# Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    Det Sjunde inseglet (1957)

    Grade: 61

Better known by its English translation title, "The Seventh Seal", "Det Sjunde inseglet" is a pensive art film set in the Middle Ages. The success of the film earned international acclaim for director and writer Ingmar Bergman. But today, the fixation with death and rejection of the hereafter, as well as the relentlessly gloomy and overstated imagery, makes for an inaccessible, and worse, overheated film.

The plot is simple. A plague is sweeping through Europe, killing a large percentage of the population, and causing some terror and paranoid among the superstitious peasants. Death (Bengt Ekerot) visits a knight who has participated in the Crusades (Max von Sydow). The knight delays Death by challenging him to a game of chess. The game has frequent and lengthy breaks, enabling the knight to wander around seeking the Truth about the hereafter. He encounters a young woman who is to be burned as a witch (Gunnel Lindblom) and a couple with a small child, Joseph (Nils Poppe) and Mary (Bibi Andersson).

For Bergman, death is a repudiation of life, a proof that all is in vain. This extreme attitude avoids the truth about death. Death is simply a part of life. From the point of view of a dying man, the world may be coming to an end, but the world goes on as before. Bergman depicts death as an evil force, rather than as a biological process, and supports his view with imagery showing horror and suffering.

Cynics will find the film ripe for parody, and those seeking entertainment will avoid it. "The Seventh Seal" is an Art film that may be embraced by fans of the genre who accept rather than question the film's overripe imagery. The film is marginally good; well cast and with stark cinematography by Gunnar Fischer. But it is no masterpiece.

kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

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