Det sjunde inseglet (1957)

I chose the the address of this site (and my iPod, which replaced my old iPod, which I had given the much better name of Thelonious Crunk) in reference to Max von Sydow's character in Ingmar Bergman's 1957 art-house classic, Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal). The story is pretty well known, a knight returning from the crusades, demoralized and wavering in his faith in God and Jesus (who von Sydow would actually go on to portray less than a decade later in The Greatest Story Ever Told) meets death on a beach and challenges him to a game of chess to give him time to search for answers and perform one final good deed.

As Bergman's most well known film, The Seventh Seal seems to carry with it the weight of all the perceptions of the Swedish auteur's prodigious output (totaling over 60 films during his career). As such, the film is often thought of as dour and depressing. What could be more depressing than a film whose theme so involves death that it was even given a starring role? However, viewing this as an exercise in anxiety and depression will be entirely fruitless.

For one, von Sydow's knight only became an important character well after the original screenplay (a play he had written called Wood Painting) had been conceived. A great deal of the film is instead focused on Jof, the actor, and his family and von Sydow's squire played by Bergman regular, Gunnar Björnstrand. These characters are given extremely funny, witty lines to contrast the painfully Scandinavian sternness portrayed by von Sydow.

Also interesting to note is the films unusually optimistic ending. Whereas many of Bergman's films end in the most depressing ways imaginable (think of what happens to Alexander at the end of Fanny och Alexander, for example), Bergman gives us a glimmer of hope. Jof's family becomes a symbol of love, an element often missing in Bergman's work.

This was my introduction to Ingmar Bergman, and in all honesty, left me somewhat uninterested. I was profoundly interested in the scenes of the knight, having recently denounced my Catholic upbringing shortly before viewing the film. But it wasn't until I recently reassessed the film, after seeing some 20 or so Bergman films, that I understood why it's so revered. Unlike some of his masterpieces from the late 60s, particularly Skammen (1968), Vargtimmen (1968) and En Passion (1969), the Seventh Seal perfectly connects the brilliant humor of some of his earlier films with the dark, philosophical questions that he would eventually become known for. Overall, I've come to love this film, though I would consider it simply as one of Bergman's first masterpieces. I feel he made much better films, but given its historical importance and its own qualities, this is a must see for any fan of film.