The Seventh Seal
Antonius Block is my new hero.
I finally had the chance to sit down and enjoy Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” yesterday, and I cannot say enough good things about this film. It was funny and dramatic, full of action and horror and some of the most superb acting I’ve seen in a while.
The premise of this masterpiece is a man (Max von Sydow) who meets Death (Bengt Ekerot- who was SUPERB). Death tells the man that it is his time. The man, the aforementioned Antonius Block, challenges Death to a game of chess, and as long as he’s alive on the board, he will stay alive on earth. As far as I can see, he wants to stay alive just long enough to discover whether God exists.
There are subtle pieces of this movie that renowned filmmakers have used as a sort of tribute to Bergman, from what I picked up. A couple of examples that I caught:
*Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: They have to play “wizard’s chess” to survive
and
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The monks singing while walking in procession
I’m sure there are many many more. I want to watch this movie again. I loved the scene with Lisa telling her husband to kill her lover, the lover faking his death, Death chopping down the tree…. I was laughing at the irony of it all. Even though it was such a solemn premise, the subtle humor was wonderful.
Another great character, in my opinion, was Jons with his cynical view on women, love, and his all too grim outlook on life. He made me laugh aloud more than once.
“You with your visions….”
I finally had the chance to sit down and enjoy Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” yesterday, and I cannot say enough good things about this film. It was funny and dramatic, full of action and horror and some of the most superb acting I’ve seen in a while.
The premise of this masterpiece is a man (Max von Sydow) who meets Death (Bengt Ekerot- who was SUPERB). Death tells the man that it is his time. The man, the aforementioned Antonius Block, challenges Death to a game of chess, and as long as he’s alive on the board, he will stay alive on earth. As far as I can see, he wants to stay alive just long enough to discover whether God exists.
There are subtle pieces of this movie that renowned filmmakers have used as a sort of tribute to Bergman, from what I picked up. A couple of examples that I caught:
*Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: They have to play “wizard’s chess” to survive
and
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The monks singing while walking in procession
I’m sure there are many many more. I want to watch this movie again. I loved the scene with Lisa telling her husband to kill her lover, the lover faking his death, Death chopping down the tree…. I was laughing at the irony of it all. Even though it was such a solemn premise, the subtle humor was wonderful.
Another great character, in my opinion, was Jons with his cynical view on women, love, and his all too grim outlook on life. He made me laugh aloud more than once.
“You with your visions….”
posted by Susan at
5/31/2005
5 Comments:
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Persona, at 2:56 PM
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Persona, at 3:07 PM
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Persona, at 3:13 PM
I certainly didn't expect to love it on the first time. I actually went to bed thinking "oh, well that was a pretty good movie. Kinda weird." Then, as I lay in bed thinking about it and laughing at things in it- like Jons or the procession, I started liking it more and more.
When I woke up this morning, I couldn't stop thinking about it. And everything I thought about made me smile.
Mary and Josef and their son... Michael. hahaha.
The fact that they had all of the animals messed up. "Listen to the monkey. It says MEOW!" or however it goes.
Antonius: "Wait a minute."
Death: "You all say that."
Jonas: "But... but... I have my performance!!"
Death: "Cancelled- because of death."
:)
By
Susan, at 3:17 PM
You can't forget about the greatest of all great Seventh Seal references... Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey! Playing Twister and Battleship with Death... Pure cinema magic!
By
Chris, at 2:45 PM
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