The seventh seal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The seventh seal
Original title Det sjunde inseglet
The seventh seal logo.jpg
Country of production Sweden
original language Swedish
Publishing year 1957
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Ingmar Bergman
script Ingmar Bergman
production Allan Ekelund
music Erik Nordgren
camera Gunnar Fischer
cut Lennart Wallén
occupation
synchronization

German synchronous file # 5718

The seventh seal (original title: Det sjunde inseglet ) is a Swedish film drama shot in black and white from 1957 by Ingmar Bergman . The mystery play , which was set in the late Middle Ages and won awards at the Cannes International Film Festival , was Bergman's second great artistic and commercial success after The Smile of a Summer Night (1955) and made the director internationally known.

A knight returning from the crusades and wrestling with his faith meets death, which opens up the end of his life for him. The knight obtains a delay: as long as death has not defeated him in the game of chess , he can go on living.

plot

The knight Antonius Block returns from the Holy Land from the crusade and finds his home devastated by the plague . Death appears to him at sunrise with the message that its time has come. Block proposes a game of chess to death in which the decision about his life is to be made. As long as the game has not been decided, he will be granted a respite; if he wins, he will be spared. Block wants to use the time to find meaning in his existence and to receive a sign of God's existence. His squire Jöns, a more pragmatic character, usually has only ridicule for those around him, who does not stop at his master.

Block continues the journey to his estate, where he hopes his wife, whom he has not seen for years, is waiting for him. In a chapel he confesses to a priest, to whom he tells about his chess game with death and his game strategy. The priest turns out to be Death, who arranges a reunion with Block in order to continue the game. While refreshing supplies in an abandoned village, Jöns saves a girl from the looter Raval. Jöns recognizes Raval as the fanatical candidate for a priest who once persuaded Block to go on a crusade. Jöns warns him that he will "draw" his face the next time they meet. Because Jöns needs a “housekeeper”, the girl joins Block and him.

On their journey they meet among others a procession of flagellants , the blacksmith Plog and his flirtatious wife Lisa, a young woman accused of witchcraft and to be burned at the stake, as well as an actor troupe consisting of Jof, Mia, hers Son Mikael and Skat, who in the midst of the plague and superstition has kept her zest for life. Jof regularly has religious visions, but nobody believes his stories. In a tavern Raval incites the crowd against Jof. When Jöns arrives, as threatened, he cuts Raval's face with his knife.

Plog, Lisa and the actors travel on with the knight to cross a large forest under his protection. Death first brings Skat and the young woman convicted of alleged witchcraft to him, then the group witnesses Raval dying in agony from the plague. During a rest, Death appears again and asks Block to continue the game of chess. Block asks death about the meaning of things, and it turns out that death itself does not know the reasons for its own existence and its actions. Jof, who is secretly watching the game, gets scared and steals away with his family. Block notices their departure and distracts his opponent by apparently accidentally knocking over the pieces. The death, the figures back to their previous positions and sets the knight checkmate . He announces that he will take Block and his companions with him the next time he appears.

The travelers reach Blocks Burg, where his wife Karin receives him and his companions. While they are eating, death appears to keep its promise. Those present react differently: Block prays desperately, Jöns protests, the girl from the village smiles and complies with her fate with the words “It is done!”.

At daybreak, Jof sees a procession wandering along the horizon. Death goes ahead and pulls those condemned to death behind it like a dance of death . When he tells Mia what he sees, she makes fun of his vivid imagination. The family moves on with their car.

background

Wall painting by Albertus Pictor in the church of Täby , Sweden (15th century).

Development of the script

Ingmar Bergman's original incentive, The Seventh Seal to turn, went to his own statement to the Vagantenlieder in Carl Orff's composition Carmina Burana back: "People who went through the downfall of civilization and culture and gebärten new songs, which was a tempting material for me . “- Reviewers identified Albrecht Dürer's copperplate, Ritter, Tod und Teufel (1513) and August Strindberg's drama Folkungersage (1899) as further sources of inspiration . Parallels were also drawn between motifs in the film, such as death playing chess or cutting a tree, and the paintings by Albertus Pictor , whom Bergman even lets appear in person. The idea of ​​delaying death by challenging him to play a game previously appeared in the Upper Bavarian dialect poet Franz von Kobell in his story Der Brandner Kaspar , but there is no evidence that Bergman was aware of this story, although it was known had long since been adapted into a successful play by the time Bergman made his film.

