Reviews

This remarkable film is in its very strange way a very strange one, namely: I have never seen a movie so utterly devoid ov originality. Everything here in the story, the play, the direction is simply perfectly congruent with convention. Simultaneaously, the film has it all: not one motif, one role, one theme, not one cliché of Melodrama missing. And the product is just as flawless and as perfect as this very conformity.

This remarkable movie is 0% Art and 100% Craft; and, believe me, it IS a Masterpiece. I think 9/10 is the obvious evaluation here.

No plot line needed; its exactly a mean destillated out of zillions other similar stories. I'll restrict myself to a brief discussion of the ethical aspect, the aestethical criticism rendered lucidly enough above.

There's a peculiarly shameless quality about this film's wooing utterly primitive male and youthful instincts. Few words needed here. These thugs are heroes, no doubt about that. This is violence idealized and romanticised. It would be cheap to anathemize it from some standpoint t of "humanism" or... well, you know, conventional ideology stuff like that - but this I'm not gonna do.

The film is what it is; and life is what it is, reality is what it is, and people are what they are, wherever we like it or not. I prefer suspending the ethical perspective altogether. This is a great film.

BUT: don't let yourself be carried away by it. Keep distance, stay detached, see it, reflect on it in authentically personal integrity and autonomy, and evaluate it for what it really is; and you will have a great time of cinema and entertainment, and understanding as well, believe me, I can guarantee that.

OUTLINE. It is the year the Great Plague hits Scandinavia. A seasoned knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) returns from some ten year's long late crusading venture to the Holy Land, to which he went out a Believer, where he became a Denier, and whence he now comes back a Seeker. He is followed by his loyal squire, the coarsely cynical, still brave and righteous Jöns (Gunnar Björnstand), with whom he keeps a strong bond and an implicit debate going on. During the journey, he encounters various people and events, all with a particular bearing on the Knight's all consuming Quest for God's Existence and the Meaning of Life; first of all he meets Death himself (Bengt Ekerot), but he contrives to postpone his end by challenging by his sinister opponent to a game of chess, which he intends to win, though he really can't, as he himself in the final analysis knows. Then, we see, among others, the naïvely charming family of entertainers, Jof (Nils Poppe), his loving pretty wife Mia (Bibi Andersson) and the infant Mikael, later we see the unrepenting Witch on her way to the stakes (Maud Hansson), the primitive blacksmith Plog (Åke Fridell) and his trampy wife (Inga Gill), the silent peasant girl (Gunnel Lindblom). Many join him to a following on the route. Finally they reach his home castle where his noble and faithful wife Karin (Inga Landgré) courteously receives them all. He has by now lost his game; and the same night Death comes to claim his harvest, and in the culminating scene they all confront Death with a display of their respective true personal nature. Then follows a short epilogue, where the juggler family, having escaped Death, moves away in a state of happy innocence.

JUDGMENT. This film combines simplicity and complexity in a way never surpassed. The themes, the motives, the characters, they all have a popular and universal quality easy for everyone to recognize and understand; the dialog is simple, terse and exact; but all these general, iconic and "archetypal" elements of the story are brought into an interplay producing amazing complexity and subtlety. Consequently, an enormous richness is exemplarily condensed into a minimum of size; in this film nothing is redundant, and one may well argue it's a culmination all the way. It's tragedy; but pastiche and comedy just as well. It's a "deep" film if any; and still gorgeous entertainment. In short, this film is, in my opinion, more close to Perfection than any, and the multiplication product of Quality and Interest is simply sky high.

HIGHLIGHTS. Many scenes have been famous: those moments at the chessboard, that "Totentanz" end procession on the ridge; the frightening appearance of the flagellants. So, I would like to point out a few scenes no one else here has mentioned: the wonderful little absurdist song show by Jof and Mia at the stage before being interrupted by flagellants' arrival; the calm and surprising reply by Death, when queried about the Mystey he hides and represents: "Secrets? I have no secrets. I am unknowing." - and the ecstatic face of the peasant girl, kneeling and hailing Death at the end scene in the castle: "It is finished!" - it's here the film really, so to speak, explodes somewhat koan-wise into a sudden Illumination, how come so few reckon this??

The acting is great all way through, von Sydow (what terrific makeup, making him so statue-like!) and Björnstrand are those generally appraised, and quite rightly so; but in my opinion they are both eclipsed by the brilliance of Bibi Andersson as Mia, here fusing beauty and acting ability in a way just knocking me out; just watch her inspired, perfectly burlesque "body language" in that silly song performance, it couldn't be more accurate. She's simply phenomenal. - Inga Landgré is perfect as Karin, and Maud Hansson an unforgettable Witch.

