What is the meaning of life? Remarks on the film ”The
Seventh Seal” by Ingmar Bergman
August 15, 2014
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Bergman and his influence on cinema
In the USA for a very long time cinema was dismissed as a low form of entertainment for
the masses. Until the ”Seventh Seal” came. The famed critic Andrew Saris convinced the
American critics that cinema can be art using the film “The Seventh Seal”. The Americans
saw a film that is no less deep than most if not all books. And they saw the amazing
photography of the film, and they got convinced. ”The Seventh Seal” is a landmark in the
history of cinema. Its the first film to seriously treat the silence of good, and the meaning
of life.
In Europe, the beginning of this shift of deciding that cinema is ”important” (and later,
that it is an art form) started in Italy. Italian Neo-Realism. They dealt with the resistance,
and with the hunger after the war. In other words the films were critic on the political
situation. They looked at it this way (at least the left wing): Politics is important so so are
the films!
This open the gates to a flood of art cinema. The films of Fellini, and the films of
Antonioni that were nothing like what was seen before. But the best evidence that cinema is
art, even in Europe, came from Bergman. Franois Truffau wrote: ”In the era that Bergman
makes films, no one can deny that cinema is art”. In real time, when his films were showing,
Bergman was been considered as the best director around His status is slightly lesser today.
The critics never agreed on Bergman completely. He was raved by a majority but insulted by
some minority collection of critics that called his films The words ”obscure”, ”pretentious”
”impossible to understand” were tossed by many critics.
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1.1
The surprising influence of the film ”Summer with Monika”
How did he became the genius director he was? They let him fail and learn as he was moving.
Bergman had the luxury of doing 10 mediocre films, until maybe the first great film called
”Summer with Monika” from 1953. This film is important till today and had a surprising
influence of cinema history. His films contained critic on the way young people are treated
in Sweden, and the critic on this subject is especially strong in ”Sumer with Monika”. In the
USA, they would not have tolerated 10 mediocre and too ambitious films from a director. If
he would have worked in the USA he would never have gotten to do his 11 film, and we all
would have lost something.
”Summer with Monika” was the 11 film he directed. A great controversy started. The
depiction of nudity bothered the conservatives. Even though there was hardly any nudity.
Due to this and other films Sweden became known as as a sexually liberal place.
The French critics Franois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol,
and Jacques Rivette were thinking at the time of doing their first steps as directors. I was
surprised to hear that ”Summer with Monika” had a large influence on them. The nudity
is not to be dismissed. In the USA you could not see nudity because of the code. Nor
in France. They were young and the sex thing must have affected them. But that is not
the main thing. Franois Truffau said: ”I do not remember if at that time I saw ”Summer
Interlude” (one of the last films of Bergman before Summer with Monika”). But for me this
was a serious event. This is the movie that gave me in the impression that anyone can write
dialogue to a film or at least, I can. The idea is to be natural. To write what happens in a
day to day life. Write what you hear. I told to myself: I can write love scenes”. The films
of Franois Truffaut are among many other things a study of the relation between love and
death and without love scenes there is no Franois Truffaut.
Franois Truffaut continues: ”In the same way, I was influenced by ”Summer with Monika”.
My film ”The 400 Blows” (1959) is a version of ”Summer with Monika” but with a mail
protagonist”.
”The 400 blows”, the first feature of Franois Truffau is a a film that cites many others.
There are so many citations that the director was accused of stealing. It cited ”Zero in
conduct” by Vigo but also for example, ”The Blue Angel” a 1930 film directed by Josef
von Sternberg. And it cites many more directors Truffaut admired. I think this confession
about ”Summer With Monika” was brave by Franois Truffau. Most directors will deny any
influence.
”Summer with Monika” describes a meeting of Harry, an errands boy of 19 years old,
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and Monika. A girl of the age of 17 that has no inhibitions whatsoever. Unlike American
films, this girl is not a good person. Monika is very very selfish. And she does a terrible
thing at the end of the movie. She is sexually harassed at work. Ignored by her mother and
her drunk father hits her. The first time we see that he hits her, she leaves home (and this
echos a later scene exactly like that).
Harry steals a boat and the two spend a nice summer in the sea. The summer is cut short
when Monika gets pregnant. In these times, it meant (even in Sweden) that they had to
marry fast. So they marry and have the child, and Harry finds a better work, while Monika
awaits home with the baby. Monika cant stand this type of life. She has sex with the worse
enemy of Harry. She tells Harry: I did it out of love (Bergman is cruel as he speaks artistic
truth not box office gains). Then Harry beats her, and so again, she leaves him. But more
severely, leaves their baby.
The meaning of ”400 Blows” is to misbehave, to be a ”punk” (very related to his first
short film that was called Les Mistons that can be translated as ”The punks”). Of course if
you are not French, its not possible for you to understand the meaning of the title. The hero
of ”The 400 Blows” called Antoine Doinel is constantly tormented by adults. Like Monika
is. His teacher torments him because he claims Doinel submitted an essay that was stolen
from Balzac. The changes that Doinel made did not impress that teacher that gives him a
mark of zero (”Zero in conduct”?).
In central scene Doinel steals a typewriter from his stepfather. What he wants is to sell
it so he could leave home. Like Monika left home. His friend (a replacement for Harry) has
a house that reminds you of Xanadu from ”Citizen Kane”. This friend is rich. In this way
the director managed to cite the film ”Citizen Kane” that he admires so.
The mother of Doinel ignores him. In an early scenes of his film ”The man who loved
women”, the mother walks half naked in the house ignoring the little boy. Its not that she
wanted him to see her nude. She just is not aware of his existence. His father torments him
even more. Like with Monika.
When Doinel tries to do the right thing and bring back the typewriter Ironically, he gets
caught. His step father (the mother later reveals that he is not the real father of the boy)
has him arrested. He spends a night in jail with whores and thieves. Its hard for me to
ignore the story that Alfred Hitchcock used to tell time and again about his father getting
him arrested and making him spend a night in jail. He manages to cite Hitchcock as well.
Doinel is put in a school for children delinquents. One day he escapes. All his life he
wanted to see the ocean. He gets to the sea. The film ends with a freeze-frame on the face
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of Antoine looking into the camera. I am not aware of an older films that ended with such
freeze frame. So this film brings a new idea to cinema. For me this picture is not one of
hope, but in fact it shows that he is caught not having any place to go.
The ending of the film in the sea is related to the vacation Monika took with Harry in the
sea. ”Summer with Monika” ends with memories of Harry from the sea, and in particular
the two brief nudity scenes. Being nude, is a form of a total rebellion towards the adults.
The sea for both of them is a refuge from a cruel world. Antoine steals milk and Monika
steals a piece of meat. She, like Antoine, is caught. The people she stole from call the police.
But unlike Antoine, she escapes at the last moment. Truffaut does not copy scenes. He uses
scenes and changes them. The monologue of his mother about Antoine reminds you of the
monologue of the ant of Harry, that convinces a judge to let the pair marry, even though
Monika is a minor. The most clear connection is that Antoine that likes to steal posters of
movies, actually steals the poster of the movie ”The summer of Monika”.
Because ”The 400 blows” clearly influenced cinema, ”Summer with Monika” influenced
cinema as well.
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The perfect artist
Bergman liked the magic eye, as he called it, cinema, from childhood. His second love is of
course, the Theater. Starting in the Forties he made films and theater productions one after
the other.
Bergman made close to 60 films. His work spanned over 40 years. Later I will divide his
films to subjects.
When you see his films, they may not be clear at first. You have to think. He does not
make life easy for us. His films are many times based on dreams he had.
He simultaneously has a career in the theater and directed a huge number of productions
over all those years. And every film he writes all the scripts, and all the dialogues (a very
rare thing. The dialogues and the script are usually not written by the same person) and he
directs. He must have been the perfect artist, to be able to be so prolific. My amazement
for the number of films and theater production he directed is intensified by the fact that like
many of the great ones, he was a control freak. He planned and made sure that every detail
worked by himself. He did not want improvisation. Most critics agree that his first film is
”Prison”. Because this (sixth) movie of his was the first all-Bergman production. This film
on a prostitute that kills herself, was given a very low critic that claimed its just cruel.
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Bergman films were shown in ”art cinemas” all over the world. Even in far places like
Argentina. The film that brought him general fame was ”Smiles of a Summer Night (1955.)
The film was sent to Cannes Film Festival. Bergman finally became famous. Known all over
the world and not by intellectuals only. Bergman used a rather steady group of actors. These
actors were to appear in many of his films. And it created a special bond. Some of them
were Von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson,
and Liv Ullmann at a later stage. Sven Nykvist, a genius director of photographer was the
steady working for Bergman, and they were very close friends.
2.1
His films
His two best film (in my very lonely opinion) are “The Seventh Seal” and “Wild strawberries”.
Those two films were in the same year(!), namely 1957. And these two films are so different...
And he has a streak of masterpieces after that. I will divide them to subjects. I dropped
many many films that are less important for me, because he did about 60 films.
Films on god and death:
1) ”The Seventh Seal” 1957. One of the best films ever done.
2) ”Wild Strawberries” 1957. Masterpiece.
3) ”The Virgin Spring” 1959. Masterpiece.
4) ”Through a Glass Darkly” Masterpiece script but the film has aged.
5) ”Winter Light” from 1963. The film that describes how he loses his faith. He never
did films on god after that. A perfectly executed film.
6) The silence from 1963. A film about a world without god. For the first time an
existential film. Also related to the role of the artist in society.
7) ”Cries and Whispers”. One of the most beautiful films ever done. A film on a woman
dying that became a hit(!) all over the world, at the time that his career was down. This
film saved him.
Films on the role of the artist in society:
1) ”The Magician”. An underrated masterpiece This film seemed to have been long time
not understood. And I will claim it represents Bergman best of all of his films. See later.
2) ”Persona”. The film the critics claim to be his masterpiece (and it is a masterpiece.
but in my opinion, not THE masterpiece).
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3) Shame. A genius film from 1968. An artist looses his abilities because he has to deal
with a civil war and all it implies and thus neglects his art. The shame is ours: those who
created the war. We made the artist falter.
Films on human relationship:
1) ”Hour of the Wolf” A quite hard to understand masterpiece. From 68. Quite cruel
also.
2) ”Scenes from a Marriage”, 1973 Cruel and brave.
3) ”The magic Flute” 1975
4) Autumn Sonata from 72. This film is almost sadistic.
5) ”Fanny and Alexander” from 1982. A gem and a change in style, making a film Fellini
would have been proud to call his own.
Central to his work are women. He knows too much about woman. And central to his
work, and the issue I will not touch (at least in this essay) are relationship between people.
Married people and others.
He may have been influences by other directors, but its not clear cut for me to say this
positively. You can read in the internet the many directors he influenced. From Wikipedia the
list contains Tarkovsky, Pedro Almodva, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo
del Toro, Woody Allen, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Stanley Kubrick, Eric Rohmer that stated:
”The Seventh Seal” is the most beautiful film ever, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Steven
Spielberg, and Satyajit Ray. Ray said, and I quote: ”It is Bergman whom I continue to be
fascinated by. I think he is remarkable. I envy his stock company, because given actors like
that one could do extraordinary things.”
2.2
What Bergman said on my two favorite films of his
”Wild Strawberries” talks on an old man recalling his past while traveling to get an award.
The main attraction was the lead actor named Victor Sjstom He was a famed director of silent
films (”The wind”). Bergman seemed to say, that when he thinks of ”Wild Strawberries”,
Victor Sjstom pops into his mind. As if the movie is more related to him than to Bergman.
In other words, Bergman never opined directly about the quality of ”Wild Strawberries”
almost saying its not his film.
The critical opinion on ”Wild Strawberries”. shifted in an alarming way. For years it
was considered a masterpiece, and chosen in 1972 as one of the best 10 films ever done by
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the sight and sound poll.
With time this film was regarded lesser and lesser, and critics started to claim that the
photography in the film is bad. In the last sight and sound poll of 2012, ”Persona” was
chosen as the 17 best film ever ”Wild Strawberries” was ranked number 63 (there goes the
glory). Fanny and Alexander was ranked 83. Against my opinion ”The Seventh Seal” only
got to place 93 and Cries and whispers came 154. He has 5 films in the first 250 best and
not many have 5 films in the 250 first. Alfred Hitchcock had only 4 in the first 250.
When commenting about ”The Seventh Seal” the tone changes. Bergman says that its
one of the ”closest films to his heart” among all films he did. The affect of this film on his
career was huge. Bergman described it like this: ”The film ”The Seventh Seal” spread like
a wildfire” and I lost control over it. Then he said: ”It is certainly not a perfect film”. And
I say: ”There is no such thing as a perfect film. But ”The Seventh Seal” comes close”.
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3.1
Bergman about artists and their enemies
The rebellion of Friedrich Nietzsche and the influence on Bergman
It was in his essay ”Daybreak” that Nietzsche begins his ”Campaign against Morality”. He
rebelled against everything, and this left almost nothing if you believe in him. This ended
only with post modernism. He was against Christianity, fiercely preached against Kant that
he hated, and surprisingly against utilitarianism the latter being a theory that says that
you have to act in a way that says that your actions should maximize the total benefit and
reducing suffering or the negatives.
He is one of the only philosophers that wrote his philosophy as art. With poetry and
prose. This is because his views may lead to nihilism that he hated and the cure against
nihilism is art.
Friedrich Nietzsche did not believed in morals in the usual sense. The western idea of
egalitarianism (social equality) and rationality, he hated. He said that rationality is not
in our nature. Frued in his work that was slightly after Friedrich Nietzsche, spoke on the
subconscious and established that we are not only irrational, we are even not aware of this
fact.
A major idea in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche is the rejection of nihilism. The solution
for nihilism is art. He had high regards to artists, and in fact thought that they deserve
special Privileges.
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Quoting him: ”Art as the single superior counterforce against all will to negation of life,
art as the anti-Christian, anti-Buddhist, anti-Nihilist par excellence.”
He said that the Christian faith is highly judgmental. In the Catholic faith if something
goes wrong for some individual, the blame is one that individual. How can you crate art
with this burden? Always feeling guilty? This problem indeed haunted Bergman for years.
It was Friedrich Nietzsche that said that ”god is dead”. This is not a theological opinion
or opinion about knowledge. Its time that we grow up and leave the question of god aside
and take our destiny in our hand. The belief in god has no practical affect anyway. Friedrich
Nietzsche, like any ”sane” person knew that you cant know things about god. Instead of god
we should try to excel ourselves. Reach the ’Superman” status he wanted for the talented
amongst us. But he meant talented artists.
Friedrich Nietzsche hated pity. When you take pity with people he becomes a lesser man.
And it assumes that they can not help themselves. Pity makes you depressed. It lowers your
creative ability. We feel superior than those that we pity. Christianity is all for martyrs and
suffering. Pity makes suffering a good thing.
In the Greek philosophy there were the term right and wrong. And right is what makes
you feel happy, and wrong is what makes you feel bad. Friedrich Nietzsche admired the
Greeks and their philosophy. Nietzsche found classical Athenian tragedy as great art. From
the tragedy, you find life and hope. He said the that right and wrong were manipulated into
good and evil. And this has a terrible affect.
The laws he wanted in enact are those who are true to our real nature. He told the artist:
search what comes naturally to you. This is his most clear influence on Bergman (see later).
To others he said: by nature we want strength and power. We should not be ashamed
of that. Again, quoting Greek philosophy: being bad, is like wanting to be sad and a slave.
Wanting to be poor, weak, sick, pathetic. Why would you do that? Because in this way you
gain pity which actually gives you a lot of advantages.
So for Friedrich Nietzsche, the meek will not inherit the earth. On the contrary. The
idea of ”equality” is bad and allows people not to effort. To decide to be meek. To be
served by others, moving you to a machine like state. Rationality has the same affect
on us. It is not our nature. He blamed Descartes for this idea. If we follow logic and
rationality only, our actions can be pre determined and we turn into human machines. If
we accept rationality as the rule there is no room for creativity. New inventions are many
times considered outrageous, illogical. Einstein never got a Nobel prize for the ”Relativity
theory”. It sounded too ”stupid” and was not appreciated at all. Geniuses show us things
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we could not imagine could exists. So if compelled by what is considered right or wrong at
the time, there will be no progress. Remark: Its fair to say that Einstein got a noble award
for his work on the ”photoelectric affect”. Michel.
Instead of doing what we are told, we shall seek excellence. And excellence, should be
rewarded. The smart and talented should be given more. These ideas were adopted by the
capitalism theory.
Some corrections that do not reflect Friedrich Nietzsche. You can not have privileges
because the way you are born. If you are born rich you may be better off but you are not
important to society as artists. You can not say that there are superior races. Friedrich
Nietzsche hated nationalism, for example. He also had great affection to the Jewish people
and wrote essays praising them.