Bergman wrote the script after his 1953-1954 written one-act play Trämålning (German: "wood painting"). This emerged from a practice piece for drama students at the Malmö City Theater consisting of a series of longer monologues . Bergman made radical changes to the material in which the squire Jöns played the main role and the knight played a minor role, and introduced new characters such as Death and Jof and Mia (short for Joseph and Maria ). Bergman dedicated the script, which was completed in June 1956, to his then partner Bibi Andersson , who had encouraged him to leave comedy behind (which he had tried out in, among other things, The Smile of a Summer Night and Lesson in Love ).

The director later confessed in an interview that he found the film to be a success, but “theatrical”, which was due to the fact that the stage was based on it. Also, in contrast to One Summer Long (1951), it was made purely “with the mind”. However, this contradicts the statement that his intention was "to paint like a medieval church painter, with the same objective interest, with the same tenderness and joy".

production

Carl Anders Dymling , head of the film production company Svensk Filmindustri , had initially rejected the material. However, following the success of A Summer Night's Smile at the Cannes International Film Festival , Dymling agreed to produce Bergman's new project. His conditions included Bergman's willingness to work on a small budget and a 35-day limit on shooting.

Ingmar Bergman with actor Bengt Ekerot

The shooting under the working title "Riddaren och döden" (German "The Knight and Death") found from 2 July to 24 August 1956 in Hovs hallar in the southern Swedish province of Skåne and the Råsunda studios in Filmstaden , Solna , instead . A few outdoor shots such as the prologue on the seashore and the dance of death spontaneously created with members of the film crew were shot in Hovs hallar ; Bergman later noted with pride that he had "managed to get this big and complicated film done in such a short time and so cheaply". The artificially created stream in the forest and the pyre caused technical breakdowns to affect the surrounding buildings through flooding and smoke. The seventh seal was also the first Bergman film to star in Max von Sydow , who was already a member of Bergman's theater company in Malmö. Gunnar Björnstrand repeated his role as Jöns from previous theater performances.

Movie title

The title “seventh seal” comes from the Revelation of John , which addresses the Last Judgment : “And when the lamb broke the seventh seal, a silence arose in heaven that only ended after half an hour. And the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, got ready to blow their trumpets. ”This is quoted in the prologue (in the finished film, the script does not yet contain the opening quote) and in the finale of Block's wife Karin read out shortly before death appears in Block's castle.

Film start

The seventh seal premiered in Sweden on February 16, 1957. Despite the “devastating” (Bergman) premiere in front of a hostile audience at a gala event, the film quickly developed into an international success. Like The Smile of a Summer Night , The Seventh Seal also received a special award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film opened in France on December 11, 1957, in the USA on October 13, 1958. In Germany , The Seventh Seal only opened in cinemas on February 14, 1962, although the film was released on August 24, 1957 in the Nordic region Filmtage Lübeck was shown. The film opened in the GDR on August 10, 1971.

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created in 1961 at Beta Technik, Munich, based on the dialogue script and dialogue direction by Manfred R. Köhler .

role actor German Dubbing voice
Antonius Block Max von Sydow Harald Leipnitz
the death Bengt Ekerot Hans Baur
Jof Nils Poppe Harry Wüstenhagen
Squire Jöns Gunnar Bjornstrand Rolf Boysen
Mia Bibi Andersson Johanna von Koczian
Blacksmith plog Åke Fridell Erik Jelde
Karin, Block's wife Inga Landgré Rosemarie Fendel
Albertus Pictor , church painter Gunnar Olsson Wolf Ackva
The monk Different from Ek Christian Marshal
teller Niels Clausnitzer

Historical facts

Excerpt from the dance of death in the parish church of Nørre Alslev , Denmark (14th century).