DISCUSSION. Some keen observations have been made by other members, but I am surprised finding so many fine points missed. Some dicern an anti-religious tendency, but this is inadequate. The knight Antonius in the end let's it all go spontaneous desperate prayer, at last running into fierce confrontation with Jöns, to the end the staunch Atheist. We must not forget the crucial part played by Jof, the Fool proving the Wise Man when put to the ultmate test, the only one seeing what it's all about, thus being able to save his his family at the last moment, sparing them for that lucid end scene; and Jöns' words to the peasant girl he caringly looks after, winning her confidence: "Don't you see I give you solace?" and - again! - this enthralling Enigma of that face, and those words in her one single line in the manuscript. This film does NOT argue Atheism, but a positive Agnosticism tinged with a, though tiny, maybe, still bright note of Hope.

MISCELLANEOUS. It's said Ingmar Bergman has "disowned" this film. That isn't so. As he himself explains, it's a painful thing for him to recall the agonies of past works, he made this movie as a self therapeutic treatment for his personal haunting fear of death, he probably feels having succeeded striking a precarious balance he is now recalcitrant to jeopardize by some reexamination. Ingmar Bergman himself regards The Seventh Seal as one of his best films, but he does not enjoy talking about it.

The story is generally presumed to take place in Sweden - but the two towns mentioned, Elisinore and Roskilde - are Danish, not Swedish.

This film is a literary masterpiece as well. The incisive, powerful language used in it represents the Swedish language at a very apogee of it's high potential of purity, clarity and beauty.

The film is included in a list of films officially approved and recommended by the Vatican.

IN SHORT. Not a few people regard this film as the best ever made. I think I am one of them.

Oh my God. *blush blush blush* Rarely was an ostentative definition of a-m-a-t-e-u-r-i-s-m given. This movie is a national Shame.

The material, the conception, the setting, it's all quite promising. A thriller with action and good deal of personal drama, all taking place in an exotic environment: the sparsely populated Swedish countryside of the forbidding Wild North. It really could have been something.

It's all squandered with incredible ineptitude.

Looking to the story into some detail, it's bad enough, but nevermind; the awkward way it's all worked out renders it irrelevant. The events don't f-l-o-w. Due to exceptionally bad baaad baaAAAaad directorship the plot hacks it's way forward like barely adjoining pieces of wood simply added along a row: no nuance allowed here. And all this awful overplay, the consistent destroyer of Swedish movie-making; they can't act so they SCREAM for compensation. And the dialog; a sequence of blatantly stupid l-i-n-e-s read by the "actors" like right out of a manuscript they saw for the first time; and the awkward pauses; and the stiff, unnatural poses and statures. Was it shot directly, with no repetition, no rehearsal and no retaking, engaging some no-paid amateur actors called in the very same morning, while the screenplay was still being scribbled down off the top of some guy's head...? If real people behaved like that, their company would sink through the floor with embarrassment. WHY did capable local stars like Helena Bergström and Rolf Lassgård stoop to this trash. It's inexplicable.

Another variation on the popular mind control theme, and a good one, with a strong expressionist leaning in kind of a somewhat De-Palma-esquire style. Emphasis on action and suspense amplified by a battery of artful shooting tricks.

The story is simple, but good enough. Excellent photo and sequencing, nice acting by Baldwin and Berkley in their not very difficult roles, some good surprises. Flawless job, a bit thin, a bit unrealistic, no masterpiece, but a show of professional craftsmanship a good measure above average. And - Elizabeth Berkleys nice look IS an asset to count on - after all, movies a-r-e for watching, aren't they?

So, the technically high quality of the film makes it an effective opportunity to meditate on the philosophy of Free Will, and on it's political implications. There are no obstacles for the engaged watchers to supply some subtleties themselves by creative reflection. This good entertainment does not lack substance.

This complex and exceptionally intelligent film about two - or even three - generations of Italian-American women, makes you laugh, makes you cry. Splendid play by Lili Taylor, and Tracey Ullman is great as well. The main theme of the film is the relation of these women to love, and to to their Catholic faith about which this film has much to say, doing so in a rather ironic, yet loving and understanding way. Precisely this mode of detached but understansing irony is general mood of the film: the burlesque and the sentimental is mixed and fused together into an expressive unity, free of contradiction and dissonance: a feat very very rarely achieved by any director. So, in short, and quite simply, this is one of the finest movies I have ever seen.