Yet Bergman refuses to succumb to the pessimism that pervades all those about him he identifies now with the zealous knight, now with his cynical squire.

The Seventh Seal takes its title from the Book of Revelation, and in 1956 the threat of Apocalypse seemed as palpable as it must have been in medieval Sweden. Yet nearly everyone who sees The Seventh Seal emerges stunned and thrilled by its visual splendors, and inspired by one or other of the major characters. It is set in the Middle Ages at a time when the plague was ravaging Europe, orthodox religion was locked in the battle with paganism and the disillusionment brought about by the Crusades, and it describes a knight’s doomed attempt to forestall death. The miracle is that Bergman’s genius enabled him to reflect the trepidation of the Cold War era and yet also transcend it, so that The Seventh Seal continues to enthrall each new generation with its complex investigation of love, self-sacrifice, and the problems of pain and death.Īt first glance, the film would appear insufferable. Bergman’s work proved that essential philosophical and human issues could be explored on film and still reach a wide audience. The Seventh Seal and the other Bergman masterpieces that soon followed it- Wild Strawberries, The Magician, and The Virgin Spring-were as important to the development of world cinema as the New Wave in France or the work of Fellini, Antonioni and Bertolucci in Italy.

It launched the international career of its director, Ingmar Bergman, and made a star of its 27-year-old leading actor, Max von Sydow. For more than forty years, The Seventh Seal has been a benchmark by which all other great foreign films are judged.

Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman