Jayclops' musings on his favorite pasttime and escape.
A game of chess with Mr. Death.
June 20, 2007The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
The images in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal may feel so classical and outdated, indeed it is, but it still gave me the creeps. For instance, death is literally personified by a hooded figure whose black robe reveals only the pale face of the actor (it sort of reminds me of Phantasm, a movie that gave me nightmares when I was a kid). Mr. Death appears periodically throughout the entire movie especially in scenes where he is much needed and when the director wants to make a point about him. He does not go into frenzied scaring tactics but the contrasting black robe he dons is enough to give me shivers. In a particular scene where he deceives the knight into revealing his game tactics, it just spooked the hell out of me. Call me overacting, but it worked for me.
Supposedly after the Crusade, the knight, Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow) arrives and rests unconsciously at first on the rocks of the tranquil beach, his squire (Gunnar Bjornstrand) and the two horses around. He meets Death (Bengt Ekerot) and haggles with time that he can still do a good deed or two while he travels back home to the castle. They commence a game of chess which recurs in the film while the knight is on travel. We are transported to a time where Europe is supposedly hit by the Plague. The vast lifeless atmosphere and plains and the presence of the Plague signifies the absence of God and the knights’ return to his home signifies his quest to seek for the Omnipotent.
Death reappears at various moments in the film emphasizing the line “I have been at your side for a long time” which has been uttered by Death himself, clearly indicating Death as a reality we have to face. In Meet Joe Black, we are averted by death’s horrible notion by personifying it with Brad Pitt. Here, death is as real as it can be and the game of chess displays man’s tactics to do away with it but we are still fooled by its deceptive nature.
Along his journey, the knight encounters a procession of people carrying crosses, whipping themselves like a scene from Holy week which couldn’t be more blatant enough. When he meets a girl who is alleged to have slept with the devil bringing down the plague, he asks her of God whom the devil must have talked to. But as the girl was burned at the stake, she just stares back in nothingness with empty eyes. On the other hand, he also meets a couple with a plump infant which to say the least depicts Joseph, Mary and Jesus (Jof and Mia can be assumed as Swedish derivatives?), whom he will be tasked to save.
There can be no question with the spirituality that the director imprints with his work. But it is even more achieved with resonance through the thematic elements that allow us to experience the absence of God and man’s unending quest for answers, good and evil, faith and our reconciliation with it. The knight’s journey after all, is ours.
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