In his foreword to the script's book publication, Bergman emphasized that the film was not an attempt to paint a realistic picture of Sweden in the Middle Ages, but "an attempt at modern poetry that translates the life experiences of a modern person into a form that is very free from medieval conditions bypasses. ”Bergman's depiction of the Middle Ages shows not only historically guaranteed details but also various anachronisms :

The raging of the plague or the "black death" began in Sweden around 1350. This had taken its way from northern Germany via Denmark and Norway. In a dialogue, the squire Jöns describes his and Block's experiences in the Holy Land, the goal of the crusade they had joined. However, the last crusade to Jerusalem was undertaken a few decades earlier than the outbreak of the plague in Sweden, in the second half of the 13th century.

The artistic representation of the dance of death or the dance of the dead, which can be seen in the film on a wall painting in a church and as the final image, has been popular since the middle of the 14th century. The church painter Albertus Pictor , who appeared in one scene , was only active in the Stockholm area in the second half of the 15th century .

Although historians place it differently in time, the phenomenon of the witch hunt in Sweden did not appear in the Middle Ages, but only in modern times. Jörg-Peter Findeisen named 1559 as the time of the first witch burnings, Bengt Ankarloo dated the first wave of persecution to 1570. According to Brian P. Levack, the “cumulative concept of witchcraft” only reached Sweden in the middle of the 17th century.

The hymn briefly alluded to in the prologue and later sung by the martyrs' procession is the Dies irae from the middle of the 13th century. The remaining songs performed are not medieval compositions, but were written by Erik Nordgren and Bergman.

analysis

Faith Conflicts

" The seventh seal is an allegory with a very simple theme: man, his eternal search for God and death as the only security." (Bergman in the foreword to the script)

In Film and the Critical Eye , writers identified DeNitto and Herman Antonius Block as “the archetypal figure of the intellectual in search of God. He has lost the innocent, unquestioning faith, yet life and death are meaningless to him without faith. ”His self-centered search does not even let him realize that in his most significant act, the selfless salvation of Jof's family, God has shown himself to be gracious , and therein lies his failure: "The problem of the knight is not that God does not show himself, but that Antonius is so much captured by his intellect." Opposite him is the squire Jöns, for whom no god exists and the universe is absurd is. Jöns “does not ask and doubt, he is a man of action.” But like the knight, he too has his limitations: his cynicism prevents him from perceiving the existence of things outside the visible world.

In the Bergman interview collection on Bergman , Jonas Sima also emphasized the contrast between the figure of the knight and his squire Jöns. Bergman agreed that the two characters represented "a split into two different sides." On the one hand there is "the fanatic of faith who perceives physical and psychological suffering as something insignificant in relation to extraterrestrial redemption [...] everything that happens around him is something irrelevant, a reflection, a will-o'-the-wisp". At the same time, Bergman, who was brought up in a strictly religious manner as the son of a pastor, confessed that Block was a part of himself that had become a figure: "I experienced the blocks in me with a kind of desperation, from which I can actually never really free myself." positive counterparts are characters like Jöns and the actors: “Jöns, on the other hand, is the person of today, here and now, who feels compassion and hatred and contempt [...] I've always felt sympathy for people like Jöns and Jof and Skat and Mia . "This sympathy was also expressed by reviewer Dora Feling in her review of 1962:" As in Bergman's Evening the Juggler, the hopeless gloom is juxtaposed with the cheerful, life-elevating game of a small juggler's troupe, whose member Bergman perhaps feels himself every time . "In the character of Jöns Feling saw the" only 'modern' thinking fellow dancer in the dance of death [...] whose mind has been for centuries ran ahead ”.

