On the Criterion Collection interview with Ingmar Bergman, he relates that he wrote the chess scene over his own fear of dying. This would have been an immensely interesting idea to explore, but after he mentions it, the interview is practically over. That left me rather frustrated.
The film itself may also leave one rather frustrated, as it explores the principal character agonizing over God's unwillingness to show His face and answer his existential questions about the meaning of life and the certainty of death. When Death (Bengt Ekerot) makes his entrance to claim him a victim, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) challenges the Grim Reaper to a game of chess, the winner to exact his own reward. The Knight must quickly readjust his game plan after he unwittingly reveals his strategy to the black clad harvester of souls.
The film is set during the time of the Black Plague, following a 'worthless' crusade of ten years that the Knight and his Squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) participated in. All around them are wanderers half crazed with fear at the thought of the Plague approaching. All the time Death appropriates his victims, he claims to know nothing and hold no secrets. Fearing his own demise, Block (Bergman?) disrupts the chess board, intent on prolonging his existence in a world full of uncertainty.
"The Seventh Seal" is Bergman's stunning allegory of man's search for meaning, but what I've come to understand after many years is that each person must come to terms with himself from within. Attempting to extract answers from a single source is bound to end in disappointment, trapped if you will in a Knight's world of phantoms and dreams more like nightmares. This is the kind of film that presents more questions than answers, as I'm sure Bergman understood and intended.
The film itself may also leave one rather frustrated, as it explores the principal character agonizing over God's unwillingness to show His face and answer his existential questions about the meaning of life and the certainty of death. When Death (Bengt Ekerot) makes his entrance to claim him a victim, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) challenges the Grim Reaper to a game of chess, the winner to exact his own reward. The Knight must quickly readjust his game plan after he unwittingly reveals his strategy to the black clad harvester of souls.
The film is set during the time of the Black Plague, following a 'worthless' crusade of ten years that the Knight and his Squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) participated in. All around them are wanderers half crazed with fear at the thought of the Plague approaching. All the time Death appropriates his victims, he claims to know nothing and hold no secrets. Fearing his own demise, Block (Bergman?) disrupts the chess board, intent on prolonging his existence in a world full of uncertainty.
"The Seventh Seal" is Bergman's stunning allegory of man's search for meaning, but what I've come to understand after many years is that each person must come to terms with himself from within. Attempting to extract answers from a single source is bound to end in disappointment, trapped if you will in a Knight's world of phantoms and dreams more like nightmares. This is the kind of film that presents more questions than answers, as I'm sure Bergman understood and intended.