Ingmar Bergman, philosopher among the directors, was the central personality of post-war Scandinavian cinema, and his immense opus placed him among the world's greatest directors. Bergman portrays an artist who is constantly evolving, and his film achievements embody intimate images and feelings. His work encompasses about fifty films and television productions that characterize the related theme and the range of styles are under the influence of everything from film-noir to Italian neo-realism. The Seventh Seal, shot in 1957, is the culmination of Bergman's opus and is the title of one of the greatest masterpieces of world cinema.
The Seventh Seal was filmed according to the model of theatrical performance that was written and directed by Ingmar Bergman three years earlier. The plot is set in the middle ages, and in its center is the Antonius Block knight, who is potrayed by famous Max von Sydow, and who returns from the Crusades wars to his birthplace that is desolated because of the plague. Demoralized by the battles he has experienced, the main hero can be considered a representative Bergman's image. Namely, Bergman presents his characters as weak and dependent on the emotional support of a woman he is unable to love and as isolated from social conventions and bad in the area of marriage and parenthood.
The film begins with the changing of the semitone landscapes accompanied by dramatic music, creating an expressionist and dramatic atmosphere and a voice-over in which the protagonist cites the Book of Revelation, which inspired the film's name. The protagonist is also a narrator who leads the audience through action by linking events with feelings of isolation and hopelessness, and after deciding to go on his journey with his shield, he begins to question his own existence and seek the foundations of his faith.
An extremely mystical and intimate atmosphere is achieved by a smooth and rhythmic change of sound and silence that the director uses to emphasize the magic and bliss of individual scenes. Many will agree that the exceptional artistic value of this film achievement lies in its authenticity, simplicity and visual beauty. Tension achieved through close-ups and long takes that demonstrate the strong and distinctive authorial approach that mythical and fantastical elements artfully reflected in reality.
This seemingly difficult topic pervading Bergman's opus is the result of the fact that the director himself was perceived by the deep feelings of denial of his own personality and his devastating fear of death. The protagonist, at the very beginning of the film, faces the Death (Bengt Ekerot), which he has been able to lure on a multi-day chess game with the aim of extending his own life. This occult moment became an omnipresent motif in modern culture, and Bergman was inspired by the medieval church fresco. On his journey knight encounters a variety of characters and customs of medieval life like flagellants and tradition of burning witches and faces human cruelty and lack of empathy.
In this way, Bergman criticizes the clergy that uses the goal of exercising power over the people by using fear. Also, the film can be considered to be a kind of criticism of the political circumstances of the western world, pervaded and controlled by fear and anxiety, and Bergman defined it as a film that portrays fear of death and reflection of faith and suspicion.A knight is in vain addressing a God whose ideas he can't abandon.
A kind of contrast to the dark and tough emotions of the protagonist are the young spousal couple of entertainers, Jof and Mia, and their newborn child whom the knight helps. In many discussions about Bergman's opus, this family is listed as a symbol of the Holy Family.
Jof is a simple man of simple faith, but he can also see Death. But besides Death, he sees the Virgin Mary as well, while that world for the suspicious Block remains invisible. Like Block, Bergman is not able to live with the flocks of Joff and Mi's life, but he finds comfort in it, respects their values, and even envies them with their carelessness.
An interesting fact is that in many of his films, including this one, there are strawberries symbolizing the simplicity of nature and life, and Bergman directly reminiscent his childhood, so they appear in a scene in which Knight shared them with the family entertainers. These scenes, in which they celebrate life in a way, they manage to escape the nothingness of Death.
They say that Bergman, with this film, struck a counter-attack to his father, a minister who has countered his entire adult life, and as the great author often imitated John Sebastian Bach, he signed his scripts with "SDG" (Soli Deo Gloria) - hence, devoting them , though in principle to God, we can freely say that he, like Augustus Block in this film, Bergman did not fall into those irritating atheists who are all clear and who not only ridicule the believers who have the answer of the final question but the question itself (This, by the way, is not a dignified atheism but the absence of spirituality) Augustus Block is a desperate man because he is equally afraid of the ideas of the absence of God and of the absence of spirituality. The world without symbols is certainly a poor world.
The Seventh Seal is not a film that needs to divulge Christian faith as a manipulative farce, but rather to show it as a spirituality that, on the one hand, glides in politics (references to a crusade and wasted time) and, on the other, into simplified superstitions.
The personified Death and her (his, actually) chess match with Block, and the conflicting Kjerkegor's "true knighthood" is probably the most important element of the entire film and the part that viewers should pay attention to.
Bergman here, through the chess game Block plays with Death is a great Copernican turn. The chess game, is clearly shown, pointing to life as a fight against death, but, by the end of the movie, it becomes clear that life actually points to the game as a fight against the void - which Block is so terrible afraid of. In other words, life without a game, without selecting rules and playing within the rules, is reduced to mere existence, not to life. Block's party against death, since the beginning is lost, but the point indicates that Block (without having to say it to us) is in for the quality of the game, rather than the result.
In today's world, the Seventh Seal will seem outdated, but rarely can be found a film that deals with basic existential issues in such a direct and philosophical way.
Note: This was my translation from Croatian to English from two articles, one on Ziher Hr by D.Ivezic and the other from Duhovni razvoj by U. Smiljanic
