Fortunately for me, I managed to catch this piece of existentialist cinema on Film 4 the other night. Written and directed by the prolific Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal) was released in 1957, Bergman's breakthrough film, an archetypal masterpiece and much like all of his following productions it deals with faith, philosophy and death.
The title and content is based around the seven seals, a biblical concept found in the Book of Revelation which, from what I can gather (don't completely trust me on this), basically says that when the world reaches its end seven seals will be opened. The first four seals are each commonly known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but I am utterly confused a to what the other three actually are. My Bible 'translation' tells me that the seventh seal is divided into seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet is then divided into seven bowls. I am to understand that the seventh seal overall is the final step at death, redemption of some sort, at God's 'mercy seat', mankind being judged. In this book of seven seals other aspects of the "End Times" are mentioned: seas turning to blood, sores on people's, plagues, infertility and so on, some of which feature in the film . . .
Antonius Block, a knight, returns with his squire Jons from a 10-year Crusade and finds his home country ravaged by the plague. Death appears to claim them both, but Block, whose war experiences have left him cynical about the existence of God and the afterlife, challenges Death to a game of chess to stall for time and gain some insight into the meaning of life and so he can reach his home and be reunited with his wife. The game is intermittently paused and resumed throughout the journey home as Block and Jons meet several traveling companions, most notably, a family of traveling players. Cultural turmoil envelopes around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.
The narrative does not completely follow the conventional Todorovian structure we are used to in cinema, mainly because of the nature of the storyline itself. There is no real state of equilibrium during the film, constant pain and suffering if anything, and there is not really a happy ending. Jons, surprisingly, seems to play the roles of donor, helper and hero in many cases (Propp), saving a mute girl from a bandit and later rescuing Jof, a gentle visionary, from being tortured by the same bandit. The narrative also displays many topical opposites (Strauss), both visual and non-visual, such as good and evil, joy and sorrow, dark and light, black and white. These are quite striking, emphasizing the gap between Death and life, however, the line defining these opposites is somewhat blurred by the constant tragedy unfolding on Block and Jons' journey home.
Biblical issues are dealt with constantly, for example, temptation - as one of the traveling players is led away by a married woman. The most prominent factor though is that of fear. For the duration of film we lay witness to a world full of religious superstitions, conscious of the wrath of God. We see how different people along Block's journey deal with their fear, from monks whipping themselves, to witches burning at the stake. Certain imagery can be connoted as biblical too, snakelike branches in the forrest, a heavy storm denoting the end of the world and the traveling player Jof, his wife Mia and their baby boy Mikael may be symbolic of the Holy family.
Some striking quotes appear all through the movie, when in despair and confessing to an 'imposter' monk, Block cries "My indifference to fellow men isolates from them" and this woeful statement is no sooner contrasted with Jons jokingly slurring "Senseless to heaven, indifferent to hell". Scriptwriting and directional touches that make Ingmar Bergman a cut above the rest.
Another remarkable skill of Bergman's shown in this film is the capability to comfortably balance humour with drama. At the start of The Seventh Seal you would never have guessed there'd be n ounce of comedy in it. My expression was more that of shock than a smile when the first signs of humour appeared. Slapstick and satire riddle the film and this humour does not demean any of the seriousness and existentialism in anyway, if anything it helps contrast life and Death. In a televised interview for Film 4 by the famous film critic Mark Kermode, Woody Allen comments on Bergman, saying "He was first and foremost an entertainer". A clip is then played over the top from The Seventh Seal, where Death comes for on of the traveling players who climbs a tree. The player shouts down to Death "Old tassel-fringe! What are you doing to my tree?" before (unsuccessfully) comically bartering with Death the value of his life.
- my overall thought -
I hate to say it, but at first I found The Seventh Seal hard to follow and not very pleasing. Alas, it slowly drew me in to it's dark and meaningful, yet hilarious body in an almost hypnotic and relaxing manner.
There are no convention breaking camera angles or particularly 'beautifully shot' scenes that give this film any artistic merit, it is merely the originality, the content, writing and great directing that carries the film, putting it in Woody Allen's top ten films of all time. One constant shot that did stick out for me though was the symmetry portrayed when Block played chess with Death, the balance of light and dark, good and evil, black and white, was jut right and all shot at eye-level too.
Having to read the subtitles impaired my enjoyment to a point and I found it difficult to be completely taken in by it. The Swedish speech sounded rather more 'romantic' than the English translation. It was somewhat confusing in parts and definitely a film you would have to watch at least twice to fully understand it. It was certainly very thought provoking and cinema doesn't really get any deeper than a man asking himself "Is there a God?" does it.
After watching the film I realised that The Seventh Seal builds bridges between many a divide, even the writers of 'Bill and Ted' drew inspiration from the chess game with Death. In a scene in their second film the chess game is parodied as Bill and Ted play Death at Battleships and Twister among other childish games to win their way out of hell!
I am also left wondering if in fact The Seventh Seal was the first visual representation of Death, had he been physically depicted in film or book before? Did Bergman 'invent' what is the common delineation of Death today? I shall look into this
One more thing. It saddens me to say this, but I can't help thinking that "The Seventh Seal" or "Antonius Block" would be a great name for a musician of some sort, connoting imagery of death, doubting one's existence and having one's 'homeland' in a state comparative to that of plague. I can see the visuals on an album sleeve in my mind even as I type.
An interesting new progamme started on Channel 4 tonight, The Sculpture Diaries. First in a 3-part series, this episode explored the world of the female form, the most popular subject of sculpture. 
