The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet)

I've been waiting to see this for a number of years, I've seen other Bergmann films but not the most famous and the most widely regarded as his best film, until now. It is his best film, it achieves the objectives of talking about big themes but looking at them in a small way. Death and destruction magnified onto a small Swedish village with a knight playing chess with Death to save three people. I was rminded of Schindler's List 'he who saves one life saves the world entire'. Reading the notes the BFI provided about the film, Bergmann talked about the imperfections of the film because it was mad quickly. That leant to the success of the film because it gave an authenticity to the performances and the relationships between the characters. Whilst I watched the film I realised that I was drinking in this beauty and that captivated me, I'm not sure if you can drink in visuals maybe you can imbibe them, maybe they intoxicate you. Bergamnn shows us the essence of life is in the avoidance of death and maybe realising that is also realising when your time is up.