The miracle is that Bergman’s genius enabled him to reflect the trepidation of the Cold War era and yet also transcend it, so that The Seventh Seal continues to enthrall each new generation with its complex investigation of love, self-sacrifice, and the problems of pain and death.Īt first glance, the film would appear insufferable. Bergman’s work proved that essential philosophical and human issues could be explored on film and still reach a wide audience.
The Seventh Seal and the other Bergman masterpieces that soon followed it- Wild Strawberries, The Magician, and The Virgin Spring-were as important to the development of world cinema as the New Wave in France or the work of Fellini, Antonioni and Bertolucci in Italy. It launched the international career of its director, Ingmar Bergman, and made a star of its 27-year-old leading actor, Max von Sydow. His time with the troupe may provide Antonius with some of those answers for which he is looking, especially his encounters with husband and wife, Jof and Mia, and their infant son, Mikael.For more than forty years, The Seventh Seal has been a benchmark by which all other great foreign films are judged. Antonius offers them safer travels with him and Jöns through the forest to his castle to avoid the plague. In his continuing chess match and their trek toward home, Antonius and Jöns stumble across an acting troupe, who are performing among others a passion play. He feels he has one more important act in his life before he dies. Because of what has happened around him, Antonius has lost faith in God, and instead is looking for knowledge in why things happen. As he feels he has more to do in his life, Antonius challenges Death to a chess match, the outcome which will determine Antonius' fate and that of others around him with regard to Death. Antonius has long felt Death's presence around him.
In their travels toward home, Antonius, without Jöns' knowledge, comes across the personification of Death, who wants to take Antonius' life. In medieval times, Antonius Block, a knight, and his squire Jöns have just returned to their Swedish homeland after fighting in the Crusades, only to find the plague ravishing their country.
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