The Seventh Seal
Det sjunde inseglet
1957 · Sweden · 96 min · 1.37:1 · B&W
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Introduction
The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman, with Max von Sydow as the knight Antonius Block and Bengt Ekerot as Death. Returning from the Crusades to a country in the grip of plague, Block plays a game of chess against Death on a beach, using the delay to press for an answer about whether God exists. Gunnar Björnstrand plays his squire Jöns, who travels with him and argues the sceptical case throughout. On the road they encounter a married pair of travelling performers, a procession of flagellants, and a girl condemned to burn as a witch. The film closes with Death leading a line of figures away along a ridge, an image quoted repeatedly since. Bergman had written the same material earlier as a one-act play, Wood Painting.
Playing Against the Silence
Smiles of a Summer Night had been well received at Cannes in 1956, and the studio approved this film soon afterwards. It was shot in about thirty-five days on a limited budget, photographed by Gunnar Fischer. The closing shot of Death leading a line of figures along a ridge was made quickly as the light went, with crew members standing in for some of the cast.
The film took the special jury prize at Cannes in 1957. The chess game on the beach and the line of figures on the ridge have been quoted and parodied many times since.
Titles
- Mainland China
- 第七封印
- Hong Kong
- 第七封印
- Taiwan
- 第七封印
- English
- The Seventh Seal
- Original
- Det sjunde inseglet
Cast
- Max von Sydowas Antonius Block
- Bengt Ekerotas Death