The Seventh Seal, Swedish allegorical dramaticfilm, released in 1957, that is widely considered directorIngmar Bergman’s greatest work and a classic inworld cinema.

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

Antonius Block (played byMax von Sydow) is a disillusioned knight who has returned from theCrusades only to find his homeland of Sweden ravaged byplague. Having witnessed so much cruelty and misery, he is unable to continue believing in God. When the personification of Death (Bengt Ekerot) comes for him, the knight suggests achess match with his life as the prize. Throughout the game Death interrupts the play in order to spread morecalamities on the world without ever answering the knight’s almost desperate inquiries about theexistence of God. The final scene is one of the mosticonic in film history, showing hand-holding figures on a hill in theirdance of death.

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The title of the film stems from theBook of Revelation (8:1), “And when the Lamb had opened theseventh seal, there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour.” Silence is a major motif in the film.The Seventh Seal marks the point in Bergman’s career when he began examining the religious themes that would become prominent in his later films.

Production notes and credits

• Studio:Svensk Filmindustri
• Director and writer: Ingmar Bergman
• Producer: Allan Ekelund
• Music: Erik Nordgren
• Running time: 96 minutes

Cast

• Max von Sydow (Antonius Block)
• Gunnar Björnstrand (Jöns, squire)
• Nils Poppe (Jof)
• Bibi Andersson (Mia)
• Bengt Ekerot (Death)