Ingmar Bergman
Il settimo sigillo

In truth, the greatest work of the late Swedish artist has already been well reviewed by the user Il_Paolo. My presentation will be an attempt to understand and help others understand the effects that each sequence of this great work, in an unsettling black and white, sought to produce.

Bergman's technique probably includes some innovations. The white fades are interesting, mainly present in the early scenes, instead of the usual black ones, giving the film's context a sensation of ephemeral amazement, perhaps of alienation. The core of the film is decidedly metaphorical, where death, hegemonic, contributes to the apt sterility of the plot which, in my opinion, could not have been executed better. Portraying death cannot be easy. Bergman, to facilitate the task, humanizes it, so that it can materialize at opportune moments. I personally imagine it, in a rather fantastic area of what remains in my brain, as an entity equipped with somewhat poor aim. Meaning, it finds itself cutting through the air with its nice scythe intending to hit someone to take them away. This explains unjust deaths, those inconceivable, those that happen all of a sudden.

The discourse might seem not very amusing but if we want to I could die myself in a moment, during the drafting of this review, and maybe it surprises you that in an impromptu manner the linear text transforms into a single letter repeated endlessly. Someone might even be wishing this upon me. In the film, death in a solid state, walks beside a warrior returning from the Crusades, finding himself in a sadly deserted landscape, devastated by the plague and a few people trying to survive as long as possible. A small company of jesters, a painter, an adulterous wife, a betrayed blacksmith, some onlookers in an inn which assumes the last place of amusement, almost fundamental, before the plague reaches everyone.

It materializes, precisely at the opportune moment, in front of the fearless knight who even decides to challenge it in a brilliant game of chess. Maybe the warrior knows that death cannot be defeated, that sooner or later he will have to succumb, he will have to yield, willing or not, to its allure. The film also highlights the fixed components of the medieval era, where a harsh bigotry, exasperated to the extreme, probably claimed more victims than the dreadful sister herself, acting naturally. At such a point, where there is nothing else to do, some choose to give themselves the last beautiful moments of life, yielding to lust, to raw alcoholism among the patrons of an inn or to a basin of freshly drawn milk and wild strawberries.

The game continues and the warrior turns out to be an excellent player. And here is where the metaphor becomes a masterpiece. Unfortunately, death cannot be defeated and apparently, it seems it has not lost any game except for a few rematches, but always won. So, even the chance to challenge it in chess, in an exciting, tense, engaged game, which nevertheless requires the time to play it and automatically more time to live, to spend, is enough to outsmart it, even for a while. No, unfortunately, you cannot defeat death, but to make fun of it a bit, you can.