He did not reject ”morality, per se. It is not bad for the masses, and should be left to
them”. But exceptional people, (in art. Just in art) should not be limited by morality for
the masses. Many say that morality had no room in art.
Exceptional people should behave in the way that is natural to them. Get special privileges. But he was talking on the artists, not on the rich. And the special privileges is not to
mistreat people, but they should be free to engage in their art, even if society thinks their
art is immoral. Otherwise good art will not be created, and we will be lost. This is a hint
to searching for artistic truth, a thing Bergman did all his life.
Following him, many lost the belief in the ”fact” that there are good things and bad
things. This at the end lead to existentialism and the secular belief, and at the end to the
always doubting post modernism. Ironic. Friedrich Nietzsche would have hated the nihilistic
post modernism.
Fellini in ”81/2” and Bergman in ”The magician” and other films adapted the ideas that
logic has no place in art. Bergman took it a step forward. The scientist is the master of
logic. Hence the scientist is the enemy of the artist. In fact all judgemental people in general,
are bad for art. These people can exist, but the artist should not come close to them, nor
interact with them.
3.2
The scientist in ”Wild strawberries”
”Wild strawberries” speaks about a medical doctor. A scientist. Even a professor. This
professor is an emotionally blocked person. Those who were serve by the doctor, over 50
years, think he is is a very nice person. But those who know him best, his family, hate him.
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The main role is played by the Swedish director of silent films Victor Sjostrom. A worthy
tribute of Bergman to a brilliant Swedish director from the past. And Victor Sjostrom lends
his face, which is truly amazing, to the film of Bergman. Without that face the film will not
have been what it is.
The two most famous (silent) films of Victor Sjostrom were ”The Phantom Carriage”
and ”The wind”. ”The Phantom Carriage” is based on a legend that says that a person that
is the last to die at a certain year, is forced to collect the souls of the dead and carry them
on the Phantom Carriage to their final destination. The dead are everywhere. For example
in the sea. The carriage is magical and enters the sea. It can go via walls, etc. The film had
many super natural scenes. The last to die this year is a drunk named David. As David died
before his time, he is able to absolve all his sins. He left a family, because of his drinking
habits.
David carries ”The Phantom Carriage” for a long time. But at the end, David comes
back to life and saved his family. For its time (1920) a remarkable story. The super natural
touches impressed the viewers of that time. We should say that Victor Sjostrom had the
leading role in this film.
The name of the professor in ”Wild strawberries” is Isak Borg. ”Wild strawberries” has
an homage to ”The Phantom Carriage”. The night before driving to Lund to get the award
for his 50 years of service, the professor dreams. We get a short horror movie. Lynch would
have been proud of it. Isak dreams he is in a completely empty city. Then he sees a large
watch without hands. The symbol is clear: your time is up. He looks for his pocket-watch,
no hands either.
He sees a man standing there, but then this person happens to be faceless, and drops to
the ground dead after Isak touches him. A horse-drawn carriage (here is the homage ”The
Phantom Carriage”) passes by lead by two black horses. The black horses are a bad sign as
we later see from the apocalypse story. A wheel is dislodges and the coffin that was on the
carrier slips toward Borg. Borg approaches it and takes a look at the corpse in the coffin.
We see a hand in the coffin and this hand starts pulling Borg toward the coffin. The dead
turns out to be Borg himself that is now pulling himself to the coffin.
The dream tells him to make a summary of his life as he is to die soon. Make amends. His
trip to Lund to get the award should be therefore an opportunity for Isak to think on his life.
To repent for his past sins. More precisely, Isak will undergo a psychoanalytic treatment,
and will be ”cured” at the end. However, I will not elaborate on that here.
And what do we learn on the doctor? We first meet him writing. Alone, Then Isak says:
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”We pass our time by too much gossip and criticism. Therefore I decided to interact with
people as little as possible.” What a bad sign. A person that seeks to see as little people as
possible. How much emotions does he have?
He is driving to Lund and is accompanies by the wife of his son. We see the professor
in an alarmingly bad light. The professor, unlike most of the characters of Bergman is a
prototype. A symbol of people that base their lives on principals. Hard and cruel principals.
And on logic.
His daughter in law Marianne lights a cigarettes. The first thing Isak tells her is: ”Dont
smoke”.
Marianne: Sure sure
Isak: I hate the smoke of cigarettes.
Marianne: I forgot.
But Isak did not ”win” enough yet and he insists.
Isak: apart from that smoking is a waste of money and hurts your health. There should
be a law that forbids women from smoking....
He said women no less. It does not apply on men?
Marianne tries to not lose her temper and tries to change the subject.
Marianne: The weather is good.
Incredibly Isak is not done with the smoking thing.
Isak: Take a cigar for example. In a cigar you will find the divine thing of smoking
Stimulation and relaxation. Smoking in a vice that is only fit for men.
Is he trying to offend Maryann? No its much worse. He is not aware how insulting are
his words. He is a narcissist.
Marianne sarcastically asks: what are vices fit for women?
Isak: To cry, to give birth and to gossip.
Alarmed by his reactionary views Marianne asks:
How old are you??!
Isak: why?
Marianne: no reason.
Isak: I know why you are asking.
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And he does. His opinions are fit to the very old generation.
So Isak wakes up and says: I know you never liked me.
Marianne: I dont know you.. I know you only as a father in law.
Now, its a time to delve into the main issue of the film. His son Evald and Marianne have
no children. I looked for what Wild Strawberries represent in the Swedish culture. I found a
lot of nonsense. Silly absurd speculations. Words and words without saying anything. The
only thing I found, that made sense, is that Wild Strawberries represent creation. Fertility.
Thus the title of the movie points out to the fact that Marianne and his son Evald did not
indulge in the ultimate artistic creation: new life. Why is that?
Its worse: Marianne is pregnant but Evald does not want the baby. A typical scientist.
Issac, interferes with the work of art (in this film, having a baby is a symbol for art).
It is the scientist that makes the son doubt this artistic creation: having babies. After
all the experience of Evald was very bad. The secret is that Marianne is pregnant but his
son is not sure at all that they will not have an abortion. Evald does not want the baby.
They continue their conversation and talk about a loan he gave his son Evald:
Isak: ”A deal is a deal.”
Marianne: ”We are never free and your son has to work like a slave”.
Isak: ”You have your own income.”
Marianne: ”But you are filthy rich.”
Isak: ”A deal is a deal and I know that Evald respects me for that.”
Marianne: ”He respects you alright but he also hates you!”
Bang! Reality call. His son hates him! Isak is shocked and says:
Isak: ”What do you have against me?”
Marianne: ”You want me to answer honestly?!”
Isak: ”I asked, did I not?”
Marianne: ”Uncle Isak you are an old selfish man. You have no emotions and you do
not listen to anyone but yourself. You hide it well behind your kindness and grace of your
generation. You pose like a humanist. But below this mask you are a harsh person. You do
not fool us, those who know you from close.”
And it goes on like this and worse. And in fact this bad relationships between Isak and
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his son, prevents art. Prevents the Wild Strawberries. Namely, the decision to give birth to
the baby.
Its not only that. Later we find out that his wife led a miserable life. And she was
unfaithful to him. He actually daydreams on all his sins and is even held to trial. And what
is his punishment?
Being lonely.
This film by itself can get an analysis of many pages, but I will only want to make the
point about the scientist being the enemy of the artist. So I will stop here.
3.3
The magician
A vastly underrated film, that represents Bergman like no other film.
A magician travels with his wife and company. He promises super natural things, like
healing people, albeit when we see a man dying, he just watches him die and does not
react. He is called Albert Emanuel Vogler (Max von Sydow), claiming to be psychic. He is
traveling around Europe. The time is mid-18th Century. He calls his show the ”magnetic
health theater”. He pretends to treat people by hypnotism. Vogler, I think represents
Bergman himself. He sells illusions. After all and cinema is one big lie at the end. Cinema is
an illusion. The story that is described in a film is not a real story even if based on one. We
do not see scenes from life. People are acting here. Its fake. Its staged acting with cinema
tricks. The tricks may make the director feel phoney. A constant struggle.
Many filmmakers have doubts that they are selling lies. Orson Wells, is not one of them.
For his cinema is a ”magic trick”. A well prepared illusion. And the cinematic tools that
Wells applies make him, in his eyes, an engineer of feelings. He knows what technique to use
in order to induce a given reaction. He was never bothered by the nature of cinema. Orson
wells was a professional magician that worked in Vegas for a huge salary. In fact adjusted
to inflation he had the highest salary in the history of magicians that appeared in Vegas.
For Bergman a film is a dream. A film is a path to find an inner truth, that I can call
”The artistic truth” and was an issue that Nietzsche talked about.
Did I catch some internal truth? Bergman, cruel as ever spoke about all his films and
grades their honesty. Great film to me, like ”Virgin Spring” and ”The shame” he rejects.
His best films he said were ”Winter light”, ”persona” and ”Cries and whispers”..
The problem of Bergman, echoed by many other directors, is that the ideas and the
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script, hardly ever materialized like you dreamed it. The above three films, he claims, came
closest to describe the initial intent.
Like Guido says in ”81/2”: ”I dont want to sell another bunch of lies” The film ”The
magician” is a manifest against the accusation of the artist as a liar. Vogler’s doubts himself
quite a lot, has anxiety and depression. Feels like he is indeed a cheap charlatan. This is
what Bergman felt at times. In the hard times his films failed. Vogler represents him.
Volger has many enemies. They accuse him of spreading lies. A lot of close-ups shots of
Von Sydow’s face that show his doubts. In fact in Swedish the film was called ”The face”.
Changing a name is an obscene thing to do.
The main conflict in ”The magician” is between the self-doubting liar Vogler and Dr.
Vergerus (Gunnar Bjrnstrand), the local minister of public health. As as in Wild Strawberries, Vergerus is a medical doctor. The doctor badly wants to to prove that Vogler’s antics
are just tricks. For him super natural powers is a scary thing as he believes in science. And
logic/rationality.
He gives Vergerus another characteristic that put him at a bad light: Vergerus is an
atheist, while at that time Bergman was a strong believer. In ”The Seventh Seal” we shall
see that the worst character is one who believed in god but later lost his faith. Vergerus
that never believed may be worse. In a climax scene we see Vogler playing a tremendously
convincing trick on Vergerus. The magician wants to make the doctor doubt. Even if its by
tricks and lies. To do a magical trick that could not rationally be explained. This scene is a
horror movie. Vogler (which mean Bergman in this case) uses all his skills to make Vergerus
face a horror that he can not explain and the trick is highly scary. So double horror: the
horror of the trick, and the horror of not being able to explain it rationally.. The horror
feeling is also for those who see the film. A lot of interplay with light. The doctor actually
starts doubting.
However, at the end, Vergerus seems to win at to unmask the magician as a charlatan.
The question is if the Magician will be punished now? No. Not at all. In fact the
Magician is invited the perform in front of the king. Who is the king? Its a symbol for us
the viewers. We may know that movies are a lie, but we cherish what they do to us. Even
the doctor goes via a traumatic hard to explain event. He was given a bitter lesson against
his strict science rules. How can you make people cry or laugh or feel in general with science?
In his film Foreign correspondent Alfred Hitchcock shows the inside of a plane entering
the ocean. This was never shown before. When Truffaut asks him how he did it, Hitchcock
says: I lied and explained the illusion. To us it just looks like a plane entering the ocean.
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The psychology of watching a film is called ”The suspension of the disbelief”. We forget
its a film. We get caught in the story, and we are willing to accept it as reality. So Bergman
like Fellini that said on himself, ”I am an honest liar”. ”The magician” is his manifest.
Bergman says in this film: I am lying. But these are meaningful lies because people want
movies, and movies have the same impact on that as the impact on on Vergerus. My lies are
honest because they convey deep internal films I have, dreams, and pain. And even more,
these films can teach the viewers some truth about life. Bergman would probably agree with
Fellini. The question is not if you lie. You do. Its all a trick. The question is if you are an
honest liar.
Bergman explain in this film: the superego and the rational are enemies of the artist.
Judgemental people are the enemy of the artist. Logic is the enemy of the artist.
If these things are not kept away from the artist, he wont be able to make art and in this
case, it all will be lost. So keep away scientist and judgmental people from the artist.
3.4
”Through a glass darkly”: the judging father
Masterful script and photography. But a film that in my opinion aged badly.
This film speaks on alienation. And we see that Bergman is much more cinematic that
what they give him credit for. Bergman systematically shows in this film two people only,
and even this pair does not look at each other. They rather at some unclear point. This
spells alienation via cinema language.
A chamber movie Bergman called it. Only four people. In an island. The main character
Karin (Harriet Andersson), is mentally ill. She has schizophrenia. A clearly incurable illness
at the time the film was made. She has a brother Minus (cruel name) that is in the stages of
discovering his sexuality. Their father is the ”scientist-like” person in the film. Cold distant,
judgemental. The father David (Gunnar Bjrnstrand) tries to write book but Bergman gave
him a ”writer’s block” as punishment. He is on trips for a large part of the year. When they
perform a play for the father, his reaction is insult. He looks at the play as an accusation.
They can not have the simplest of human connection.
Karin learns via her father’s diary, that her father wants to incorporate her illness into
his writing. She feels highly betrayed. Her husband Martin, then accuses David of sacrificing
his daughter in order to be able to write and of only thinking on himself. Of course this
character of David is the root of all evil. Martin tells David that he is cowardly and phony.
Thats why he cant write because he has no truth in him. So how can he find the artistic
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truth? David admits that is true. He tells Martin that he had suicidal thoughts. The family
is very unusual;. It seems that Karin has sexual relation with her brother. Karin wants to
return to the hospital. She cant cope with life. Then comes this scene: She runs to the attic
and says that god is about to walk out of the closet door. We see ”something” trying to
enter her body. We are given her point of view. She says that god is a spider (a monster).
All of the time that Bergman was a religious person, his worse fear is that god is some kind
of a sadistic monster. A spider for some reason is a symbol for a monster. This is explained
in ”Winter Light”.
The question is: ”should Bergman have portrayed his worse fears about god in a rape
scene?”
I think this scene is tasteless. many other agree.
In the scale of Bergman, there is a happy ending. Minus manages to talk to his father.
Its by talking about god that creates a connection. The father thinks that god is love and
love is god.
Again we see sensitive characters, Karin and Minus, tormented by an aloof and distance
character, their father. The father that has no art in him and is phoney and judgmental.
Like a scientist.
3.5
”The silence”: the judging sister
A story of two sisters Ester and Anna and the child of Anna named Johan. The sisters do
not get along. The boy tries to create human contact, throughout the film and is a ray of
hope.
The train stops at a city whose language they dont understand. This is ironic as Ester
works as a translator. We learn that Ester is dying. Why did Bergman punishes her this
way? This will become clear shortly.
Anna is a woman without inhibitions like, say, Monika from ”Summer with Monika”.
The hate between the sisters seems to go back to their childhood, and to the way their
father treated them. Anna does not seem to care about Ester dying. She wants to have a
good time.
Anna, who has sex with a person in their hotel represents desired of the flesh. But Ester
who works and reads in bed, for a long time, represents the judging mind. In her view, sex
is something dirty (she is afraid of having sex). She judges Anna. Its a fight again between a
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girl that goes and acts according to her emotions, and another girl that represents morality
judgment, logic and order. The weak points, or at least the dangerous points of the theory of
Friedrich Nietzsche appear here. By rejecting morality, Anna is simply cruel, even if she has
her reasons. Friedrich Nietzsche laid a number of ways to combat this impression that you
can be cruel to other people according to his theory (this is definitely untrue and his theory
is fiercely against that, but if you take only part of his theory, it can become dangerous).
As cruel as it may seem, and Bergman was a cruel director, we now understand why
Ester is dying. Its her punishment for being the superego. For being self righteous. For
thinking she is morally superior and judging Anna and having pity for Anna. A pity Anna
never wanted. Ester, is just like a scientist. After all Anna is like an artist as she behaves in
the way that feels right as suggested by Friedrich Nietzsche.
The boy Johan sees his mother and the stranger kissing. Also he see’s that they enter
a room together. He feels that his mother leaves him whenever she has a chance. Friedrich
Nietzsche would not have approved that. Because the special privileges are reserved to those
who try to be super humans. Not to a girls that goes after her desires and cares about
nothing and nobody else. But Bergman still wants to make a Nietzsche-like point.
Johan, understands (I dont know how) that Ester is very ill. In one of the only kind
action in the film, he embraces her. Shows compassion.
