THE REAPING OF DEATH IN “THE SEVENTH seal ” BY INGMAR BERGMAN (to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the film creation)

Abstract

Medieval aesthetics, mysticism, sheer symbolism and special stylistics of “The Seventh Seal” (1956) distinguish this film from other ‘historiographical’ works made by the Scandinavian director and thinker, Ingmar Berman (1918–2007). In spite of the historical background of Bergman’s works, none of them can be called, without reserve, strictly historical. According to art critics, “The Seventh Seal” has had the greatest impact on all films about the history of the Middle Ages and culture. It is not history as such that the Swedish director and thinker is concerned about; rather, he is interested in existential topics, problems tormenting his heroes, their quests, their doubts and anxieties. Here, likewise in all other ‘historiographical’ pictures made by Bergman, the historical realities serve as a background against which the drama is being acted out. The film has nothing to do with the so-called pre-expectant idealization of the culture of the knightly Middle Ages. The authors of this essay discuss the symbolic nature of Death in “The Seventh Seal”, Antonius Block’s behaviour, when he faces the Angel of Death, and the behaviour of other characters featured in the film. For a genuine knight, whose cause should be that of devotion, Block as a personification of doubt and search is a ‘wrong kind’ of knight. Isolated from the world, alone to grapple with his doubts, Block realizes that all that has happened to him is futile, meaningless, and that he must grasp something essential to fill his spiritual void. “The Seventh Seal” is the most ‘panmortal’ picture wrought by Bergman. Death reigns supreme in the world depicted by the Master. The ‘finale’ of the article raises the issue of the characters who, though deeply involved, do not appear in Dödsdansen of the Epilogue.