Jacques Siclier specified the underlying conflict or antithesis of the film as that of Christian -religious (Block) and atheistic - skeptical (Jöns) beliefs. These personified opposites are "the embodiment of the modern man who thinks about the uncertainty of the human condition". This, according to Siclier, is the objectivity and agnosticism of the film, and the difficulty in classifying Bergman's position: “It is the great paradox of The Seventh Seal , an obviously metaphysical work, through the agnostic position of its author, the futility of metaphysics to formulate. [...] Bergman does not create closed philosophical systems [...] He suggests one or more possible attitudes and does not draw any conclusions. "

Ultimately, Siclier continued, the basic attitude of the film was existentialist , which he attached to the couple Jof and Mia: “In this world it is not important to ask questions, but to live.” Jof and Mia put “the only value [dar] who escapes nothing: the love that gives life and joy ”. DeNitto and Herman saw the existentialist character of the film personified in the figure of Jöns: “The squire of the 14th century would have easily understood a philosophy that propagated that existence precedes essence, that the basic conditions of human existence are absurd, man is free in the creation of his own values ​​and a person has to follow his convictions into actions for which he takes responsibility. […] Seen in this way, it is understandable that many viewers can identify more easily with Jöns than with the knight and see him as the real hero of the film. "

Not every reviewer would agree with this point of view. Jesse Kalin questioned an influence of existentialism on Bergman in The Films of Ingmar Bergman . Frank Gado, author of The Passion of Ingmar Bergman , saw the existentialist view of the film as a phenomenon of the 1950s, a time when this philosophical trend enjoyed great popularity. (DeNitto and Herman's analysis did not appear until 1975, however.) Bergman himself did not comment on a possible existentialist influence; instead, he was impressed by the Finnish neo-positivist Eino Kaila during this time .

More motifs

Outer and inner journey

For DeNitto and Herman, the heart of the film is the knight's search, which is both an external and a spiritual journey into his psyche. In this context, the authors asked the question about the actual elapsed time between the first occurrence of death and the death of the knight, the few seconds of a dream, the half hour mentioned in the Revelations of John, the 90 minutes running time of the film or the could have been 24 hours in the film. They concluded that “the question of time is irrelevant” because “in the world of the spiritual or the unconscious, physical time is superseded.” Bergman himself stated that the film “becomes a kind of road movie [developed] that moved freely through time and space ”.

DeNitto and Herman took the idea of ​​the inner journey and the immeasurable time even further: Within the events of the outer journey, Block assumed a passive role, since he was so absorbed in his inner journey that other people, nature and art were nothing to him meant. Block “is isolated from his fellow human beings and trapped in his dreams and fantasies. […] Perhaps everything that happened to the knight during his journey was staged for him, possibly the entire film is a dream. ”The authors cited the miraculous rescue of Jof's family as possible evidence for the attempt to explain the“ staging ”: “We wonder why Jof and his family are allowed to live when nothing and no one can escape death. Or were they never in danger, and death only claimed it was them? "

Chess game

Vincent LoBrutto emphasized the symbolic value of the game of chess in Becoming Film Literate : "Like death, the game of chess represents finitude [...] it is a war game [...] and an intellectual game", which among other things requires the ability to "foresee events". The two colors black and white are " iconographically afflicted for ages ". The figures in the film, in turn, represented chess pieces: "All characters are pawns for the devil, God or both." Marc Gervais supported this view of the characters in Ingmar Bergman: Magician and Prophet : "Their actions, whether words or deeds, [are] all part of a pre-designed plan ”.
Already in One Summer Long (1951) Bergman had a dark-robed figure representing death appear, which is shown playing chess. Bergman: “Yes, it is death. It occurs at the moment when the piece darkens. "

Analogy between the plague and the atomic bomb

Many reviewers identified the seventh seal as a basic theme of fear and parallels between the fear of the plague and the atomic bomb . Bergman confirmed the plague – atom bomb analogy both in his foreword to the script release and in interviews, adding: “This is the reason [the film] was made, it is about fear of death. Through him I freed myself from my fear of death. "DeNitto and Herman went even further in their analysis:" The plague in the film, as in Albert Camus ' novel The Plague , is obviously not a simple disease, but a personification of the one that is anchored in humans destructive forces. It puts the strengths and values ​​of individuals to the test. "