Ester, goes unsolicited, to the room of Anne. Crying. Calls on Anna to come to come
out. Judges her. Anna turns on the light so that Ester will fully see them in bed together.
With the intent to make Ester suffer even more.
Now a Friedrich Nietzsche like discussion starts. Anna says she aspired to be ”moral”
once. But then brings the claim of Friedrich Nietzsche that Ester’s goodness is in fact mask
for hatred of Ester to of Anna that is so called ”morally ill”. Pity, a thing that Friedrich
Nietzsche hates. When Ester leaves we find pity again: ”poor Anna” says Ester enraging
Anna even more.
They leave Ester and board a train. In the train we see an unusual good ending. Ester
now understands some of the words of the strange language and gave them to the boy. Maybe
in the future people will be able to make contact, and not just find ”Silence”. Maybe Ester
was not that bad after all, or more like it, Bergman feels that he himself judged Ester too
much and that even Friedrich Nietzsche would not have approved.
The title shows that for the first time the film is indeed existential. God is not even
discussed in this film and maintains his usual silence. But the film is on the lack of communication between the sisters. On their silence. That at this time for Bergman, is way more
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important than the silence of god.
3.6
Face to Face: a profession Bergman fears
There is no artist in Bergman’s film ”Face to Face” from 1976. The hero is a psychiatrist.
This may be the profession that Bergman is afraid of most. Its the worst kind of scientist.
The scientist that looks into the soul of people. Many artists are afraid that if they will
undergo psychiatrist treatment, they will loose their art. They do not want to ”understand”
why is the art they do is as they do it.
This hostility gave rise to an over the top cruel film, that also reminds of earlier films of
Bergman. Some sense of Deja vu,. However the acting of Liv Ullmann that appears in every
scene is sublime. Maybe the best acting effort in any film of Bergman.
The psychiatrist Dr. Jenny Isaksson comes to visit her grandparents. They raised there as
her parents died in an accident. Jenny creates a touching relation with another psychiatrist
Dr. Tomas Jacobi but is married and so they keep sex out of that.
Following a rape attempt, Jenny simply collapses. It turns out that her grandparent were
distance and cold. She has a psychotic episode one after the other. Until she tried to kill
herself by taking a huge amount of peels. Jacobi saves her. The film is full of dreams, and
the color of the dreams is usually red. We see further very cruel scene: a cruel talk of Jenny
with Anna, her daughter. See sees in her hallucinations a one eye woman that represents
death. At the end of all she seems to recover.
What I suspect is that all of this suffering was brought by Bergman mainly because of
her profession. His disapproval of this profession takes center stage also in his movie ”From
the Life of the Marionettes.”
The disapproval of Bergman toward logic science etc as it pertains to its relation to art,
I am sure is very clear at this time.
3.7
The world situation as the enemy: ”Shame”
This is a masterpiece. A punch in the belly.
We see a family of an husband and a wife. No children. The first shot has nudity.
Probably Bergman thinks that many women do not sleep dressed. The pair are two artists.
They play some instrument.
They are called Jan and Eva. In the land a raging civil war, takes place. They escaped
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their home to a safer place.
The husband is a very sensitive person. Cried a lot. At start we see many signs of
affection and love between the pair. They hug and kiss. She comforts him.
They try to avoid the war. Live in the most isolated place they can find. They do not
have a radio or a phone.
The film contains two dreams. One when the film starts and one when it ends.
When the film starts Jan says: ”I dreamed we were back in the orchestra, sitting side by
side, rehearsing the 4th Brandenburg Concerto, the slow movement, and that everything we
have now we had behind us. We only remembered it like a nightmare. I woke up crying. I
started to cry when we were playing.”
The only thing that give life a meaning for him, is his playing. This was taken from his.
While Jan cries all the time, Eva, is much less sensitive.
Then the house is siege by soldiers. Lets call them side A of the civil war, The invaders
interrogate them and film it. But at least they are not killed.
Later side B also gets to their home. The video recorded by A is changed as if they are
talking against side B.
But they are released by some colonel named Jacobi. As the problems amount they
become more distant and hostile. Jacobi uses his power (he can throw them to jail) and
visit them frequently. They hate when he visits. They are disgusted by Jacobi. We learn
that Eva is forced to have sex with Jacobi. In fact we see them walking toward the green
house to engage in sex. Jan calls Eva. He finds money on their bed. He understands what is
happening and starts to cry. This is the last time he will cry. The betrayal of his wife turns
him into a monster. No more mister sensitive.
Eva sees Jan crying and says: ”cry if you think it will help.” It turned out that Jacobi
is dirty. So soldiers come to arrest him. They ask for his money. Jan hides it. Jan lies and
says that he does not know where the money is. The soldiers violently break everything in
the house and light it on fire.
Jan has changed so much that at a request of the soldiers he shoots Jacobi. He did not
use to lie. Certainly not kill. But with the war and all.....
Jan tells Eva’s he has the money and she seems very angry. Now they have a totally
hostile relationship. They hardly speak. The difference between Eva and what Jan has
become is clear when a young soldier-arrives. Eva wants to help him. Jan kills him and
takes whatever the soldier has that can be useful.
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They go to the sea. They pay with the money of Jacobi in order for a ship to take them
to safety. But the motor breaks. This makes the man steering the boat commit suicide. The
boat is caught in the middle of the water. A huge amount of dead bodies float on the war
and are around the ship. The couple knows that this is death. The ship cant move.
Now, the second dream. This time Eva tells a dream she had when she slept on the boat:
She dreams that Jan and her have a daughter, She is in a nice city but planes set this city
on fire. There are many roses in the sidewalks. They watch a bunch of roses burn. They
actually think its a pretty sight. Eva: ”I knew there was something I should remember.
Something one of us had said, but which I had forgotten. I started to cry as I remembered.”
She cant escape the war even in her dreams. The film ends.
The film is so cruel it feels like ”Paths of Glory” or ”Get out and see” (Idi Smatri in
Russian) ”All quite in the western front” or ”Germany hour Zero”. But the film is not on
the war. Its on what happens to the artist when there is a war. The shame is of society.
Those who started the civil war. They should be ashamed. Not only because people die but
also because war kills art. This is no less significant for Bergman.
While the artist learns how to be strong and cruel he is turned away more and more
from his art. In times like that the artist becomes a regular person. As if he went from the
”superman” to be a plane person. And this is a crying shame.
This is maybe the most angry film of Bergman. Maybe ”The hour of the wolf” is as cruel
but not other films. Well, it was done in 1968 in the height of the Vietnam war. There is
no good side and bad side in this civil war. They are both bad. No just reason is given for
the war. Eva always wanted children. The war ruins this possibility.
They are the victims like the Iraqi civilians in their civil war now. But Bergman also
says that society is a victim when the artists looses his art. What a shame.
3.8
The world situation as the enemy: ”Persona”
Berman grew with relatives that idolized Hitler. He remembers in visits having a big picture
of Hitler on his wall and Hitler was his idol as a child. It a long took time until grown
Berman understood what he did, and who are the Nazi.
Yet only ’Shame” and ”Persona” he hints on the war issue. Its worst with Fellini. While
Italy was in the wrong side of the second world war, only in ”Amarcord” there are hints to
the war. Fellini did not think its his job to talk about how bad the Italians have behaved.
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In this film, which I am not sure you can completely understand Bergman uses some
famous war photos and in one case, in poor taste.
Persona begins with a poem in pictures. Very strange. We see camera equipment. We see
a projectors lighting up. Then we see a crucifixion, a penis. Why? Dont ask me. Everything
goes in a poem. We see a spider (a fixation of Bergman) bits of a silent-film (the same film
appeared in his early film Prison) and then a cruel killing of a lamb. The last of course: very
symbolic. The killing of Jesus. Except that ’Persona” has no religion in it.
Finally a boy who wakes up in a hospital besides him dead people, reading a book (A
Hero of Our Time) and having a vision of one of the two ladies heroes of the film. More
than all, the child seems to idolize the concept of a film. This will be shown in the end.
A nurse Called Alma cares for an actress Elisabet Vogler who refuses to talk (even though
it appears she can). Elisabet almost does not move when the film begins. But, to explain
why she keeps silent we see her in panic when seeing the famous Vietnamese Buddhist monk’s
setting himself on fire. Alma reads aloud for Elisabet a letter from her husband sent her.
He puts in a photo of their son. This is how we learn that the artists is a mother.
Alma speaks but the artists keeps silent. The same idea of ”Shame” The goal is to show
that the artist can not function in times of war. Persona was done in 1966 when the war in
Vietnam already started. Alma is aware to the difference between and Elisabet. She gets
attached to Elisabet.
In an amazing erotic tale Alma confesses to silent Elisabet of cheating on her fiance. One
of the most erotic scenes in cinema history particularly because she just speaks and there
are no photos. Then our imagination closes the gaps. At a certain moment it seems that
Elisabet speaks. Alma is not sure. Was I dreaming it? Elisabet denies speaking.
Alma discovers Elisabet has been ”studying” her. Sees her as an inferior. Alma becomes
very upset. She breaks a bottle and leaves it there. Elisabet steps on it and her feet start to
bleed. The film breaks the sound goes uncontrolled and the film has flashes of the poem in
photos that started the movie. This shows that this is the most critical point in the movie,
when Alma finds out that Elisabet does not appreciate her. This changes her.
Elisabet walks, intentionally out of focus in the house. She walks outside to meet Alma.
Alma is crying. She tells Elisabet that she read what she wrote on her. Elisabet does not
answer and Alma tries to attack her. Its Elisabet that hits Alma. In her nose that now
bleeds. Alma grabs a pot of boiling water to throw at Elisabet. Elisabet speaks for the
first time shouting: ”No!” Alma tells harsh words to Elisabet: ”You are inaccessible. They
said you were healthy, but your sickness is of the worst kind: it makes you seem healthy.
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You act it so well everyone believes it, everyone except me, because I know how rotten you
are inside.” That evening, Elisabet opens a book with the famous photo of a child with his
hands up in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Why did Bergman use it? We got the point already. No need for using such a cruel
photo. Tasteless.
Elisabet’s husband, Mr. Vogler, comes to the house mistakes Alma for his wife. She says
all the time ”I’m not your wife”, but he still talks about about his love for her and the son.
Elisabet stands near holding Alma’s hand. Alma wants the replace Elisabet as the mother
of the boy. The reason will be clear soon.
Amazingly Alma and the husband of Elisabet have sex. Elisabet, that looks scared, just
sits there. Alma cries. Elisabet becomes blurry. And so on. It looks like Alma starts to
become Elisabet. She overpowered her and won in the game of powers against Elisabet.
In the morning Elisabet looks at a photo of her small boy. Now, Alma tells us the story
of (the is shot from the side).
I dont know how Elma knows it but this is what she says. Elisabet lets her husband
impregnate her. But worries for the changes in her body. Worries of her responsibility to her
child. Worried by the pain of birth, and for her career. She tries to abort the fetus. Many
times.
In ”Wild strawberries” given birth to a child is art. But what if the mother does not
want the child. Then its an emotional rape.
On birth she is repulsed by the baby. The child grows with no love.
After this dialogue ends, one of the most strange things I ever saw in cinema occurs. The
camera moves so we can see Elma’s face and she repeats what she says.
So at that time Bergman was a feminist. Early in his life he was anything but. But he
grew. Our puts pressure at women to have children.
And what if this is not the right right thing to do for this woman? She is an artist. What
if the baby makes her loose her art? Why a women with no babies is not women?
Here comes one of the most famous shots in cinema history. One half of the face of Alma
and the other of Elisabet’s are shown in split screen, as if they are halves of one face. They
either switch parts or merge. I am not sure what. Probably switch parts because of the
sexual encounter with the husband of Elisabet. Their persona’s switch it seems.
Alma: ”I’m not like you. I don’t feel like you. I’m not Elisabet. Vogler: you are Elisabet
22
Vogler. I’m just here to help you!”
Now we see a dream by Alma. Alma tells Elisabet to say ”nothing”. Elisabet manages
to say it. Her starting to take may indicate that she is transformed into Alma.
Elisabet become completely catatonic. Again. After acting in violence Alma leaves. The
camera turns in a highly unusual way to show the crew and director filming the scene. This
was copied by Fellini in his movie ”And the Ship Sails On” from 1983.
The boy from the poem is touching the split-screen image of Elisabet and Alma. He is
worshiping the cinema shot and cinema in general.
This film can not be explained. Bergman said on this film: not all films should be clear.
Bergman does whatever he feels. The origin of the film was the split screen shot. He thought
about it or had a dream about it. Then decided to make a film based on this shot.
The enemy of the artist, at least at start is war. But they we see another enemy of the
artist: emotional rape.
Alma knowing the history of Elisabet lends evidence to the theory that their persona’s
switch.
There are many things in this film to discuss but this is besides the point here. I will
just say that this is a films about repetition. A film about pairs.
Much later, in 1975 Tarkovsky made a very unclear film called ”The Mirror”. he certainly
took the idea that not every film should be understood seriously. Its a film about reflections.
I think that without ”persona”, we would not have ”Mirror”.
One can not plainly explain the films of a complicated individual like Bergman. r, it may
e the case that I do not have enough talent to understand all his films.
You can put films that are simple and clear in the one side: ”The seventh seal” In ”Wild
strawberries” ”Virgin Spring”. ’Winter Light”, ”Cries and Whispers” ”the silence” ”Shame”,
”face to Face”, ”From the lives of the Marionettes”, ”Scenes from a marriage”, ”Summer
with Monika” and many more as films you can fully understand.
Three films that are enigmatic to me are ”Persona”, ”Through a glass darkly”. ”The
hour of the wolves”,
We saw how critical art is for Bergman, in our lengthy prolog.
But after ’Winter lights” he mostly did films on relations between individuals, and on the
role of the artist in our world Some of these films were . ”The Silence”, ”Persona”, ”Hour
of the Wolf”, ”Shame”, ”The Rite” and many other films I already spoke about.
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This part, the pessimistic way Bergman saw relations between people deserves a separate
essay (maybe one day). In ”Scenes of a Marriage”. Bergman clearly states that he does not
think marriage is a sustainable. He was married may times. But most of his marriages did
not last long. Looking back he said: ”today I am in touch with my emotions. But looking
back I am amazed with what cruelty I left some of my wives”.
4
”The Seventh Seal” initial remarks
4.1
Origins
His father was a priest.
Bergman wrote:
”When I was a child, I was allowed to accompany my father, at times into churches of
old villages. For me as a child these places looked magical. The curves which were low in the
churches doors, the thick walls, the special smell of these churches. But also the strange wild
forest painted on the walls, and the painting of characters (and sculpts) from the medevil
times. On the ceiling and the walls. It contained all that the imagination could describe.
Scary animals.
Now Bergman describes a series of images he just dreamed of or invented as a child. If
these vision would have been there, the specific churches would have been famous. But this
is not the case.
He invents the following images:
1. In one forest chess playing chess with a crusader.
Central to ”The Seventh Seal”
2. of a wild tree, with his eyes open. Death cutting the tree.
This describes the death of Skat the managers of the actors.
3. On hills, death was leading a few people They were dancing to the dark lands.
Here he imagines the way the film ends.
4. Below some arc the sacred virgin takes a walk in a rose garden, and in front of her
walks the lamb.
The artist Jof imagines Maria with a crown walking baby Jesus.
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Bergman said: More than anything, a lot of depiction of cruelty. ”I was both attracted
and frozen and afraid from these paintings. He was a highly religious person when he made
”The seventh seal”.
Who in the film represents Bergman? I think the knight represents Bergman. Even
though the actor Jof is an artist like Bergman. But Bergman was always far from being
naive. The film is about doubts on god. And nobody shots close ups like Bergman showing
the suffering face of the Knight.
Francois Truffaut famously said: It seems to me that tomorrow’s film will be even more
personal than a novel. More individual and autobiographical that a confession or a private
diary. Directors will express them self in first person and will talk about things that happened
to them. Perhaps an account of their first love, or their most recent. The growth of their
political awareness, or a travel tale. Or an illness.
Tomorrow film will not be made by employees going about their daily routines. But by
an artist for whom shooting a film constitutes an exciting and exhaling adventure.
This already existed with Bergman. ”The Seventh seal ” is about child memories. Then
he documented his long road to loosing his faith. And then in films like ”Scenes of a marriage”
he documented his fabled marriages. In ”Persona” he just starts with an image that occurs
to him and build a whole film based on that. And his last film ”Fanny and Alexander” is
autobiographical. ’The magician” is his manifest on art. ”Through a glass darkly” shows
his worse fears about god. ”Shame” shows his fear that he may not be able to control his
artistic freedom. ”Winter light” is a film describing how he loss his faith, and ”The silence”
describes his fear from judgmental people, and the impossibility humans contact. Its all
about him. Fulfilling what Francois Truffaut said.
