Domande frequenti

Disillusioned medieval knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand) return home from the Crusades to find Sweden ravaged by the Black Death. Informed by Death (Bengt Ekerot) that it is his time to die, the knight challenges Death to a chess game, knowing that, so long as he can keep the game going, he can forestall his time on this mortal coil.

The Seventh Seal (Swedish: Det sjunde inseglet) is based on a play titled "Wood Painting" by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman [1918-2007]. Bergman then turned the play into a screenplay for the film.

The seventh seal refers to a biblical passage about the end of the world from the Book of Revelation, used both at the very start of the film and again towards the end, beginning with the words: "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (Revelation 8:1, King James Version). The assumption is that the seventh seal has been opened, and the plague is the result.

The first four seals described in Revelation are more commonly known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (1) When the first seal is opened, a white horse appears. The rider carries a bow and is given a crown and then goes out to conquer. (2) The second seal is a red horse which bears a rider who carries a large sword. Power is given to this rider to take peace away from the earth. (This seal represents war.) (3) The third seal is a black horse with a rider that carries a pair of balances, representing famine. (4) The fourth seal is a pale horse, and the rider is named Death. This rider has the power to kill using sword, hunger, death, and with beasts of the earth. Seals five and six are as follows. (5) When the fifth seal is opened, the author of the book of Revelation looks under the altar of God and sees the souls of those who were slain because of their belief in the Word of God. (6) The sixth seal is a great earthquake, in which the sun goes black and the moon goes red. The stars of Heaven fall to the earth, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place.

The only other movie by Ingmar Bergman that is set in a medieval setting is La fontana della vergine (1960) (The Virgin Spring) (1960). Viewers who are familiar with Bergman's work often recommend Persona (1966) (1966) and Luci d'inverno (1963) (Winter Light) (1962) as among his best works. Other well-known Bergman films which may not be hard to find include Il posto delle fragole (1957) (Wild Strawberries) (1957), L'ora del lupo (1968) (Hour of the Wolf), Il silenzio (1963) (The Silence) (1963), and Fanny & Alexander (1982) (Fanny and Alexander) (1982).