). Block is haunted by death and has been assured that death is imminent, but hopes to put it off by beating Death at chess.
Meanwhile the inhabitants are also in fear of death and seek to blame someone. They seize a young girl (Maud Hansson) and brand her a witch for consorting with the Evil One. They hold her in a pillory prior to burning her at the stake. Notice that instead of denying that she has been with the devil, she tells us that she reaches out and touches him everywhere. The only bright spot in the movie is the family of Jof, Mia and their infant son.
Antonius Block goes to confession only to discover that the priest behind the window is none other than his adversary Death, to whom he inadvertently reveals his strategy in their game of chess. Block is searching for the meaning of life. He is trying to find God, whom he complains is always hiding. Instead he finds Death. Can they be one and the same? Jons is able and cynical and sees through humanity's many delusions. Jof plays at life and sings. Mia is filled with love for life. Guess who lives and who dies.
But of course the plague was the great leveler. Persons of stations high and low were brought within its compass, but Bergman gets to pick and choose who shall live and who shall die.
As usual with Bergman we have the most incredible study of human faces. I particularly liked the close ups of the women. The face of Gunnel Lindblom, who plays the young woman ("Girl" in the credits) that Jons saves from being raped, is particularly striking and intense. I recall her from The Virgin Spring (1960) in which she played Ingeri, the Odin-worshipping servant. The face of Bibi Andersson is a delight with her quick, pretty eyes and her engaging smile.
But Bergman also concentrates on the faces of the bit players, in the mead hall and at the burning and as they watch the traveling players at their song and dance. With Bergman people are intensely real, up close and always personal. And he knows what they think and how they act. He shows us here, as he does in all his films, human hypocrisy and stupidity, human love and frailty. The landscape is bleak, the shadows are dark and life is harsh. Humans take their quick pleasures and then they die. That is the message I think that Bergman is sending to us.
No student of film should miss this, one of the most talked about films ever made, and perhaps Bergman's first great work of art. He died only recently in 2007, not long after being voted (In Time Magazine, I think) as the greatest living director.
If you Read one Review let it be THIS one. it is difficult to articulate the greatness of this film. it is comprised of incredibly simple characters yet tears into the complexity of life like no movie i have ever seen. the film transports you to a different era but the fears and ideals are the same we encounter in our lives today. this is a haunting film and very well may change your perception of life.
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