The Seventh Seal (1957)

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Max Von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Bibi Andersson
Certificate: 8.3
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Awards: None

The Seventh Seal is a Norwegian film that takes place during the black plague. A Knight from the crusades returns home where he meets death and challenges him to a game of chess. If he wins, he gets to live. During the breaks in their chess game, he and his squire meet other characters who all have their own views on life and death. The knight is anxious to know if god exists before his time is up.

The Seventh seal is very symbolic and shows how you cannot win against death and that it is not fair. A lot of it probably went straight over my head as it is very philosophical. But unlike The Tree Of Life, it has a story to go with it. The film has great characters with a wide array of personalities. There is a sense of humour in parts which stop it from getting too depressing. Death strikes a very powerful character, dressed all in black. I would have liked to see more of him in the film all the best scenes have his character looming over the other characters.

This is a film to watch. Definitely. It's still known as a brilliant film today- more than fifty years later. I would like to watch it again to understand it better.

****Good