The Seventh Seal

THE SEVENTH SEAL (DET SJUNDE INSEGLET) (PG)

D: Ingmar Bergman

AB Svensk Filmindustri (Allan Ekelund)

Sweden 🇸🇪 1957

96 mins

Drama

W: Ingmar Bergman

DP: Gunnar Fischer

Ed: Lennart Wallen

Mus: Erik Nordgren

Max Von Sydow (Antoninus Block), Bengt Ekerot (Death), Gunnar Björnstrand (Jöns), Nils Poppe (Jof), Bibi Andersson (Mia)

Perhaps Ingmar Bergman’s most famous work in cinema, and easily his most iconic, starring Max Von Sydow as a knight who is approached the personification of Death, whom he challenges to a game of chess in order to save his soul.

Ingmar Bergman’s work certainly isn’t for everyone, even if you are a fan of arthouse or world cinema, but this is quite easily the most accessible of the director’s work, setting the dour atmosphere early, with its most famous scene coming in the opening gambit.

It’s quite possibly Max Von Sydow’s finest performance also, if not the first one which comes to mind when you think of the actor’s work.

It’s certainly a film you need to be in the mood for, and unlikely to be for everyone, but it should be a film that every cinephile needs to cross off their list.

8/10