Ingmar Bergman

The Seventh Seal (1957)



Bergman's most pessimistic and overrated film, in my opinion. It has some striking and rightfully iconic imagery, but to me, this is the archetypal doom-and-gloom arthouse flick concerned with existential angst and contemplation. That being said, Bergman is the master of these themes; he just dealt with them much better in later films. In retrospect, The Seventh Seal comes across to me as a wounded cry from an artist who was, at the time, tortured by the silence of God in what he saw as an empty world. Not exactly cheerful topics, but Bergman would continue to refine them in his Faith Trilogy before reaching the pinnacle of his religious themes in Cries and Whispers (a movie which says infinitely more about God and death). This one, then, is merely interesting as an early and slightly banal exploration of the ideas that would preoccupy Bergman for much of his career.

I don't know any another film that makes fun of everything it seriously considers while considering it still.

This is actually the last film I watched, until its half. It was very intriguing, but is even death supposed to be a joke? I mean like, he appears at the begining for 1 minute, and then disappears for half an hour, cheats him at the church (which I thought was very clever, and I expected something like that from Ingmar (because priests wear dark robes,and maybe he mocks or questiones that too - why the representatives of light should be in black?)), but then disappears again...while in the meantime some sort of group of travelling actors just fools around.



So, is that the whole point? Very interesting either way.

Diving into Bergman's films for the first time. Where should i start?

The Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
Persona

Watched Persona yesterday. Gonna watch Wild Strawberries today.