Session 010 - The Seventh Seal
Who saw it and what are your thoughts on it?
Friday, October 19, 2007
In the Screening Room - Ingmar Bergman's
The Seventh Seal
Session 010 - The Seventh Seal
Who saw it and what are your thoughts on it?
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2 comments:
Well, that's not what I expected. When I thought of Bergman - never having seen a frame of his work before The Seventh Seal - I was thinking it would be stuffy, vague and really kind of a grind to get through. I anticipated a sort of pretention and fully expected to dislike this film (or at least the experience of sitting through it).
So, I'm definitely a little surprised to relay just how much I loved this film. And (since I believe you've already tipped your hand a bit chachi) astonishingly enough, I believe 10 movies in we've finally found a film we can both champion as a masterpiece.
As should be obvious from this film's most famous moment, a knight playing a game of chess with the incarnation of Death, this film is a meditation on life and death. It's set during the Black Plague when death is literally surrounding the characters. Everyone is effected by it and offers their own take on it in some form. It's really quite fascinating to have these characters set in a time when death is so immediately on the forefront of everyone's thoughts and have to deal with that.
But what struck me most is that it's really, rather, well, funny. Some of the characters (the actors and boozehound at the bar) are obviously meant for a comedic relief from the very heavy tones of death and it really plays wonderfully. It's also always visually interesting to watch, as Bergman shows he's got a keen visual eye (check out that picture on the front page again? It's absolutely haunting and really sort of amazing).
In the end the film doesn't have any answers, but doesn't need them. Whatever conclusion we each come to about the end of life, death is there. So what it all amounts to is a rumination, a pondering, on an unexplainable topic.
Alright, so maybe it's a little pretentious. But it's brilliant too.
I really got to pace these films better. I watched this movie three weeks ago, and find myself having difficulty recalling all the events.
Yet this film wasn't that hard to recall since it was such a work of art. I do agree with your initial take on Bergman, Mulligan. I thought he would be all silence and existential, but once I saw Smiles on a Summer Night, I knew he had a good sense of humor, yet I too wasn't expecting it here. This had some really funny moments in it particularly coming from Death. I guess in order for him to get by with his morbid profession, even Death has to act a little batty to keep himself sane.
This film brought up a lot of great questions. There was a great scene when Max von Sidow's Knight is confessing his quandaries about the absence of God during these harsh times. Unbeknownst to him, Death has been the one listening the entire time, but it was such a great scene for us to understand the Knight's plight. There is another great moment when a seminary steals from a plague-ridden corpse, and tries to rape a mute girl (oh he will get his later). Clearly Bergman's distaste for the Church rings through here in a rather abrupt manner, but he clearly believes in faith and God. He just doesn't think you should find it within organized religion, which has always been my stance.
Obviously Jof and Mia (the two performers) represent Joseph and Mary, the holy family. The Knight, in his famous chess duel, distracts Death as the Holy family escapes Death's clutches. The Knight, knowing his fate, only seeks to see his wife one last time. The following scene is so bittersweet. The mute girl speaks as Death takes them all. The holy family sees them on the hill dancing. We know what has happened yet it seems so tranquil, so serene, so natural...such is life and death.
Visually this film is just as haunting and alluring as the material itself. The stark contrasts between the black and white leave little gray. Perhaps once again showing that there is only life and death and little else. The imagery he creates is permanently embedded in my mind. This is a film that clearly everyone has been paying homage to. If only I knew this film than would have recognized them.
Bergman is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. I highly recommend you check out Wild Strawberries. I would say it is nearly equal to this masterpiece.
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