4.2
”The Seventh Seal”, impact
The ”Seventh Seal” had very positive reviews, and in fact had more positive reviews than any
film he made before. There were still some reservations. The cast and acting was praised and
in particular Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson got good reviews. The cinematography,
got good reviews.
Short time after the film was done, it was regarded as a masterpiece of cinematography.
The film was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 30th
Academy Awards. Amazingly, it lost.
The Seventh Seal significantly helped Bergman reputation and he became known as one
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of the best directors working. After ”The Seventh Seal”, seeing his films was considered a
must for cinema experts. The film ”The Seventh Seal” won the Special Jury Prize at the
1957 Cannes Film Festival. I never understood why they did not give it just the first prize.
Why a special jury price.
When the screening of ”The Seventh Seal” ended in Cannes, the viewers got up and gave
a very long standing ovation to this film clapping their hands.
Not only Bergman became raved, Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson became raved.
The most important cinema journal Cahiers du Cinma (the one in which Franois Truffaut,
Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette were part of its cinema
critics), strongly promoted ”The Seventh Seal”.
Bergman became known for his images of ”death playing chess with the knight”. This was
a subject to countless parodies. ”The Seventh Seal” was nothing like Hollywood ’movies’. It
was a work of an elite artistic that very fast after ”The seven seal” became highly admired
by millions around the world.
I was surprised like anybody else, the first time I saw this film very long time ago. I
thought a lot about god and very fast came to the realization that a belief and a non belief
in god are equal possibilities. We cant know anything about god. God does not reward or
punish or interfere.
Therefore believing in god is an arbitrary act, And there is no reason to do it or not to
do it.
What I saw in the movie and especially the suffering knight looking for god to speak to
him, shocked me at the time, because I did not know that cinema can be a medium that can
discuss such questions, and out loud. The bolt of lightning that this film was never went
away for me. The film was especially brave and treated subjects that were never discussed
before. At that moment I knew Bergman is a genius. Unlike many others I never changed
my opinion on Bergman and this film over the years. I thank him for doing a movie on
things that I thought a lot about, when nobody else was doing so.
4.3
Road movies
The ”Seventh seal” is a road movie, in the wrong direction. He is heading home but his
home is in the cold unforgiving north of Sweden.
In “The voyage to Kitera” and “Landscape in the midst” of Angelopolues are good
example of road movies. The latter is directly influenced by ”The Seventh Seal”. More on
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that later. In the good road movies, the main character indeed moves in the physical sense.
But the main character also change from the inside. Becomes wiser.
In the film: “Accidental tourist” by Kasadan. An emotionally blocked man (portrayed
by William Hurt) does not want to change. Trying to make every trip as least transformative
as possible. Trying to make you feel like you are at home. This is exactly the opposite to
what a road movie is.
The two most famous journeys are the ones of Moses and the Jews toward the land of
Canaan, and The Odyssey by Homer, a sequel to the Iliad, that was a journey by itself.
I note that Moses brought the Jews to the promised land, but was not allowed to enter
it. Many say its because of some sins he committed. I dont think so. The point is that
a generation of slaves should not enter the promised land. As soon as Moses goes to the
mountain, they become slaves again. Slavery is what they are used to. The born free
generation is the one to enter the land. This is also why this short journey took 40 years.
Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths) like Moses, was headed home after the
fight in Troy. The first part including the war took 10 years. The going back home, took
10 years as well. His wife Penelope remained faithful all these years. His dog waited him to
arrive, and then died. And boy, does Odysseus learns many lessons, not the least of which,
avoiding vanity and not fighting the gods. His enemy was Poseidon, the god of the sea. And
Poseidon punishes him strongly for defying him.
The knight in ”The Seventh Seal” will go via a remarkable transformation and will
become much wiser during his long journey home. In fact he will find the meaning of life.
And how many of us get to learn this?
5
”The Seventh Seal”: What is the meaning of the
name of the movie?
Its important to me to say that this film was wrongly described many time as an existential
film. The truth is nothing of the sort. The film was done at the time the fear from a the
nuclear war was in its pick. In the film ”Winter light” a priest cant prevent another person
from taking his own life. This person is obsessed with the bomb.
The name of the movie related to the apocalypse as described by ”The book of revelation” in the new testament. Times of fear (of the bomb) invite films that the end of the
world. While ”The Seventh Seal” describes ”just” the death of few people, the feeling of the
27
apocalypse being near is felt all over the film.
The film is full of symbols a thing that allows certain kind of critics to belittle the film
as outdated. But ’The seventh seal”, namely the destruction of the world looms large now
more than even then. The film is very updated and important for our times. The nuclear
danger is still here. And the chance for using it is getting higher not lower in recent years.
We are in a world in which even Muslim countries have nuclear weapon.
In Greek, the meaning of apocalypse is make some unseen object or idea seen. To
reveal.That is why it is called ’The book of revelation”.
The first apocalypse is described in the book of Isaiah in the old testament. See a
discussion on that in the essay on ”The life of Brian”.
The book of revelation describes seven seals. The ”Lamb” namely Jesus opens them. He
is the only one fit, to do so. When? In the day of judgment.
After opening the first seal, a white horse appears. This horse represents the abuse of
power. Or as others put it, conquest. The second seal brings a red horse and this horse
represents violence and killing (red-blood). In other sources, they say that this horse simply
represents wars. The third seal when opened brings a black horse that represents the famine
and the forth seal brings a pale horse. The pale horse is ridden by death itself.
In the film we see Death riding a carriage pulled by a horse.
Together these four horsemen are called the ”Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” These
times when the seals open are times of judgment and only the clean in spirit will survive.
With green being the color of Islam and red the color of Communism, many theories
surface, that are even more strange than the book of revelation.
When Jesus opens the fifth seal the voice of all those tormented and are innocent souls
are heard. Slain souls will be heard. Those who died to keep the word of the lord. The
martyrs. When god breaks the sixth seal ”a great earthquake will take place”. In addition,
the sun will became black and the moon became red like blood.
The sixth seal start the most super natural reaction of the apocalypse. The stars fall to
earth, The sky will be split apart. Mountains will be moved from their place. The sixth seal
is the wrath of god. No less.
After the Seventh Seal is opened, there is a half of hour of silent. This is the time given
to humans to repent. Before the last judgment. If you repent and you are evil, you will still
die, but your eternal soul can be saved. Others say that this half hour is the time the films
happens. I dont think so. Its way too late for that once the seals are opened.
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The things that follow are even more terrible. Including ruling of earth by ”The beast”.
Its a seven heads dragon. The comic group called Monty Python have some strange obsession
with Bergman. In ”The life of Brian” this dragon is mentioned. This beast is a symbol of
false prophet.
Later the sea turns blood and so do the rivers. The war of Armageddon between the Jews
and an enemy that comes from the north (and I was never able to reveal its identity) will
fight to the death, in a very specific place near Haifa, namely, the mountain of Meggido. The
Jews will win. The name Armageddon comes from Hebrew because ”har” means mountain
in Hebrew and thus Armageddon means the mountain of Meggido.
The Christian prophecy that is much more bleak than the Jewish one ends the same,
namely, in the The messianic era. New heaven, new earth with the New Jerusalem will
replace replace the old ones (see Genesis 1:1 and Isaiah 65:17.) And life will be easy for the
righteous people who survived.
This description from the book of Revelation is very violent and very mysterious. Thus,
many times when unusual events happen, people see it as a prelude to the apocalypse. And
this is reflected in the film itself.
In contrast, the Jewish religion predicts that before the Messiah comes, a time of great
suffering will be upon us. No super natural events. The Messiah is a human not god. When
the Jews are suffering, many suspect that this is ”Heblei Mashia” meaning (in Hebrew) the
suffering that comes before the Mashia comes.
However, the Christian end of time is filled with un natural events and thus they think
the judgment day will arrive in times in which un natural events happen. Strange things are
the sign of doom. Like the squire Jons later says to the knight:
Jons: ”In Fhkjrestad everyone was talking about evil woman and other horrible things.
Two horses has eaten each other in the night, and, in the churchyard, graves had been opened
and the remains of corpses scattered all over the place. Yesterday afternoon there were as
four suns in the heavens.”
Bergman joins together two events that did not happen at the same time, form an
historical perspective. The black plague was a terrible sickness that killed between a 1/3
and 1/2 of the population of Europe. In the film, the plague is at its pick. It was probably
due to some Asian migration that were immune to the illness but the European were not,
and a similar thing will later happen with the natives in the USA, that part of the reason
that they are almost extinct (besides many cases of genocide) is that they were not immune
to illness the Europe people brought.
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The movie starts with a knight that just returned from the crusades and the crusades
were highly cruel events. Bringing the plague and the crusade together is an act of artistic
freedom that spells: we are doomed. The seventh seal is about to come. The Apocalypse is
near.
Note that Jons talks about two horses that eat themselves and they ride two horses
which make its 4 horses. And feel free to speculate if this is a symbol for the 4 horses of the
Apocalypse.
6
What does it mean to play chess with death?
The film starts with a knight that returned from the crusades with his squire. They are at
the sea. A lot of contrast of black and white. The clouds are very dark. The lighting scarce.
The dark clouds spell doom. The two are at the the sea. This is symbolic like most things
in the movie. In the sea life started. They will travel to the house of the knight and will end
the cycle: when they arrive to his home they will die.
In this shore, there is no boat. They are riding two horses. How could have they arrived
there? How could they have gotten the horses. The film does not explain and we understand
that this film is a fairy tale. A legend. ”Once upon a time...” and what follows needs no
explanations. Because its all very mystical.
In the next shot we see a condor. Looking for dead people to eat. A music that is filled
with singing is heard, and all of a sudden it stops.
A narrator: After opening the Seventh Seal and for about half an hour there was silence.
(time to repent before the judgment of god).
We see breaking waves. The view is very biblical. In the hard ground we see a man
sleeping. He holds a small knife. He sleeps with his mouth open. A sign that he is not too
dignified.
Near this squire (later we find out that his name is Jons) lies a knight. From the white
cross on his shirt we understand that he came back from the crusades.
The face of the knight is the face of a highly suffering person. He has a sword, not a
small knife like his squire.
Then, all of a sudden a closeup on a chess board. The board and the sea waves are shown
together. The knight gets up, washes his faces with sea water.
All of sudden we see what seems to be not a man nor a woman. A person that wears all
30
black with very white pale face. He looks like a monk. His eyes are hypnotic.
The knight realizes that this ”person” is death. Death comes to collect him. ”I have been
around you for a long time” says death to the knight. This metaphor of death as a person is
one of the strongest in cinema history. Death lifts up his gown and the whole screen becomes
black, as if death wants to take us with him.
The knight that later we find out is called Antonius Block shouts ”stop”! And then says
that he knows that death plays chess well. But not as well as me (the knight says so with
no reason but to provoke death). The knight suggests that they play a game of chess. And
that he will still be alive as long as the game goes on. Then the knight says that if he, the
knight, wins death will let him live.
Death that knows that the knight can not win, agrees. They draw colors and death
gets black. ”Its appropriate isn’t it?” asks death? They seat and start the chess game.
Unpleasant noises of seagulls are heard. The knight got an extension from death, even
though death said that they all ask for extensions, and he rarely gives it. But the knight has
an important reason for prolonging his life.
What does it mean to play chess with death? This means to live. We all play chess with
death. We all know that death will win. And we all try to make this short stay of us on
earth worthy of something. Having some meaning. The knight got the extension because
death is fair at this time. After the crusades, the knight is full of doubts. He is in emotional
pain. Why does god let all this horrible things happen? the knight asks himself. Why does
he keep silent? How can I bring meaning to my life when god is silent? Who can cheat
death? Is there a way to cheat death? (The answer is yes and the is the core of the film).
And in this way, one of the easily 10 most iconic sights in the history of cinema was born.
During the chess game, the knight looks, no less, for the meaning of life, taking the
fact that god keeps silent. This is why this extension was granted. The knight represents
all of us. All those who will eventually loose to death (die) but want to find some meaning
nevertheless. But more than all the knight is the alter ego of Bergman. Bergman, it appears,
would settle for knowledge. Slowly the knight accepters that you cant know god, after a fierce
fight. But then he gets a kind of knowledge that is possible and this makes the extension a
worthy one.
There is a clear feeling that the film is a legend. Filled with symbolic and super natural
events. A historical film will not have super natural events.
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7
The knight and the squire together and alone
7.1
The knight and the squire together
It was a philosopher named Hegel (that I dont like) that discussed the master-slave relation
of the knight and Jons. This was called his Master-slave dialectic. Dialectic is when people
disagree and try to reach to the ”truth”. Socrates liked it. For me its most similar to the
communist idea of thesis, antithesis that produce synthesis. Eisenstein spoke editing this
way: You give a closeup. This is a thesis. Then a long shot. That is the antithesis. You
edit them together and get synthesis. You can say this on this pair as well. Completely
different, having issues and mutual anger: the squire is angry because the knight took him
to the crusades, but the knight is angry since the squire is so cynical. Jons has a scar on his
fame from the crusade days. Together (but not alone) they are a very functional pair. The
highly religious knight, Antonius Block, is for the first time in his life full of doubts. Jons
later uses that against the knight.
Why does the squire accepts to be a servant? Well at the time there was different social
statuses between people and the knight is simply of a higher social layer. The squire Jons is
awakened (the knight kicks him). He opens his eyes and makes a voice that sounds like that
of a pig. The difference between him and the knight is apparent. When he sleeps his mouth
open. While the knight did not sleep, and his eyes are red from lack of sleep. Later we see
that Jons is unable to see death.
The knight is noble. We see that from the start but Jons is cynical and does not believe
in god. This is why Jons is compared to a pig and to a snake later in some church. At the
time of the film it is clear that Bergman was a very religious men.
Jons will have non of this Hamlet type thoughts. He is a very practical down to earth
person. If the knight is the philosopher, Jons is the most practical person you can find.
Unlike philosophers, he does not think but rather acts. And he is brave. he saves several
weak people from evil people that want to inflict harm. His words are silly but his acts are
brave and some think Jons is the main character of the film (I disagree).
They complete each other: the thinking person, the knight and the men he could not do
without, his practical squire, a man of action. The squire actually keeps the knight alive.
Angry Jons starts singing with the goal of angering the knight.
Jons:
Up above is God Almighty So very far away. But your brother the Devil You will meet
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on every level.
Jons doubts the practicality of the belief in god. Because god keeps silent. But the devil
is here as they saw in the crusades. He sees the knight is not amused and stops singing.
And we soon meet the other sign of the coming apocalypse. The black plague.
Jons want to ask for the way from a men that appears to be sleeping. But Jons find that
this man was not sleeping. Rather, he died from the plague. He has the mark of the death
people: empty eye sockets.
Now a short a humorous conversation starts. This film is very bleak but has jokes till a
certain point in which it becomes all serious.
Knight: did he say which way we should go?
Jons: Not exactly
Knight: what did he say?
Jons: nothing
Knight: was he mute?
Jons: No, sir, I wouldn’t say that. As a matter of fact, he was quite eloquent. He was
eloquent, all right. The trouble is that what he had to say was most depressing.
The knight does not inquire further on what Jons heard. He knows Johns is cynical and
what he says could be a joke. The knight has no time for jokes. He wants the ease his
suffering.
7.2
The silence of god and the knight
The knight is suffering truly bad. A faith crisis. But he stays religious until the moment he
dies at the end of the film. When they go to a church, mentioned above, he sees crucified
Jesus and makes the Crucification sign. Then he goes to talk to someone he thinks is a
priest. With the intention that the priest will hear his confession, Later we find out that its
not a priest. Its death. Block can not live in a world without god. So he does not stop his
beliefs. Baruch Spinoza the great philosopher is called at time by mistake the ”first atheist”.
Anybody that knows anything about him, knows that Baruch Spinoza could not cope with
a world without a god more than Antonius Block. To loose god is to grow up. To take
responsibility for your own life. How many of us can grow up? Apparently not many.
Now to the discussion of Block and the Priest/Death.
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Block: I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see
my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out. I live now in
a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams.
Priest/Death: Yet you do not want to die.
Block: Yes, I do.
Priest/Death: What are you waiting for?
Block: Knowledge.
The movie talks about knowledge of god. But this is not possible as god is not in our
world. But later, the knight understands that there still is an important type of knowledge
on life. Of the kind you CAN get.
Priest/Death: You want a guarantee.
Block: Call it what you will.
