The Seventh Seal

Capt Quirk

Capt Quirk

Veteran
I just came across this on IFC, at least the last half of it. It was shot in 1956 with Max Von Sydow. The Black and White doesn't bother me, but the subtitles do, since it was shot in German. The concept is, a weary Knight plays Chess with Death. A pretty cool story, but really bad dialogue. Does anyone know if this has been dubbed in English?
 
I'm guessing the heavy heart is because "Seventh Seal" is Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece, and one of the greatest movies ever made, and while it's not your fault so no offense is intended, it's a little disheartening to find that people these days only know of it if they happen to stumble across it by accident on IFC. :)
 
I don't regularly go searching through old movies, particularly ones made well before I was. I have nothing against them at all, but I also don't necessarily know of them either. It is usually an accident that I stumble across something like this, as was the case with Seventh Seal. I had never heard of it until this morning.
 
Capt Quirk said:
It is usually an accident that I stumble across something like this, as was the case with Seventh Seal. I had never heard of it until this morning.
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A good accident then... Because it certainly is of of the best films of all times. Perhaps the Europe's equivalent to 1942s Casablanca (not a literal analogy of course since they are very different in almost every aspect). If you want something lyric and romantic with an ironic ending you can see the much recently 88 Italian movie Nouvo Cinema Paradiso, but "happy" and romantic movies are not so popular among Screenwriters and Directors across Europe (our "dark side" is something that almost every European inherited from the 2 holocaust wars). That's why I say that Bergman's great "dark" film that you sumble across is something like the great Casablanca.

I would also like to say that If you don't look for these geems your are really loosing what great cinema has to offer you! From Griffith to Cassavetes, from Eisenstein and Vertov to Fassbinder, from Flaherty to Wiseman, from Rouch trough the Atlantic to the Maysles brothers. Unfortunely, today we have to really search for good films when we had them in hundreds some decades ago. So if you are just looking to contemporary cinema let me say that you are a unhappy cinema lover!

Casablanca was also shot "before you" though, did you stumble across that one too?

Please apologise my perplexity!
 
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Actually, I know of Casablanca, but have never watched all of it. Unlike Seventh Seal, Casablanca is mentioned frequently, and you would have to be an idiot to have never heard of it. It even gets plenty of time in other movies. It's kind of like Magnificent Seven, most have either seen it, or at least heard of it, while few but the most die hard film mavens know about the Seven Samurai which it was likely based on. I have heard mention of Seven Samurai, but only watched a little of it... probably on IFC too :) I will admit, I am not a huge fan of Foreign films, mostly because I really hate subtitles.
 
Oh, I know of Ingmar Bergman, but can't honestly say I have watched his films. Again, Foreign Films aren't really big on my list.
 
Oh, I know of Ingmar Bergman, but can't honestly say I have watched his films. Again, Foreign Films aren't really big on my list.
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Thats hilarious... see while you post in this thread- are you blowing a long raspberry while wriggling a finger over your lips?
 
I definitely need to rewatch this film.

I watched it with a friend of mine about a year ago and he kept asking if we could watch it on 4x speed so we could hurry up and do something else. Perhaps that worsened my experience.......
 
I would like to see it from the beginning, as I only got to catch the last 20 minutes. The premise sounded pretty cool, and reminded me of a book I read called The War Hound and the World's Pain. That was about a Germanic Knight/Mercenary who goes on a quest on Satan's behalf to find the Grail Cup to heal the World, hopefully to grant him entrance back into Heaven. All I know about Seventh Seal, is the a Knight plays chess with Death. From what I saw, I assume he was playing for the lives of him and his party and lost. I would really like to see it in English, because I usually have to listen to most of a movie, as there are way too many distractions around here to sit and read subtitles.
 
Its a very simbolic film. Actually did an Essay on this movie at University. Worth a watch. However, anyone expecting "Persona" type Bergman be warned: this is a Bergman as close to "commercial" as he could probably get. However, do not expect Hollywood storytelling: its still very "European", or, shall we say, very "Bergman" in pace, storytelling and style.

Its a film that you will get more from it the more times you see it!
 
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