The dance of death

In the last scene of the film, Jof sees death dragging six people into the realm of the dead. Jof pronounces their names: “The blacksmith and Lisa, the knight and Raval and Jöns and Skat.” Conversely, this would mean that Block's wife Karin and the girl were spared. Egil Törnqvist went on to explain this contradiction in Ingmar Bergman Directs : “But what we see are four men and two women. […] Our logical expectations contradict what we see. And what we see does not agree with Mia's vision - she is not aware of any of this - nor with Jof's vision. This leads to the conclusion that there is no objective knowledge, only subjective 'visions'. ”
Jesse Kalin, on the other hand, suspected the absence of some of the characters (including the young woman who was burned as a witch) as an oversight that should not be overstated. Nevertheless, he asked if Karin and the girl from the village were special because they might have found a peace that Block and Jöns were looking for in vain.

Cinematic means

According to DeNitto and Herman, the contrasts manifested themselves in The Seventh Seal on the narrative (skepticism versus belief, feeling versus intellect etc.) as well as on the visual and sonic level. “The play of light”, according to Stuart M. Kaminsky and Joseph F. Hill in Ingmar Bergman: Essays in Criticism , clearly shows “the contrasts between the simultaneously occurring action patterns. In the lighting of the story of the knight, darkness, black, dominates. A graceful brightness almost always hovers over Jof and Mia, as if the events were taking place in a different reality. ”Theo Fürstenau in Die Zeit :“ The style of the picture […] holds itself in tension between strict form and expressive exaggeration. Strictly is the world of the Knight and Death, expressive the agonizing Verwirrnis of counter sinking the Pesttode humanity. "At a" test of a new movie language syntax in abrupt change of long shots with close-ups "had Peter W. Jansen 2003 Tagesspiegel out.

"Essential" (DeNitto / Herman) in one scene is the two-minute shot of Block and Death in the Chapel, which anticipates the long, static shots of Bergman's later films. LoBrutto also underlined Bergman's use of long shots and the arrangement of the characters, who often did not look at each other in shots with two people: “By allowing the camera to observe both characters while they look in different directions, he examines the intimacy of the tension , the physical and psychological relationship to one another and to their environment. ”Roger Manvell (Ingmar Bergman: An Appreciation) emphasized the tension between sound and silence in The Seventh Seal and The Virgin Spring (1960), which is reminiscent of Luis Buñuel :“ How Buñuel shy away Bergman does not trust himself to trust absolute silence for the dramatic effect on passages. "

The image composition and high-contrast black and white photography of the film prompted critics and film historians to associate with the creative elements of Chiaroscuro , German expressionist films and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Day of Vengeance (1943). Bergman in an interview with Jean Béranger: “To speak of German influence would be imprecise. The Swedish master of the silent era - the time were in turn imitated by the Germans - they alone have inspired me, especially Sjöström , which is for me one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, "Peter John Dyer came in his review in. Sight & Sound for same result: "In fact, the film incorporates all the traditions of Scandinavian historical film ."

For DeNitto and Herman, The Seventh Seal marked the end of Bergman's “apprenticeship”, which culminated in A Summer Night's Smile . Compared to his earlier “ eclectic ” use of cinematic techniques, he now emerges as a “mature and important director” who has complete control over his means. Even if he is not always successful in his endeavors, Bergman "continuously tests the potential of the art form of film".