Block: Is it so hard to conceive God with one’s senses? Why must He hide in a midst of
vague promises and invisible miracles? How are we to believe the believers when we don’t
believe ourselves? What will become of us who want to believe but cannot? And what of
those who neither will nor can believe? Why can I not kill God within me? Why does He go
on living in a painful, humiliating way? I want to tear Him out of my heart, but He remains
a mocking reality which I cannot get rid of. Do you hear me?
Priest/Death: I hear you.
Block: I want knowledge. Not belief. Not promise. But knowledge. I want God to put
out His hand, show His face, speak to me.
Priest/Death: But He is silent.
Block: I cry to Him in the dark, but there seems to be no one there.
Priest/Death: Perhaps there is no one there.
Block: Then life is a senseless terror. No man can live with Death and know that
everything is nothing.
Priest/Death: Most people think neither of Death nor nothingness.
Block: Until they stand on the edge of life and see the Darkness.
Priest/Death: Ah, that day.
Block: We must make an idol of our fear, and call it God.
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The knight admits that he believers in god for the wrong reasons. Because of fear. He is
afraid to live in a world without god. When existentialism was born, and a world without god
appeared, with in came the so famous Existensialistic depression. We live for no reason....
Priest/Death: You are uneasy.
Block: Death visited me this morning. We are playing chess. This respite enables me to
perform a vital errand.
Priest/Death: What errand?
Block: My whole life has been a meaningless search. I say it without bitterness or selfreproach. I know it is the same for all. But I want to use my respite for one significant
action.
Priest/Death: So you play chess with Death?
Block: He is a skillful tactician, but I have not yet lost one piece.
Priest/Death: How can you outwit Death?
Block: By a combination of bishop and knight. I will break his flank.
Death shows himself
Priest/Death: I shall remember that.
Block: Traitor! You have tricked me! But I’ll find a way out.
What does it mean that death tricks a person? Well, it happens many times. People
dying very young. This is a dirty trick of death in our random world. Cancer of all sorts
and all other fatal illnesses, car accidents, death from natural disasters, death from hunger
in Africa. Young boys being killed in Honduras and Guatemala. When the one who dies is
very young, I say that death is cheating.
Its OK if you die at 80+ after living a full life.
After Death leaves death Block looks at his hand, trying to cheer himself up and says:
Antonius Block: This is my hand. I can turn it. The blood is still running in it. The
sun is still in the sky and the wind is blowing. And I... I, Antonius Block, play chess with
Death.
To Mia the artist that he meets later he says:
”Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never
appears, no matter how loudly you call.”
35
He also tells here that he has a very boring companion. Mia asks: Jons?
Block: no. Myself.
The tool Bergman uses to explain how strong is the suffering are closeups on the face
of the actor Max von Sydow that looks older than his age. Closeups, a favorite tool by
Bergman.
Block meets a lady that the church claims ”slept with the devil”. Evil church officials
decided that she slept with the devil. And she is to be burned and she is a witch. This is
part of their strategy of making people afraid. To do so, you just need to kill a person every
once in a while.
Like the general in ”Paths of glory” that says that soldiers are like children, and you
need to execute a soldier every once in a while to keep the soldiers alert.
Block talks to the ”witch”
Block: They say you’ve had commerce with the devil.
Witch: Why do you ask?
Block: For very personal reasons. I, too, want to meet him.
Witch: Why?
Block: I must ask him about God. Surely he knows.
Witch: You can see him any time.
Block: How?
Witch: If you do as I say. Look into my eyes.
Witch: Well, do you see him?
Block: I see terror. Nothing else.
Witch: Nothing? No one? Nothing?
Block: No.
Witch: Is he not behind you?
Block: No. There is no one.
Witch: He is with me everywhere. If I stretch out my hand, I feel him. Even now. The
fire won’t hurt me.
Block: Has he said so?
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Witch: I know.
Block: Has he said so?!
Witch: I know! I know! You must see him, too.
Block: Why have you broken her hands?
Soldier: It is not us.
Block: Who?
Soldier: Ask the monk there.
Block: What have you done to the child?
The monk turns to reveal himself as Death, once again.
Since the girl is about to die, death is there. Riding a horse, like it is predicted when the
forth horseman of the Apocalypse appears.
Death: Will you never stop asking questions?
Block: No. Never.
Death: But you get no answer.
The witch is not evil at all. She is a saint. A true believer, One of those who see god in
any person. In her eyes. Behind the knight. The non doubting true believer. She says: I
know! No god did not tell me anything. I just know.
She says: the fire wont hurt me.
She does not look sad that her life will be soon terminated. She does not complain the
fact that she is a scapegoat. She behaves with class.
This girl, in fact, is pure of heart and represents another archetype: the martyr, and the
symbol to the injustice.
The evil priests that plan her burning, will not get punished and even Jons does not
come to the rescue. The only one who could punish them, god, keeps silence.
Jons and Block speak of the saint martyr being burned:
Jons: Who will look after that child? The angels? God? Satan? Emptiness? No,
emptiness, milord!
Block: It cannot be!
Jons: Look at her eyes. Her poor mind is making a discovery. Emptiness!
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Block: No!
Jons: We are helpless. We see what she sees, and her terror is ours.
Later Johns turns away and says: I cant stand it.
As we know, death must win the check game. When this happens, we get another lacking
in hope dialogue:
Death: When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.
Block: And you will reveal your secrets?
Death: I have no secrets.
Block: So you know nothing?
Death: I am unknowing.
Death is unknowing. God and death do not mix in the sense that death does not give
you any knowledge on god. So much for the heaven and hell. Nothing will become clear
after death. You will not meet god even after death.
We see the martyr girl being burned and we have to cope with the fact that nobody will
punish them for the vile deed. This is a thought that the knight cant stand.
7.3
Brave cynical Jons
In a central scene, we meet a girl that I will call ”The mute”. A girl that does not say a
word till the end of the movie in which she is given a critical role.
Jons searches for water. Then he meets Raval. Raval was the highly religious person that
convinced the knight to go to the crusades. Then Raval lost his faith. And he represents evil.
The one who lost his faith represents evil. Maybe the people that say this film is existential
should take notice here. It is clear that Bergman is very religious still when he made this
movie.
And what is Raval doing: stealing from the dead (very dangerous, they are sick).
Then we see Raval going and finding a silent woman. She does not talk. Raval intends
to rape her. We see what Jons is. He helps people. Not only the knight. He is the one, the
only one in the film, that helps people.
He recognizes Raval from 10 years ago. He hates him to begin with since he convinced
the knight to go to the crusades. His contempt is larger now that he sees that Raval lost his
38
faith and steals from the dead. He wants to cut him, but the ’mute” shouts without words
telling him, without words, not to do so, and Jons stops. Jons tells Raval: if I will meet you
again, I will cut you.
Then he tells the mute: you want to come with me? Jons tries to kiss her but she resists.
He tells her that he could have raped her but he is tired of this kind of love. He must have
done it a lot in his crusades. He asks her if she can cook and tells her he needs help in the
house. In one of the many jokes (the film is filled with jokes) he tells her: true I am married.
But I hope she is dead! Then the mute will be with him and follow him (as Jons says: you
owe me!) and she will be near her savior passive and silent until a critical point of the film.
Raval appears as his evil self in a later time. We have to point out that a blacksmith
named Plog is in Agony. We later will meet a band of artists. Their manager is called Skat.
Lisa that is the wife of Plog, fornicates with Skat and Plog is devastated. We later meet a
defenseless artist named Jof.
In this scene, Raval and Jof and a blacksmith Plog are in a tavern.
Plog, the blacksmith, is in the Tavern next to Jof, who is still dressed in his costume.
Plog is devastated that his wife cheated on him with Skat, the manager of the actors that
Jof is one of them.
Opposite him sits Raval leaning slightly forward, his face perspiring heavily. Raval rolls
an armlet out on the table.
Raval Do you want this armlet? You can have it cheap.
Jof I can’t afford it.
Raval It’s real silver.
Jof It’s nice. But it’s surely too expensive for me.
Plog Excuse me, but has anyone here seen my wife?
Jof Has she disappeared?
Plog They say she’s run away.
Jof Has she deserted you?
Plog With an actor.
Jof An actor! If she’s got such bad taste, then I think you should let her go.
Plog You’re right. My first thought, of course, was to kill her.
Jof Oh. But to murder her, that’s a terrible thing to do.
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Plog I’m also going to kill the actor.
Jof The actor?
Plog Of course, the one she eloped with.
Jof What has he done to deserve that?
Plog Are you stupid?
Jof The actor! Now I understand. There are too many of them, so even if he hasn’t done
anything in particular you ought to kill him merely because he’s an actor.
Plog You see, my wife has always been interested in the tricks of the theatre.
Jof And that turned out to be her misfortune.
Plog Her misfortune, but not mine, because a person who’s born unfortunate can hardly
suffer from any further misfortune. Isn’t that true?
Now Raval enters the discussion. He is slightly drunk and his voice is shrill and evil.
Raval Listen, you! You sit there and lie to the blacksmith.
Jof I! A liar!
Raval You’re an actor too and it’s probably your partner who’s run off with Plog’s old
lady.
Plog Are you an actor too?
Jof An actor! Me! I wouldn’t quite call myself that!
Raval We ought to kill you; it’s only logical.
Jof (laughs) You’re really funny.
Raval How strange – you’ve turned pale. Have you anything on your conscience?
Jof You’re funny. Don’t you think he’s funny? (to Plog) Oh, you don’t.
Raval Maybe we should mark you up a little with a knife, like they do petty scoundrels
of your kind.
Plog bangs his hands down on the table so that the dishes jump. He gets up.
Plog (shouting) What have you done with my wife?
The room becomes silent. Jof looks around, but there is no exit, no way to escape. He
puts his hands on the table. Suddenly a knife flashes through the air and sinks into the table
top between his fingers.
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Jof snatches away his hands and raises his head. He looks half surprised, as if the truth
had just become apparent to him.
Jof Do you want to hurt me? Why? Have I provoked someone, or got in the way? I’ll
leave right now and never come back.
Jof looks from one face to another, but no one seems ready to help him or come to his
defense.
Raval Get up so everyone can hear you. Talk louder.
Trembling, Jof rises. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but not a word comes
out.
Raval Stand on your head so that we can see how good an actor you are.
Jof gets up on the table and stands on his head. A hand pushes him forward so that he
collapses on the floor. Plog rises, pulls him to his feet with one hand.
Plog (shouts) What have you done with my wife?
Plog beats him so furiously that Jof flies across the table. Raval leans over him.
Raval Don’t lie there moaning. Get up and dance.
Jof I don’t want to. I can’t.
Raval Show us how you imitate a bear.
Jof I can’t play a bear.
Raval Let’s see if you can’t after all.
Raval prods Jof lightly with the knife point. Jof gets up with cold sweat on his cheeks
and forehead, frightened half to death. He begins to jump and hop on top of the tables,
swinging his arms and legs and making grotesque faces. Some laugh, but most of the people
sit silently. Jof gasps as if his lungs were about to burst. He sinks to his knees, and someone
pours beer over him.
Raval Up again! Be a good bear.
Jof I haven’t done any harm. I haven’t got the strength to play a bear any more.
At that moment the door opens and Jons enters. Jof sees his chance and steals the
bracelet Raval stole before from the dead and escapes. Raval intends to follow him, but
suddenly stops. Jons and Raval look at each other.
Jons Do you remember what I was going to do to you if we met again?
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Raval steps back without speaking.
Jons I’m a man who keeps his word.
Jons raises his knife and cuts Raval from forehead to cheek. Raval staggers towards the
wall.
Why does he help people all the time? Because he is basically decent. Has a sense of
justice.
When Plog is broken for his wife betrayal. Jons tries to console him.
Later Skat and Plog meet They start an argument but Plog is not very smart. Jons feeds
him lines. Again helping him. He always helps people.
Even though he is decent, he puts a completely cynical mask.
Here are some examples:
When they go in the church Jons enters a conversation with a painter.
Church Painter: Why should one always make people happy? It might be a good idea
to scare them once in a while.
Jons: Then they’ll close their eyes and refuse to look.
Church Painter: They’ll look. A skull is more interesting than a naked woman.
Jons: If you do scare them...
Church Painter: Then they think.
Jons: And then?
Church Painter: They’ll become more scared.
Jons: so they will run to the priests.
Jons hates the priests and organized religion in general.
Then he meets with a blacksmith heartbroken for his wife sleeping with Skat they talk:
Jons: It’s hell with women and hell without women. No matter how you reason it seems
like the logic thing to do is to kill them while it’s still fun.
Blacksmith Plog: Bickering and swill!
Jons: Screaming babies and diapers full of piss!
Blacksmith Plog: Sharp nails and malice!
Jons: Scuffle, fits and the devil’s aunt as a mother in law!
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Blacksmith Plog: And then when you’re going to sleep...
Jons: Then they change they’re tune!
Blacksmith Plog: Tears, complaints and wailing to high heaven!
Jons: ”Why won’t you kiss me good night?”...
Blacksmith Plog: ”Why won’t you sing a song?”...
Jons: ”How come you don’t love me like when we first met?”...
Blacksmith Plog: ”Why aren’t you looking at my new shift?”...
Jons: ”Just turn your back and snore!”...
Blacksmith Plog: Damn it!
Jons: Damn it! Now she’s gone; Rejoice!
He tells him cynically that he is better without his wife!
In summary he says:
Jons: Love is nothing but lust and cheating and lies. Only fools die of love. But feel, to
the very end, the triumph of being alive!
Maybe there is something about love after all?
Or like Jons says cynically:
Between a scarlet woman’s knees, a man like me can take his ease.
7.4
Jons saves the mute again
Who is this mute?
She goes after Jons and does not talk. She refuses any kind of carnal love like kissing.
She is like those saints that keep quite. And then, we see Raval for the third time.
Now he is dying. He has the plague. He is crying for water. The mute does not think
twice and takes a jar of water to help him.
Who is she trying to help?
The one that tried to rape her!
Have you seen a better example of turning the other cheek?
The mute, rejects sex, is loyal, holly, forgiving. She is the archetype of the saint. Not
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Mia, the artist girl in the film. The mute is the silent saint.
And here again ”cynical” Jons cares. Cares a lot. Jons stops here and tells her twice,
You can not help him. You can not help him. If she would have tried to help him she would
have caught the plagues herself. Jons saves her life for the second time. Indeed, this plague
we know from history, killed between 1/3 and 1/2 of the population in Europe at the time.
Raval is left alone and he is suffering to the max, until he falls dead.
Jons even considered trying to save ”The witch”. Fighting 8 evil men by himself!. But
looking at the eyes of the witch he says: she is already dead anyway. This indeed seems to
be the case. She is ready to die.
The creator of the film, Bergman can punish, and he does. He punishes Skat that lost
his art and Raval that lost his faith. If you want to find some justice in these brutal film,
here you have it.
8
Jof Maria and their baby
We are talking on three actors and a a baby. The manager/actor called Jonas Skat. He only
cares about sex. Long ago he lost his art. All he looks for is women to sleep with. Like Anna
from ”The silence”. Bergman does not approve people that neglect their art, and Skat will
be punished later. Going after carnal pleasures is not art.
But we also meet the perfect family of artists. Jof, Mia, and their small child Mikael. I
would guess Jof means Joseph the father of Jesus, Mia means Maria and Michael according
to the book of revelation is Jesus himself. Michael is the Leader of an army of faithful angels.
This same description is given for Jesus. Many say that Michael is Jesus Christ.
We get the entire sacred family. We see a shot of 3 sleeping in a carriage. This scene is
full of light. Jof gets up. He practices his art like juggling balls. He is completely naive an
innocent and defenseless. He tells the horse: ”Eat. Who knows if we will have food later.
The people here are not very fond of art.”
So far we have a representative of the worried philosopher, the knight, a representative of
the flesh Jons, a representative of desired Skat, a representative of brute force, the blacksmith,
the representation of evil, Raval and now the representative of imagination, Jof
We immediately see that Jof has divine visions. We hear heavenly sounds and Jof has a
vision. He sees holly Maria with a crown on her head, leading small Jesus in a walk, with
plenty of light in the shot.
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How can Bergman convey that Mia is Maria? Simple. The same actress plays both these
roles. The great actress: Bibi Andersson. So therefore Mikael is Jesus and Mia is Maria. No
doubt, a thing that must make Jof Joseph. This is a typical thing I look for. If I claim that
Jof, Mia and Mikael are Joseph, Maria and Jesus I need some evidence for that. Mia and
Maria are played by the same actress is the evidence. What I dont like in cinema analysis is
the constant assumptions that have no validations at all in the film.
After seeing the vision he goes to Mia that never trusts his visions and in any case, treats
him as a child.
Mia is wrong here. Jof’s visions are one of the most important thing in the film. They
are the point.
