Maybe, a parable. dark, bitter, fascinating. but, from childhood, when I saw it for the first time, to present, I discovered it as a sort of revelation of the roots of life. remembering the traits of Middle Age , the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Bruegel, the themes of Bergman's cinema. and the right perspective about life, choices, expectations and the true answer to the near reality. for long time, the scene of chess play was the only who I considered significant. not exactly as a game between Death and Knight but as the build of the fundamental answer of old fears. a film who could be reduced at a long chain of symbols, cultural references, myths, legends. in fact, only a question. about life and faith and fear and happiness and decisions.

'The Seventh Seal' is a metaphorical masterpiece by Ingmar Bergman. This film is a brilliant artwork that asks big existential and religious questions that every human being as pondered some point in their life. Set in the harrowing and dim Middle Ages during the Black Plaque, Bergman captivates his audience into a world of anger, fear, sorrow and doubt and engages the audience in an beautiful narrative that follows the troubled knight Antonius Block, played brilliantly by Swedish actor Max von Sydow. While the film is evidently dated, it has never lost it's remark-ability. It almost seems incomparable with modern films today. Scene after scene, Bergman's philological film takes it's audience on a journey with it's characters and even though it may ask many questions and leave few answers, you leave the film feeling more knowledgable on your life and where you are headed. The brilliancy of this film is that Bergman does not try to convince his audience to believe his "protestant atheist" views, but rather just show them. He presents atheistic views one character, and then a faithful, religious view another leaving this film to be unbiased and essentially encourages individuals of any view to think with an open mind.

Film Review: "The Seventh Seal" (1957)The character of Antonius Block the crusader, shipwrecked, returning from the meaningless war-mongering crusades over belief in Jerusalem, portrayed in dignified, power-striving manner by Max von Sydow as the last knight, swept onto the shores of an unidentified island with his squire, well-studied and life-taking by the horns performance by actor Gunnar Björnstrand (1909-1986) confronted death itself in a party of chess in three move-shifting scenes of reminiscencing the divine comedy of life that everything is borrowed and will eventually turn to nothing on death day.Director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) double-layers his image system of combining a chessboard with an rising sun over an ocean. It becomes evident that the filmmaking artist is present, who completely thought through his motion picture endeavor from the first written word in form of a stage play to the final premise shot of a dance with death. Further the director uses a group of traveling artists on identifying the circle of life in art to frighten society with images of pain, horror, self-mutilation, cancer, sickness raging war and epidemics to remind spectators of death to believe in dreams again and making the showtime spectacle, a machine to forget about loss and death; where "The Seventh Seal" strikes is in overwriting information with character point-of-view shots, illusionary hallucinations clearly been seen by an character of feeling toward devastating agony or fulfilled bliss where life is beautiful, at least for an hour before another shift comes to cope with a human emotion of inconvenience.The film asks all the essential questions of what life makes worthwhile and death necessary to all, who have lived fully. As the last knight Antonius Block states to death, who has been performed in J.W. Goethe's Faust recalling manner by actor Bengt Ekerot (1920-1971), in final moves of their chess game, "I am the prisoner of my dreams. I am not part of society anymore." Director Ingmar Bergman finds his balance again in concluding his in precision camera work captured picture by Gunnar Fischer (1910-2011) that life stays always life in company of family and death as final member of the company is its reward.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Ingmar Bergman is one of the favorite directors of serious movie lovers. All his films have been discussed over years by the film students. Analyzing his films will open up a new world of imagination and cinematic freedom.The Seventh Seal, is an intellectual film. But, unlike other serious films, this movie is coated with slight humor. This provides more relaxation to the non-competitive audience. The story is about life and death. The movie makes fun of the humanity, religion etc. There are not of things to be thought in depth. Thought provoking films are hard to write about. You need to watch them over and over again, think about it and get the inner meanings and find a conclusion yourself.A highly recommend for serious film lovers. A Must watch.#KiduMovie