Position in Bergman's work

Bergman made only one other film in front of a medieval backdrop, The Virgin Spring , which the director counted as one of his weaker works. However, Die Jungfrauenquelle continued the series of films that began with The Seventh Seal , in which, in addition to questions of meaning and belief, the search for God played a central role; the best known of these are the films in the so-called faith trilogy Wie in einer Spiegel (1961), Licht im Winter (1962) and Das Schweigen (1963). At the same time, The Seventh Seal meant for Bergman a departure from traditional religiosity: “[The film] is one of the very last expressions of manifest beliefs, beliefs that I inherited from my father and had carried around with me since childhood. […] As in a mirror , the legacy of childhood is liquidated. ”Film historian Gösta Werner described the seventh seal as“ the first of Bergman's great plays of legends and mysteries from the fifties and sixties, ”although film critics only found a few of Bergman's later films were explicitly classified as a mystery play, such as Screams and Whispers (1972) or The Magic Flute (1975). The actors or jugglers' troupe, a popular motif in Bergman's films, had already been at the center of the plot in Abend der Jaukler and was later brought into focus again in The Face (1958) and The Rite (1969), among others .

reception

Reviews

When it appeared, the seventh seal was almost consistently well received nationally and internationally. In France, critic and filmmaker Éric Rohmer called the film "one of the most beautiful that has ever been made", US critic Andrew Sarris described it as an "existentialist masterpiece". The comparisons ranged from FW Murnau's Faust ( Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger ) to Mauritz Stiller and (Bergman's adored) Victor Sjöström ( Sight & Sound ).

Stockholms-Tidningen wrote after the Swedish premiere: “The dark, profound film […] defends the light, the happy. Ease and joy are not the same as superficiality. […] When you see The Seventh Seal for the second time, the contours begin to emerge and you discover what a piece of art the film is from one piece. The meaning emerges. People are becoming 'modern'. The late Middle Ages lived in fear of the plague, our time lives in fear of the atomic bomb. "

After the premiere in the USA, Bosley Crowther noted in the New York Times : “A penetrating and powerful contemplation on the path that man travels on this earth. At its core, an intellectual, but also emotionally stimulating challenge, the most difficult - and most rewarding - for cinema-goers so far this year. "

Bergman described Die Zeit in 1962 as an “ingenious director” and went on to say: “That which can be experienced immediately, this world dying in pestilence, [becomes] not merely a symbol or even an allegory, but rather as a reality charged with horror [...] on the For Fürstenau, the quality of the film consisted in the fact that, from the situation of the doubting, modern reflective human being, Bergman penetrates a world of clear, transcendent references, senses and understands this world, depicts it from its own conditions and at the same time dissolves towards a current consciousness of existence. ”The film dienst was also impressed by the“ parable created with artistic visual power [...] whose pressing seriousness prompts [sic] reflection ”.

In later years the film was also subjected to critical revisions. Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader discovered a 'typical' 50s art film maneuver "and Nigel Floyd, listed in Time Out Film Guide :" Whether [the extraordinary images] the metaphysical and allegorical weight can wear with which they are charged, an open question remains. "

James Monaco explained the success of the film as follows in his compendium Film Understanding, first published in 1977 : “Its symbolism was immediately understandable for people who, trained in literature, were just about to discover film as“ art ”[…] Crass black and white images convey the medieval mood of the film, reinforced by Bergman's visual and dramatic allusions to painting and literature of the Middle Ages. In contrast to Hollywood "cinema", Det sjunde inseglet was clearly aware of an elitist artistic culture and was therefore immediately appreciated by the intellectual audience. "

The lexicon of international film nonetheless sums it up positively: “With recourse to the tradition of medieval mystery games, the film, created with great artistic power, meditates on the loss of meaning and the search for stops in a modern world. A symbolic allegory, marked by bitter skepticism. "

Awards (selection)

Aftermath

Nigel Floyd called The Seventh Seal "probably the most parodied movie of all time." Two central motifs of the film are preferably quoted: that of death, which appears to an individual or a group and demands to follow it, and that of the dance of death. Examples that parody these motifs are The Last Night of Boris Gruschenko (1975), The Meaning of Life (1983), Bill & Ted's Crazy Journey into the Future (1991) or Last Action Hero (1993) . Andrew K. Nestingen pointed out in his book on Scandinavian film that the character of death already contained sardonic undertones in Bergman's work and was endowed with both humorous and vain features that none of the parodies could match.