Jof argues about it with Mia about his vision. Skat wakes up and complains that they
never let him sleep. The baby cries and they go out. Jof plays with the baby. He says that
the baby will be a much better artist than him. He will be able to make balls stay in air and
not fall. Knowing that the baby is Jesus this does not sound impossible.
He tells his wife that he invented a song and sings: ”A pure pigeon on a tree in a summer
day singing a song of glory for god.”
The purity of this family flies in the face of all the countless dysfunctional families we
saw in other of his films. These families were psychological families and Bergman had to
show people like there are. Even if evil and petty. Bergman wants in those films to make the
character reliable. This family is clearly a philosophical family that represents the purity of
heart.
Cynical Skat says they are invited to perform a moral play on death, saying that the
priests want to scare the viewers so that they will embrace Jesus fast. Namely, the play is
intended as a brainwash. His name is close to Jons and he speaks like him about people
running scared to priests.
Skat puts a mask representing death. When he takes if off, we get a closeup on the mask.
That is the way of Bergman to relate the story of the knight and this story. They both
contain death.
Naive Jof still juggles and then hears the holly sounds again. Mia tells him: I love you
in a shot full of light. Clearly art is spiritual to Jof, and he does not think on things like
money. For him, life is art. He does not think of death.
Two forms of living were already contrasted. The knight. A man of honor duty and war.
A thinking person. A philosopher. Jons, practical, saves people. Cynical.
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On the other hand a spiritual pure family. The film takes these two groups, and by
contrast makes something that is larger than the sum. They differ by the use of light that is
dark for many scenes of the knight, for example, darkness in the scene when he meets death.
But when we see Mia or Jof, they are full of light. This family has it all so its symbolic
(perfect families do not exist). They have life simplicity, happiness. When the knight meets
Mia, Mia wins with respect to the lighting. A lot of light. Why did Bergman make the
family scared? There is no other way to say it. For Bergman life is sacred.
Later Jof is being tortured by an ignorant mob and especially Raval and Plog, and after
that he comes crying like a child to Mia that comforts him. The baby cries, and Jof forgets
the the pain and humiliation. This is the moment that Mia presents Block to Jof.
His wife Mia always shot full of life. She wears white. If we recall the archetypes of
women we see in ”81/2” then its ’The mother”, The mistress”, The wife”, the ”whore”, and
the ”lady of our dream”.
Mia in one carries the mother, the wife. and being so perfect, the woman of our dreams.
Lisa that fornicates with Skat represents both the whore and the mistress. In fact two
archetype that did not appear in ”81/2” appear here. The martyr, which is the girl they
burn, and the saint, the mute girl.
9
Jokes, Irony, Horror
9.1
Some jokes
In the scale of Bergman, Jons telling the mute that he does not like this kind of love (rape)
is a joke.
There are many. The witch that is about to be burned is covered with disgusting blood.
The church people say to Jons: the smell is so terrible, the evil one cant stand it!
Jons holds his node and says: me neither.
When Blacksmith Plog asks Jons if he has seen his wife, Jof says: no. And if she looks
anything like you, I dont want to see her.
And in the middle of the film there is a farce. Why? Its the whole scene with Lisa and
Skat and Plog. Like with Shaksphere: a comic relief. Lisa tries to seduce Skat. Its quite
funny, because each time she is more and more blunt. Each time being more obvious. Then
he goes with her.
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I should point out that a minute ago Skat acted the role of a Rooster. When he comes
to Lisa, he almost steps on a chicken. This is a gag. There is no reason for this but for the
joke of it.
Skat and Lisa later go beyond the Bushes and have sex.
Later Plog confront Skat. The meeting of Plog and Skat is just a comedy. A farce. Plog
that is not very bright is told what to say by Jons. Skat answers him, and this is a comical
situation. Then, Skat that is in fear of Plog does the following. He takes knife and says that
he will kill himself. A dramatic moment. He pulls the knife into his body and falls dead.
When everybody leaves, it turns out that he was faking. Acting. Its a fake knife.
But the joke is not over because now he will die for real very soon. Its his punishments
for neglecting his art seeking carnal pleasures and being cynical.
In the meanwhile, comically, Lisa does not need much to make Plog forgive her. She just
promises him to make his favorite food, and the not that smart Plog forgets everything.
All of a sudden Jof sees Plog. He becomes extremely scared: Jof says about Plog: he
tried to kill me! Plog apologizes. He is a brute. In a comical scene he tries to hug Jof.
Make friends with him. Seeing this person with his monster hands wanting to hug him, Jof
is afraid to get crashed and says: sure but maybe.... later... and runs away.
9.2
Friedrich Nietzsche was not talking about you!
Most jokes were related to Lisa Plog and Skat. The farce inside the horror.
And these jokes will lead to a great irony.
After pretending to kill himself (I am a great actor! Skat tells himself) Skat says he will
climb a tree and sleep and this way no bear and no sick person will find him. Bergman once
said that this tree that he climbs represents the ”tree of life.” Which is very understandable
given what comes next.
He goes up the tree and then hear noise. he looks down and death is sawing the tree!
Jonas Skat is in a tree which Death is cutting down!
Jonas Skat: Hey, you scurvy knave, what are you doing with my tree? You might at
least answer. Who are you?
This reminds me of the Pythons (that had some strange fixation on Bergman) in which
in a meeting among friends death come to collect them, and somebody says: ’Look you, you
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come here, quite uninvited and start to tell us scary stories”!
Still death saws the tree and answers Skat. Death: I’m peeling your tree. Your time is
up.
Jonas Skat: You can’t. I haven’t time.
Death: So you haven’t time?
Jonas Skat: No. My performance...
Death: Cancelled... because of Death.
Jonas Skat: Is there no exemption for actors?
Death no!
From pretending to be dead, to being dead.
This scene is very scary and from here the film will not contains any more jokes.
As you see Skat said: Is there no exemption for actors?
Bergman said clearly that he always believed that artist deserve special privileges. So
what is going on? Why not? Why did Skat not get special privileges?
Bergman says here: Friedrich Nietzsche was not talking about you! You only care about
sex. You are not a real artist.
The time of special privileges will come. But is not the main idea in the movie. The
special privileges will happen for a clear reason, making this reason the entire point of the
entire movie.
The scene Skat is killed is very scary. Death cuts the tree. Skat shouts with terrible fear
of a dying man. No less than Raval. And then the tree is cut and Skat dies.
After the tree is cut, in a cruel scene, a squirrel goes on the cut tree and starts to eat
something on it. Skat is gone and life does not remember him for a second. Life goes on.
From now on, Bergman uses very scary music. So far there was no music in most scenes
save for the singing in the scene that Block meets death.
From now on the film becomes absolutely bleak, and almost completely hopeless.
More than that, the weather becomes bad, and they drive the carriage in poring rain,
with a very scary music.
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10
Who is to fault is all the suffering: The march of
the accusing monks
10.1
The ”Mezuzah people”
The practice of blaming certain groups in society for disasters is very common in the USA.
Recently the world was shocked by the 300 lives lost in the Malaysia Airlines flight. This
flight was shot via a missile of Russian rebels. A conservative person named Bryan Fischer
spoke on this tragedy.
The fact that 100 top HIV/AIDS researchers were on the plain, may have affected his
remarks. Fischer accused the president of supporting the unacceptable homosexual behavior.
He said: ”there is any lesson about homosexuality to be taken from this tragedy, it is this:
Homosexual behavior kills, and the sooner we alert young men to this the more compassionate
we will be and they longer they will live.”
The idea is that HIV is due to homosexuals. If there were no homosexual there would
not have been HIV researchers and then... And then what? Its unclear to me.
In 2013 the head of the family research council named Tony Perkins claimed the Boston
Marathon bombing was a result of sexual liberalism and family breakdown in Massachusetts.
”America does not need gun control, it needs self-control. And a Congress that actively
discourages it through abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility s
only compounding the problem.”
This seems to me as saying that the Boston bombing happen as Massachusetts is liberal
and is a punishment from god.
An ex president candidate Mike Huckabee said about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook
Elementary School that killed 20 students and six staff members in 2012: ”We dismiss the
notion of natural law and the notion that there are moral absolutes and seemed amazed
when some kids make it their own morality to kill innocent children.”
So homosexuality leads to murder? Punishment by god.
A famous one:
In 2001, Jerry Falwell said ”gay people were responsible for the September 11 terrorist
attacks. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays
and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU,
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People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularized America. I point
the finger in their face and say, you helped this happen.”
Namely, god punished us because of liberals?
In 2012, a priest named John McTernan said that ”Hurricane Sandy, which killed at least
286 people was a result of America embracing homosexuality. By promoting homosexuality,
America has become like the ancient pagan Amorites and has now come under the judgment
of God. The Bible warns of God judging a nation that walks in these ordinances. When
the corporate attitude of a nation is friendly toward homosexuality then at this point the
iniquity is full.”
So he knows what god does and why.
Examples from Israel are abundant.
A Mezuzah is some object with Hebrew verses from the old testament nailed to the
entrance of the home of religious Jews. If a tragedy falls on the family, the religious rabbi
may say, and it happened many times, that god was punishing the family because their
Mezuzah is faulty.
An important Rabbi said about the holocaust victims that ”they were punished for being
reincarnation of evil people.” Lets call those who know what god is doing and why, and blame
parts of society for disasters the ”Mezuzah people”. When there is a tragedy, the ”Mezuzah
people” know why did god let this happen and who is to blame: homosexuals, secular people,
women that dress in a provocative way according to their standards, people that believe in
evolution, or people that eat non Kosher food, what have you.
In the ”Seventh Seal” the ”Mezuzah people” make a big entrance.
10.2
Why all this smoke?
The word incense is derived from the Latin incendere, which means to burn. Aromatic smoke
ignited.
The use of incense in religious worship predates Christianity by thousands of years. An
integral part of many religious celebrations. The Talmud,(the book that interprets the Misna,
which by itself interprets the old testament) and the Bible mentions incense many times as
part of religious rituals. Why do we use incense? In the old testament is a direct command
of god to burn incense. Incense is part of rituals. Its smoke is a symbol of mystery. And
it is especially important here as the parade of the monk is irrational and accusing to the
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extreme.
Incense and the smoke of burning incense was given as gifts to God. The smoke going up
is a symbol of our prayers going up to god. In addition Incense smoke symbolically purifies
all that it touches.
10.3
The Holier-than-thou ”Mezuzah people” in ”The Seventh
Seal
The script describes this more or less as follows:
We know in advance that the parade of the ”Mezuzah people” is an evil one. Jof and
Mia perform. And the symbol for evilness is that the parade interrupts the art. Mia stops
the act and looks afraid in front of her.
In a rapid change. People stop to laugh and stop chattering. Their faces become pale
with fear. The children stop their games and stand with frightened eyes.
Jof looks in horror. Mia takes with Mikael in her arms. Some of the women in the fall
on their knees. Some hide their faces. Some pray. many begin to
The ”Mezuzah people” arrive. They bare cross. They are Dominican monks, their hoods
pulled down over their faces. More and more of them follow, carrying litters with heavy
coffins or clutching holy relics, their hands stretched out spasmodically. The dust wells up
around their black hoods; the censers sway and emit a thick, ashen smoke which smells of
rancid herbs.
After the line of monks comes another procession. It is a column of men, boys, old men,
women, girls, children. All of them have steel-edged scourges in their hands with which they
whip themselves and each other, howling ecstatically.
In the Catholic religion, in order to get to heaven, you have the suffer. This is why this
whip each other.
They twist in pain; Looking insane. They bite their own hands and arms, whip each other
in violence. Many fall, support each other and help each other to intensify the scourging.
The monks fall on their knees, hiding their faces. Singing constantly.
A monk rises from his knees and reveals his face, which is red- brown from the sun. Then
he starts with the scare talk and the accusations.
Monk God has sentenced us to punishment. We shall all perish in the black death. You,
51
standing there like gaping cattle, you who sit there in your glutted complacency, do you
know that this may be your last hour? Death stands right behind you.
The Pythons parody this scene, in ”The life of Brian”. The monk never say they are
going to die. Just other people. In ”Brian” a person says: ”And the evil ones like you shall
die. For example you sir (points at some man in the ahudiance).
Nonk I can see how his crown gleams in the sun. His scythe flashes as he raises it above
your heads. Which one of you shall he strike first? You there, who stand staring like a goat,
will your mouth be twisted into the last unfinished gasp before nightfall?
The nonk goes around each time pointing at someone in the crowd, insulting him with no
reason and promise him hell. They are a merchant of fear, and by fear they control people.
Monk And you, woman, who bloom with life and self- satisfaction, will you pale and
become extinguished before the morning dawns?
Now, to another victim:
You back there, with your swollen nose and stupid grin, do you have another year left
to dirty the earth with your refuse? Do you know, you insensible fools, that you shall die
today or tomorrow, or the next day, because all of you have been sentenced? Do you hear
what I say? Do you hear the word? You have been sentenced, sentenced!
The Monk stops, looking around with a bitter face and a cold, scornful glance. Now, he
clenches his hands, straddles the ground and turns his face upwards.
Monk Lord have mercy on us in our humiliation! Don’t turn your face from us in loathing
and contempt, but be merciful to us for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ.
He makes the sign of the cross over the crowd and then begins a new song in a strong
voice. The monks rise and join in the song. As if driven by some superhuman force, the
penitents begin to whip themselves again, still wailing and moaning.
The procession continues. New members have joined the rear of the column; others who
were unable to go on lie weeping in the dust of the road. Jons the squire drinks his beer.
Jons This damned ranting about doom. Is that food for the minds of modern people?
Do they really expect us to take them seriously?
The Knight just simles. Looking tired.
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11
A moment of innocence
The main characters meet in what is probably the most uplifting scene of the film. People
always talk about enjoying the small things in like. There you get it.
A hot night.
The players’ wagon stands is seen and not far away the horse grazes on the dry grass.
Mia is sitting in front of the wagon with her son in her arms. They play together and
laugh happily.
The knight meets the family of artists. Mia sees him and smiles. She holds up her son.
Knight What’s his name?
Mia Mikael.
Knight How old is he?
Mia Oh, he’ll soon be two.
Knight He’s big for his age.
Mia Do you think so? Yes, I guess he’s rather big.
She lets the boy go. The knight comes closer.
Knight You played some kind of show this afternoon.
Mia Did you think it was bad?
Knight You are more beautiful now without your face painted, and this gown is more
becoming.
Mia You see, Jonas Skat has run off and left us, so we’re in real trouble now.
Knight Is that your husband?
Mia (laughs) Jonas! The other man is my husband. His name is Jof.
Knight Oh, that one.
Mia And now there’s only him and me. We’ll have to start doing tricks again and that’s
more trouble than it’s worth.
Knight Do you do tricks also?
Mia We certainly do. And Jof is a very skillful juggler.
Knight Is Mikael going to be an acrobat?
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Mia Jof wants him to be.
Knight But you don’t.
Mia I don’t know. (smiling) Perhaps he’ll become a knight.
Knight Let me assure you, that’s no pleasure either.
Mia No, you don’t look so happy.
Knight No.
Mia Are you tired?
Knight Yes.
Mia Why?
Knight I have dull company.
Mia Do you mean your squire?
Knight No, not him.
Mia Who do you mean, then?
Knight Myself.
Mia I understand.
Knight Do you, really?
Mia Yes, I understand rather well. I have often wondered why people torture themselves
as often as they can. Isn’t that so?
Mia the full of life women does not approve of the suffering of the knight. She thinks
that the knight thinks to much instead of enjoying life.
Its always true in the films of Bergman. Those who think too much are unhappy and the
simple people are happy.
Jof appears after the dancing bear scene. Mia holds him like the child he is and comforts
him.
She asks him: What have you done? How are you? What is it? Does it hurt? What
can I do? Have they been cruel to you? She cleans his dirty, bloody face. Indeed his face is
bloody.
Jof Ouch, it hurts.
Mia Why did you have to go there? And of course you drank.
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She is talking to him like a mother scolding a child.
Jof Ouch! I didn’t drink anything.
Mia Then I suppose you were boasting about the angels and devils you consort with.
People don’t like someone who has too many ideas and fantasies.
Jof I swear to you that I didn’t say a word about angels.
Mia You were, of course, busy singing and dancing. You can never stop being an actor.
People also become angry at that, and you know it.
Jof points to the bracelet he stole:
Jof Look what I bought for you.
Mia You couldn’t afford it.
Jof (angry) But I got it anyhow.
The bracelet glitters in the twilight. Mia puts it on.
Jof Oh, how they beat me.
Mia Why didn’t you beat them back?
Jof I only become frightened and angry. I never get a chance to hit back. I can get angry,
you know that. I roared like a lion.
Mia Were they frightened?
Jof No, they just laughed. Mikael crawls to them for attention.
Mia Do you notice how good he smells?
Jof And he is so compact to hold. You’re a sturdy one. A real acrobat’s body.
Mia decides that its time for introduction.
Mia Yes, this is my husband, Jof.
Jof Good evening.
Knight Good evening.
Knight I have just told your wife that you have a splendid son. He’ll bring great joy to
you.
Jof Yes, he’s fine.
Jof Have we nothing to offer the knight, Mia?
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Knight Thank you, I don’t want anything.
Mia I picked a basket of wild strawberries this afternoon. And we have a drop of milk
fresh from a cow ...
Jof ... that we were allowed to milk. So, if you would like to partake of this humble fare,
it would be a great honor.
Mia Please be seated and I’ll bring the food.
Knight Where are you going next?
Jof Up to the saints’ feast at Elsinore.
Knight I wouldn’t advise you to go there.
Jof Why not, if I may ask?
Knight The plague has spread in that direction, following the coast line south. It’s said
that people are dying by the tens of thousands.
Jof Really! Well, sometimes life is a little hard.
Knight May I suggest ... ... that you follow me through the forest tonight and stay at
my home if you like. Or go along the east coast. You’ll probably be safer there.
Mia brings wild strawberries and the milk.
Jof I wish you good appetite.
Knight I humbly thank you.
Mia These are wild strawberries from the forest. I have never seen such large ones. They
grow up there on the hillside. Notice how they smell!
Jof Your suggestion (of changing course Michel) is good, but I must think it over.
Mia It might be wise to have company going through the forest. It’s said to be full of
trolls and ghosts and bandits. That’s what I’ve heard.
Jof (staunchly) Yes, I’d say that it’s not a bad idea, but I have to think about it. Now
that Skat has left, I am responsible for the troupe. After all, I have become director of the
whole company.
Mia (mimics) After all, I have become director of the whole company.
Jons appears. Mia Do you want some strawberries?
Jof recognizes Jons and says emotionally: This man saved my life. Sit down, my friend,
and let us be together.
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Mia Oh, how nice this is.
Knight For a short while.
Well, for a short while indeed. The question is will the knight learn to enjoy the present
even for a little while. Even if it is a sort moment of happiness? It seems that he does.
Mia Nearly always. One day is like another. There is nothing strange about that. The
summer, of course, is better than the winter, because in summer you don’t have to be cold.
But spring is best of all.
Jof I have written a poem about the spring. Perhaps you’d like to hear it. I’ll run and
get my lyre.
Jof always acts and says inappropriate things like the child he is.
Mia Not now, Jof. Our guests may not be amused by your songs.
Jons (politely) By all means. I write little songs myself. For example, I know a very
funny song about a wanton fish which I doubt that you’ve heard yet.
The knight afraid he will say something cynical looks at him.
Jons You’ll not get to hear it either. There are persons here who don’t appreciate my
art and I don’t want to upset anyone. I’m a sensitive soul.
Jons says good things about himself several times. He also says that he likes to give
opinions because he knows a lot. Jons unlike the knight is sure of himself.
Knight People are troubled by so much.
Mia It’s always better when one is two. Have you no one of your own?
Knight Yes, I think I had someone.
The desperation of the knight is extreme. Maybe too extreme. ”I think I had someone?”
He has a wife. Why is everything so grim with him?
Mia And what is she doing now?
Knight I don’t know.
Mia You look so solemn. Was she your beloved?
Knight We were newly married and we played together. We laughed a great deal. I wrote
songs to her eyes, to her nose, to her beautiful little ears. We went hunting together and at
night we danced. The house was full of life ...
Mia Do you want some more strawberries?
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The knight now tells Mia lines I stated before:
Faith is a torment, did you know that? It is like loving someone who is out there in the
darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.
Mia I don’t understand what you mean.
Knight Everything I’ve said seems meaningless and unreal while I sit here with you and
your husband. How unimportant it all becomes suddenly.
He takes the bowl of milk in his hand and drinks deeply from it several times. Then he
carefully puts it down and looks up, smiling.
Mia Now you don’t look so solemn.
Knight I shall remember this moment. The silence, the twilight, the bowls of strawberries
and milk, your faces in the evening light. Mikael sleeping, Jof with his lyre. I’ll try to
remember what we have talked about. I’ll carry this memory between my hands as carefully
as if it were a bowl filled to the brim with fresh milk.
He manages to do that. To enjoy the present for a while. Even if it is short lived. This
film does not ignore the utter ruins the world is in. But it also says that suffering is not a
purpose to aspire to.
Knight And it will be an adequate sign – it will be enough for me.
Since he found a ,momentary happy time, the knight becomes less grim.
12
12.1
The meaning of life
Block meets death after the happy moment
Death I have been waiting for you.
Knight Pardon me. I was detained for a few moments. Because I revealed my tactics to
you, I’m in retreat. It’s your move.
Death Why do you look so satisfied?
Knight That’s my secret.
Death Of course. Now I take your knight.
Knight You did the right thing.
Death Have you tricked me?
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Knight Of course. You fell right in the trap. Check!
Death What are you laughing at?
Knight Don’t worry about my laughter; save your king instead.
Death You’re rather arrogant.
Knight Our game amuses me.
Death It’s your move. Hurry up. I’m a little pressed for time.
Knight I understand that you’ve a lot to do, but you can’t get out of our game. It takes
time.
Death is about to answer him but stops and leans over the board. The Knight smiles.
Death Are you going to escort the juggler and his wife through the forest? Those whose
names are Jof and Mia and who have a small son?
Knight Why do you ask?
Death Oh, no reason at all.
The knight start to plan a mission. He must save Jof Mai and Mikael.
12.2
The artists are saved
We witness a film full of horror. After that its time for us to think of a summary. Why do
we live for. How can be become immortal. And if not these two questions, then what makes
life worth living.
In his film Manhattan Woody Allen gives a list. He leaves a girl because she is too young
for him, he thinks. Only to regret it.
They have this conversation:
He is called Isaac. Tracy is going for 6 months. He wants them to come back together.
Her age does not matter anymore.
Tracy: I’ll be back in six months.
Isaac Davis: Six months are you kidding? Six months you’re gonna go for?
Tracy: We’ve gone this long, well what’s six months if we still love each other?
Isaac Davis: Hey, don’t be so mature, okay?
Isaac feels silly. He left her because she was too young.
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I mean, six months is a long time! Six months, you know you’re gonna be, you’ll be in,
in, in, in the th - working in a theater there, you’ll be with actors and directors, you knew
w you’re, you know, you go to rehearsal, and you, you hang out with those people, you have
lunch a lot, and, and, before you even know it attachments form and, and, you know, I mean,
you, you don’t want to be get into that kind a, I mean, you, you’ll change. You know, you’ll
be, you’ll be, in six months you’ll be a completely different person.
Tracy: Well, don’t you want me to have that experience? I mean a while ago you made
such a convincing case.
Isaac Davis: Ye, yeah of course I do, you know, but you - you know, you, I mean you, I,
I just don’t want - that thing about you that I like to change.
Tracy: I’ve got to make a plane.
Isaac Davis: C’mon, you don’t - C’mon. You don’t, you don’t have to - go.
Tracy: Why couldn’t you have brought this up last week? Six months isn’t so long. Not
everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people.
Have more faith in people. The message of this particular movie.
Isaac Davis reasons to live: Why is life worth living? It’s a very good question. Um...
Well, There are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh... Like what... okay...
um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Graucho Marx, to name one thing... uh...
um... and Wilie Mays...
Non Americans may be lost here: Willie Howard Mays, Jr. (I never heard that he died.
Maybe he is still alive?), was a baseball player with the nick name ”The Say Hey Kid”.
Baseball is an old love of Allen albeit he does not show this in many films. Mays played
in New York and San Francisco Giants before finishing with the New York Mets. He was
elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. Him being in NY so
much time may explain why Allen loves him.
and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony...
Note that this music was written by one of the great ones. Mozart.
and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues...
Allen love for Jazz is well known. Woody Allen even plays in an amateur band that takes
the road to perform. There is a place in NY in which Woody plays once a week, when he
can.
um... Swedish movies, naturally...
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There were no Swedish movies at the time. Only the films of Bergman arrives to the
west from Sweden. So Allen means here Bergman.
”Sentimental education”....
Sentimental Education is a novel by Gustave Flaubert describes the life of a young many
in a very important year after the French revolution: 1848.
Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne...
uh... the crabs at Sam Wo’s... uh...
I dont exactly get it. I only know of such a restaurant in San Francisco. Maybe there
was a New York restaurant by this name and I dont know.
Tracy’s face...
Its time to get the answer of Bergman which is much less detailed.
In the last time Block plays chess with death the following happens (from the script):
Death has come to him and he raises his hand.
Death Shall we play our game to the end?
Knight Your move!
Death raises his hand and strikes the Knight’s queen. Antonius Block looks at Death.
Death Now I take your queen.
Knight I didn’t notice that.
Finally, we get to the essence of the film.
The Knight leans over the game. The moonlight moves over the chess pieces, which seem
to have a life of their own.
Jof has dozed off for a few moments, but suddenly he wakens. Then he sees the Knight
and Death together. He becomes very frightened and awakens Mia.
Jof Mia!
Mia Yes, what is it?
Jof I see something terrible. Something I almost can’t talk about.
Mia What do you see?
Jof The knight is sitting over there playing chess.
Mia Yes, I can see that too and I don’t think it’s so terrible.
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Jof But do you see who he’s playing with?
Mia He is alone. You mustn’t frighten me this way.
Jof No, no, he isn’t alone.
Mia Who is it, then?
Jof Death. He is sitting there playing chess with Death himself.
Mia You mustn’t say that.
Jof We must try to escape.
Mia One can’t do that.
Jof We must try. They are so occupied with their game that if we move very quietly,
they won’t notice us.
Jof gets up carefully and disappears into the darkness behind the trees. Mia remains
standing, as if paralyzed by fear. She stares fixedly at the Knight and the chess game. She
holds her son in her arms. Now Jof returns.
Jof I have harnessed the horse. The wagon is standing near the big tree. You go first
and I’ll follow you with the packs. See that Mikael doesn’t wake up.
Mia does what Jof has told her. At the same moment, the Knight looks up from his
game.
Death It is your move, Antonius Block.
The Knight remains silent. He sees Mia go through the moonlight towards the wagon.
Jof bends down to pick up the pack and follows at a distance.
Death Have you lost interest in our game?
The Knight’s eyes become alarmed. Death looks at him intently.
Knight Lost interest? On the contrary.
Death You seem anxious. Are you hiding anything?
Knight Nothing escapes you – or does it?
Death Nothing escapes me. No one escapes from me.
Knight It’s true that I’m worried.
He pretends to be clumsy and knocks the chess pieces over with the hem of his coat. He
looks up at Death.
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Knight I’ve forgotten how the pieces stood.
Death (laughs contentedly) But I have not forgotten. You can’t get away that easily.
Death leans over the board and rearranges the pieces. The Knight looks past him towards
the road. Mia has just climbed up on the wagon. Jof takes the horse by the bridle and leads
it down the road. Death notices nothing; he is completely occupied with reconstructing the
game.
Death Now I see something interesting.
Knight What do you see?
Death You are mated on the next move, Antonius Block.
Knight That’s true.
Death Did you enjoy your reprieve?
Knight Yes, I did.
12.3
How and why are they saved
The so called visions of Jof saved the family. But Jof can see death and non artists cant.
What does it means that the artist can see death and the others cant?
The artist is consumed in his work, always afraid he will not be able to make his definite
masterpiece before he dies. The artist knows: he can cheat death. He can become immortal.
Almost everybody knows who Marlon Brando is.
Thus, seeing death is this great advantage that artists have. And with the help of Block
Jof and Mia cheat death. They will not be among those who death will take at the end.
They will be spared. The knight knocking the pieces is done to distract death and allow the
artist family to escape.
What does it mean ”To distract death”? It means to forget about him. For the reason
Woody Allen said or for your own reason. Woody Allen always called good art: a distraction,
meaning that we feel high in spirit when we see great art and this makes us forget death for
a while. Forget the hard to believe and almost impossible to accept fact, that we are going
to die one day.
The knight did not learn anything about god. But he learned that the meaning of life, in
the modest interpretation: ”The things that make life worth while” is art. You can distract
death by art. Art makes our life full and so that we do not think of death. And the artists
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can survive and cheat death. If the artist makes ”The Mona Lisa” the artist will be always
remembered. Will become eternal. This what cheating means.
For Woody Allen this is no comfort in that. I understand him. He once bitterly said: ”I
dont want to become immortal due to my work. I want to become immortal via not dying!”
After this scene, the knight is finally happy. He searched and searched for knowledge
about god, forgetting life. God has nothing to do with our lives in the practical sense. God
does not punish or intervenes, in any way whatsoever. The knight forgot that he can try to
find meaning in this world, and not expect to learn on an infinite creature with the power
to create life from nothing. The finite can not understand the infinite.
Even though the next time they meet he is going to die, Block has peace of mind, finally.
He found what he was looking for throughout the film.
13
Last meeting with death
They were heading north, so the film has many storms with very scary music. But finally
Block gets home. How would he and his wife react?
Note that we get a ”Block light” namely even though its dawn the sky is dark and it
feels like night.
Antonius Block Plog, Lisa, Jons and the ”Mute” arrive to the house of Block. Suddenly
the Knight sees his wife. He have not seen here for 10 years, but they just look at each other.
Karin I heard from people who came from the crusade that you were on your way home.
I’ve been waiting for you here. All the others have fled from the plague.
Block does not respond.
Karin Don’t you recognize me any more?
Block still does not respond.
Karin You also have changed.
Karin smiles and she touches his hand lightly. At last, human contact!
Karin Now I can see that it’s you. Somewhere in your eyes, somewhere in your face, but
hidden and frightened, is that boy who went away so many years ago.
Knight It’s over now and I’m a little tired.
Karin I see that you’re tired.
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Karin Ask them in. They will break the fast with us.
The other come in and seat in the table. The light is grim, and comes from torches on
the walls. Suddenly, for unclear reasons, Karin Reads from the book of revelation. Its like
she knows some how that they are about to die.
Karin ”And when the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about
the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them
were given seven trumpets. And another ...”
Three knocks on the door are heard. Jons fulfils his duty and goes to open the door.rises
quickly and goes to open the door.
Karin ”The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and
they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of the trees was burnt up and all the green
grass was burnt up.”
Then a scary silent falls. Its stops raining and the lighting becomes even more scary.
Karin ”And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire
was cast into the sea; and a third part of the sea became blood ...”
Jons returns.
Knight Was someone there?
Jons No, my lord. I saw no one.
Karin ”And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as
it were a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters;
and the name of the star is called Wormwood ...”
All of a sudden we see death. Now everybody can see death, for the first time in the film.
Knight Good morning, noble lord.
Karin I am Karin, the knight’s wife, and welcome you courteously to my house.
Plog I am a smith by profession and rather good at my trade, if I say so myself. My wife
Lisa – curtsy for the great lord, Lisa. She’s a little difficult to handle once in a while and we
had a little spat, so to speak, but no worse than most people.
We see that the knight is still religious:
Knight From our darkness, we call out to Thee, Lord. Have mercy on us because we are
small and frightened and ignorant.
Jons angrily says: In the darkness where you are supposed to be, where all of us probably
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are.... In the darkness you will find no one to listen to your cries or be touched by your
sufferings. Wash your tears and mirror yourself in your indifference.
Knight God, you who are somewhere, who must be somewhere, have mercy upon us.
Jons I could have given you an herb to purge you of your worries about eternity. Now it
seems to be too late. But in any case, feel the immense triumph of this last minute when
you can still roll your eyes and move your toes.
Karin Quiet, quiet.
Jons I shall be silent, but under protest.
This is what I would call a very loud silence. Jons does not easily accepts his destiny.
Now, the camera moves, and all of them are in the dark. We see light only on the mute.
But it turns out she is not mute. This saint is the one, that unlike Jons accepts her destiny
in a Christ like manner.
The stands on her knees and makes a very big effort to speak and says:
Girl It is all ended.
These are the last words of Jesus that end the story of his crucification. The girl, saint,
loyal, with great emotional power understand that there is no reason to be angry with god.
God does not top death. God lets the laws of nature work. Like an important Rabbi once
said: the world behaves in his usual way”. God does not interfere. You can choose how to
die. And the mute, chose to die in grace. Saying the words of Christ.
14
The ending
The ”cheating of death” scene is one of the most clever I know in cinema. But this film is
also famous for its ending. We see a spectacle that the painter in the church predicted. How
does death carry the people to their final resting place? He makes them dance in a long row
on the top of the mountains, a last dance of death.
We see Jof and Mia again. Mia cant see anything but Jof says.
I see them, Mia! I see them! Over there against the dark, stormy sky. They are all there.
The blacksmith and Lisa and the knight and Raval
I was a bit surprised here. How did Raval get into this dance? And why? An answer is
not given. Skat too is dancing on he top of the mountain.
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Jof
and Jons and Skat. And Death, the severe master, invites them to dance. He tells them
to hold each other’s hands and then they must tread the dance in a long row. And first goes
the master with his scythe and hourglass, but Skat dangles at the end with his lyre. They
dance away from the dawn and it’s a solemn dance towards the dark lands, while the rain
washes their faces and cleans the salt of the tears from their cheeks.
While Jof speaks, we see this divine scene of the dancing with death. One of the most
genius scenes in one big genius movie.
To lighten the mood it ends with Mia, that never trusts Jof. She does not know that his
”visions” saved their life.
Mia smiles and says: You with your visions and dreams.
Ending the film. But why do they dance?
A little trick of Bergman and a playback to death. Death always wins. But he kills them
all, death has to admit the importance of art. Because the creator of the movie forces him
to. So he leads them to the silent eternity in an act of art. Death, was forced by Bergman
to at least admit the importance of art. While Bergman lets death always win, in the last
moment, he makes death pay tribute to the meaning of life. To art.
15
The sweet hereafter
The film ”The Seventh Seal” stood as a challenge for big directors. They wanted to make
their own version of ”The meaning of life” movie.
For Fellini it was ”81/2” in which he did a film on ”The meaning of art” but art and life
is the same for him.
Kurosawa did a Film on the meaning of life. Ikiru (To live) is the resulting film. An
old man with cancer that is dying searches for the meaning of life, going over family, carnal
pleasures and more, then getting to the conclusion that life has a meaning if you help others.
In Yojimbo a warrior saves a woman much like Jof and Mia were saved in the ”Seventh
Seal”.
Angelopoulos’s ”Landscape in the Mist” is another road movie. A small boy and his
sister keep asking for the were about of their father. Their mother gives them that their
father lives in Germany, just so they will drop it. But the two take a train to this town to
meet their imaginary father. The real one disappeared long ago. In the search the boy and
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girl will find adolescent in the cruelest of way.
The film has a beautiful photography of wintry landscapes that only industry damages it.
Some images there are amazing. A horse dies in a freezing square at night when a wedding
party start. People in a beautiful shot go to see the first snowfall. They stand paralyzed
and watch the snow. An old man enters an empty cafe and plays a sad tune on a violin. for
the small boy.
In a scene that may hint to ”La Dolce Vita” a helicopter slowly lifts a huge sculptured
from the sea placing it in the harbor.
In general the film is about lack of hope About a dysfunctional society. The voyage turns
out to be cruel, but not pointless in my opinion. A lot of suffering, illness, jealousy, evil
and death. The girl is raped in a long scene, in which we see anything, the way Polanski or
Hitchcock would have filmed it.
They meet an adult that later turns to be homosexual. Then at one time they find a tiny
fragment of photographic negative. This represents cinema and art. This man tells them to
look and claims that there is a photo of a tree there.
When the film ends, they girl and boy get to the border and go down the train. In front
them there is only a lonely tree. They go and hug the tree. So the meaning of life is art,
again. This seems to come directly from ”The seventh seal”.
Orson Wells did ”what is the meaning of life” films. One is Citizen Kane and in ”F for
fake” an interesting study of what art is.
Tarkovsky, influenced by ”The Seventh seal” did a film on the meaning of life called
”Andrei Rublev”.
The comic group Monty Python was influenced by Bergman to a large extent. In their
film ”The meaning of life” death appears and collects a bunch of friends killing them. Instead
of dancing to heaven, these people get into their cars. And it seams that the cars are dead as
well, and their souls carry the death people to heaving. In this day an age, they say people
are too greedy to leave life with a dance. They rather take the car. The film should be called
”The lack of meaning of life” as the films shows that all possible worlds do not give life any
meaning.
Woody Allen has influence of Bergman all over his films. I can write an essay only on
that. I chose ”Love and Death” a film highly influenced by Bergman as the example, so we
will end on a funny note. Its one of the most funny films I ever saw.
The plot is silly enough: At the time Napoleon invades Austria, Allen plays a cowardly
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Russian reluctant to go to war. His name is Boris Grushenko, Still he is forced to e enlist in
the Russian Army.
he loves his cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton), but she loves his brother and later an ultra
boring herring merchant.
Boris becomes due to no fault of his own into a war hero.
He marries Sonja (her husband died). She only promised to marry him because he was
scheduled for a duel in which he should have died. Like all the film, their marriage is filled
with philosophical debates, and making fun of philosophical debates. Napoleon invades the
Russian Empire. Boris wants to flee but his wife plans kill Napoleon. Of course, they debate
it in empty philosophical debate. Boris agrees. Boris is caught and executed, despite being
told by a vision that he will be pardoned.
Here, nothing better shows the Bergman like affect with the Allen funny twist like the
excellent one liners and dialogues in the movie.
1. Talks of philosophy. As in ”The Seventh Seal”.
• Sonja: To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one
suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to
suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but
suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to
suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.
• Russian gentleman: So who is to say what is moral?
Sonja: Morality is subjective.
Russian gentleman: Subjectivity is objective.
Sonja: Moral notions imply attributes to substances which exist only in relational
duality.
Russian gentleman: Not as an essential extension of ontological existence.
Sonja: Can we not talk about sex so much?
The last line is the funniest in the film I think. Or maybe when Boris gets caught
and says:
”There’s been a big mistake! I know, I made it!”
• Boris wonders about the possibility that there is no god and its just a jungle with
big creatures eating little creatures.
Sonya: But, if there is no God, then life has no meaning. Why go on living? Why
not just commit suicide?
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Boris Grushenko: Well, let’s not get hysterical. I could be wrong. I’d hate to
blow my brains out and then read in the paper that they found something.
Sonja: Boris, Let me show you how absurd your position is. Let’s say there is no
God, and each man is free to do exactly as he chooses. What prevents you from
murdering somebody?
Boris Grushenko: Murder’s immoral.
Sonja: Immorality is subjective.
Boris Grushenko: Yes, but subjectivity is objective.
Sonja: Not in a rational scheme of perception.
Boris Grushenko: Perception is irrational. It implies immanence.
Sonja: But judgment of any system or a priori relation of phenomena exists in any
rational or metaphysical or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstracted
empirical concept such as being or to be or to occur in the thing itself or of the
thing itself.
Boris Grushenko: Yeah, I’ve said that many times.
• Boris: Nothingness... non-existence... black emptiness...
Sonja: What did you say?
Boris: Oh, I was just planning my future
• Sonja: I truly think this is the best of all possible worlds.
Boris: It’s certainly the most expensive.
• Allen as a child and his father speak: in Dostoevsky references:
Father: Remember that nice boy next door, Raskolnikov?
(The hero of ”Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky)
Boris: Yeah.
Father: He killed two ladies.
(Indeed he killed two ladies in ”Crime and Punishment”)
Boris: What a nasty story.
Father: Bobok told it to me. He heard it from one of the Karamazov brothers.
(”Bobok” is a short story by Dostoevsky. Karamazov brothers is a novel by him).
Boris: He must have been possessed.
(Demons is a novel by Dostoevsky)
Father: Well, he was a raw youth.
(The Raw Youth is a novel by Dostoevsky.)
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Boris: Raw youth, he was an idiot!
(An idiot. A novel by Dostoevsky).
Father: He acted assaulted and injured.
(The Insulted and Injured is a novel by Dostoevsky).
Boris: I heard he was a gambler.
(The Gambler is a novel by Dostoevsky).
Father: You know, he could be your double!
(The Double is a novel by Dostoevsky)
Boris: Really, how novel.
Instead of saying noble he says novel, ending th string of jokes.
• Boris: And so I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Actually, make
that ”I run through the valley of the shadow of death” - in order to get OUT of
the valley of the shadow of death more quickly, you see.
• Boris meets death as a young boy:
Death: You’re an interesting young man. We’ll meet again.
Young Boris: Don’t bother.
Death: It’s no bother.
• Boris: Sonja, are you scared of dying?
Sonja: Scared is the wrong word. I’m frightened of it.
Boris: That’s an interesting distinction.
• Boris: Isn’t all mankind ultimately executed for a crime it never committed? The
difference is that all men go eventually, but I go six o’clock tomorrow morning. I
was supposed to go at five o’clock, but I have a smart lawyer. Got leniency.
• Sonja: There are many different kinds of love, Boris. There’s love between a man
and a woman; between a mother and son...
Boris: Two women. Let’s not forget my favorite.
• Boris: If I don’t kill him he’ll make war all through Europe. But murder...
the most foul of all crimes. What would Socrates say? All those Greeks were
homosexuals. Boy, they must have had some wild parties. I bet they all took a
house together in Crete for the summer. A: Socrates is a man. B: All men are
mortal. C: All men are Socrates. That means all men are homosexuals. Heh...
I’m not a homosexual. Once, some cossacks whistled at me. I happen to have the
kind of body that excites both persuasions. You know, some men are heterosexual
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and some men are bisexual and some men don’t think about sex at all, you know...
they become lawyers.
An almost cruel joke on logic here with his A,B,C Michel.
Boris: Something’s missing.
Doctor: What?
Boris: I don’t know, I feel a void at the center of my being.
Doctor: What kind of void?
Boris: Well... an empty void.
Doctor: An empty void?
Boris: Yes. I felt a full void about a month ago but it was just something I ate.
• Boris: Oh, if only God would give me some sign. If He would just speak to me
once. Anything. One sentence. Two words. If He would just cough.
Sonja: Of course there’s a God! We’re made in His image!
Boris: You think I was made in God’s image? Take a look at me. You think He
wears glasses?
Sonja: Not with those frames.
• Her husband is dying. They talk:
Sonja: I know I could have been a better wife to you... kinder. I could have made
love with you more often... or once, even.
Leon Voskovec: Once would have been nice.
Woody Allen at the service of Bergman. Making fun of logic. And just saying crazy
things.
• Sonja: Boris, you’re a coward!
Boris: Yes, but I’m a militant coward.
• I was walking through the woods, thinking about Christ. If He was a carpenter,
I wondered what He charged for bookshelves.
• Napoleon: I heard you speaking to someone.
Sonja: Oh, I was praying.
Napoleon: But I heard TWO voices.
Sonja: Well, I do both parts.
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• Anton Inbedkov: Shall we say pistols at dawn?
Boris Grushenko: Well, we can say it. I don’t know what it means, but we can
say it.
• Countess Alexandrovna: You’re disgusting, but I love you.
Boris: Well, my disgustingness is my best feature.
• Gen. Levesque: They call me mad, but one day when the history of France is
written, they will mark my name well... Sidney Applebaum!
• Countess Alexandrovna: My bedroom at midnight?
Boris: Perfect. Will you be there too?
Countess Alexandrovna: Naturally.
Boris: Until midnight then.
Countess Alexandrovna: [presses his hand to her bosom] Midnight.
Boris: Make it a quarter to twelve.
Countess Alexandrovna: Midnight.
Boris: But of course.
• Anton: Grushenko? Isn’t he the young coward all St. Petersburg is talking about?
Boris: I’m not so young. I’m thirty-five.
• Boris: I have no fear of the gallows.
Father: No?
Boris: No. Why should I? They’re going to shoot me.
• Natasha: I never want to marry, I just want to get divorced.
• Sonja: And I want three children.
Boris: Yes. Yes. One of each (sex).
• Boris explains why he cant go to the army: Boris: I can’t shower with other men.
• Learning that he is a coward Sonja says:
Sonja: Boris, you can’t be serious, you’re talking about Mother Russia.
Boris: She’s not my mother. My mother’s standing right here, and she’s not
gonna let her youngest baby get shrapnel in his gums.
• Boris: Granted, I have a few eccentricities. I won’t eat any food that begins with
the letter F. Like chicken, for instance.
• Sonja: Oh don’t, Boris, please. Sex without love is an empty experience.
Boris: Yes, but as empty experiences go, it’s one of the best.
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• Sonja: Violence is justified in the service of mankind.
Boris: Who said that?
Sonja: Attila the Hun.
Boris: You’re quoting a Hun to me?
• Sergeant: If they kill more Russians, they win. If we kill more Frenchmen, we
win.
Boris Grushenko: What do we win?
• Anna: You’re praying for Ivan?
Sonja: Yes. Your husband, I loved him, as you know.
Anna: I wanted you to have some of his possessions.
Sonja: How kind.
Anna: I kept his sword and gold watch... but here, I’m giving you his mustache.
Sonja: I’ll cherish it.
Anna: Also some string. Ivan saved string.
Sonja: I know. It was one of the reasons why I loved him.
Anna: I understand that. I loved him for his string, too.
Sonja: Anything else for me?
Anna: I thought we should divide his letters. Do you want the vowels or the
consonants?
• Boris: You’re a tyrant, and a dictator, and you start wars!
Napoleon: Why is he reciting my credits?
• Boris: [composing poetry] ”I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling
across the floors of silent seas... ” Too sentimental!
[crumples up paper and throws it in the fire]
• Boris: Of course there was Old Greggor and his son Young Greggor. Oddly
enough, Young Greggor’s son was older than Old Greggor. Nobody could figure
out how that happened.
A stronger attack on logic is hard to find. Michel.
• Boris under the name Don Francisco, and Sonja posing as his sister meet and
speak in one of the most absurd dialogues I have ever heard.
Napoleon: This is an honor for me.
Boris: No, it’s a greater honor for me.
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Napoleon: No, a greater honor for me.
Boris: No, it’s a greater honor for me.
Napoleon: No, a greater honor for ME.
Boris: Well, perhaps you’re right. Perhaps it IS a greater honor for you.
Napoleon: And you must be Don Francisco’s sister.
Sonja: No, you must be Don Francisco’s sister.
Napoleon: No, you must be Don Francisco’s sister.
Sonja: No, you must be Don Francisco’s sister.
Boris: No, it’s a greater honor for me.
Napoleon: I see our Spanish guests have a sense of humor.
Boris: She’s a great kidder.
Sonja: No, you’re a great kidder.
Boris: No, you’re Don Francisco’s sister.
Yes, he helped Bergman alright. After seeing this, just out of confusion people
will not use logic. At least for a while. Michel
He cites here all the time. Not only Bergman. He mocks ”War and Peace” a lot. And
in general mocks Russian literature. The battle scene is accompanied with the music from
Sergei Eisenstein’s film Alexander Nevsky.
He makes fun of Eisenstein again with his famous (and much criticized) ”stone lions”
shot from ”Battleship Potemkin”.
Russian battle against Napoleon’s army. In the middle we see a baby carriage going down
(the famous ”Odessa steps” sequence)
The references to Bergman that are more direct are a split fact shot of of two woman
imitating ”Persona” (for no reason it seems).
The last things he says are:
Boris final Monologue:
The final monologue of Allen that asks (like in ”The seventh seal”) did I learn anything.
By the way, he talks to us after he is dead:
Boris: The question is: have I learned anything about life? Only that... only that human
beings are divided into mind and body. The mind embraces all the nobler aspirations, like
poetry and philosophy, but the body has all the fun. The important thing, I think, is not to
be bitter. You know, if it turns out that there IS a God, I don’t think that He’s evil. I think
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that the worst you can say about Him is that, basically, He’s an underachiever. After all,
you know, there are worse things in life than death. I mean, if you’ve ever spent an evening
with an insurance salesman, you know exactly what I mean. The key here, I think, is to...
to not think of death as an end, but think of it more as a very effective way of cutting down
on your expenses. Regarding love, heh, you know, what can you say? It’s not the quantity
of your sexual relations that count. It’s the quality. On the other hand, if the quantity drops
below once every eight months, I would definitely look into it. Well, that’s about it for me
folks. Goodbye.
Good is an underachiever is almost a summary of ”The Seventh Seal”. And there are
worse thing than dead is a comforting thought.
The film ends with the following monologue:
Sonja: You were my one great love.
Boris: Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m dead.
Sonja: What’s it like?
Boris: What’s it like? You know the chicken at Tresky’s Restaurant? It’s worse.
And finally, death is standing by Boris. But he wears all white. When Boris leaves to
die they start dancing. But its not the enchanted dance from ”The seventh Seal”. It is a
stupid dance with very strange moves. Parody as we said.
Woody Allen was always pessimistic as Bergman. But maybe, being Jewish.lead him to
convey the same ideas with many jokes.
And Woody Allen influence is only a small part of the legacy and influence of Ingmar
Bergman.
And remember: there are worth things than death!
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