Comparisons have also been made between The Seventh Seal and the horror film Satanas - The Castle of the Bloody Beast (1964). However, director Roger Corman denied any similarities between his and Bergman's film, with the exception of the medieval background and the appearance of death, and stressed that on the contrary, he had tried to avoid any similarity.

DVD / Blu-ray publications

The seventh seal is available internationally on DVD , in Germany from Kinowelt / Arthaus . The film was also released on Blu-ray Disc in the American and European markets .

Web links

Commons : The seventh seal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of release for the seventh seal . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2014 (PDF; test number: 26 928-d K).
  2. ↑ Bergman. Magus from the north . In: Der Spiegel , No. 44/1960 of October 26, 1960, pp. 70 ff .; Arsenal pays tribute to Ingmar Bergman. Seven seals. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 31, 2003, accessed on February 13, 2018.
  3. ↑ In the script she is called Tyan, in the film her name is not mentioned. Cf. Ingmar Bergman: The seventh seal, Cinematek 7 series - Selected film texts, Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg 1963.
  4. ↑ In the Swedish original; in the German dubbed version her words are “I am ready”. Cf. u. a. the bilingual DVD from Kinowelt / Arthaus .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Ingmar Bergman: Pictures, Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-462-02133-8 , pp. 205-214.
  6. ^ A b Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs: Ingmar Bergman: His films - his life, Heyne, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-453-02622-5 , pp. 121-127.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f The Seventh Seal. In: Ingmar Bergman Foundation , accessed on February 13, 2018.
  8. ^ Christian Kiening , Heinrich Adolf (ed.): Mittelalter im Film, De Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018315-3 , p. 262.
  9. ^ Frank Gado: The Passion of Ingmar Bergman, Duke University Press, Durham (North Carolina) 1986, ISBN 978-0-8223-0586-6 , pp. 199-200.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, Jonas Sima: Bergman on Bergman, Fischer, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-596-24478-1 , pp. 136–141.
  11. ^ Ingmar Bergman: The seventh seal, Cinematek 7 series - Selected film texts, Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg 1963, p. 9.
  12. ^ A b c Jean Béranger: Meeting with Ingmar Bergman. ( Memento from January 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Cahiers du Cinéma , Vol. 15, No. 88, October 1958, (English).
  13. ^ "My intention has been to paint in the same way as the medieval church painter, with the same objective interest, with the same tenderness and joy" - Birgitta Steene, Focus on the Seventh Seal, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall , 1972, pp. 70–71, quoted from Egil Törnqvist: Bergman and Visual Art. In: Ingmar-Bergman-Stiftung , (English), accessed on February 11, 2018.
  14. ↑ Melvyn Bragg gives the budget at 700,000–800,000 Swedish kronor . - Melvyn Bragg: The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet), BFI Film Classics, British Film Institute, London 1993, ISBN 0-85170-391-7 , p. 49.
  15. ^ Wording of the German dubbed version. Cf. u. a. the bilingual DVD from Kinowelt / Arthaus.
  16. ↑ The seventh seal in the Swedish Film Institute database , accessed February 13, 2018.
  17. ↑ a b Ingmar Bergman. Essays, data, documents , Bertz and Fischer 2011, ISBN 978-3-86505-208-7 .
  18. ^ The seventh seal in the Internet Movie Database .
  19. ↑ a b The seventh seal in the lexicon of international film . Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  20. ↑ The Seventh Seal on synchronkartei.de
  21. ^ A b Ingmar Bergman: The seventh seal, Cinematek 7 series - Selected film texts, Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg 1963, p. 7.
  22. ↑ Klaus Bergdolt: The Black Death: The Great Plague and the End of the Middle Ages, 5th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-45918-8 , pp. 84–86.
  23. ↑ Reiner Sörries , The monumental dance of death, in Tanz der Toten – Todestanz, Museum für Sepulkralkunst Kassel, Dettelbach 1998; Marion Grams-Thieme, Christian Kiening , Dietrich Briesemeister , Totentanz, in Lexikon des Mittelalters, Volume 8, 1997, quoted from Der Lübeck-Tallinner Totentanz by Kathleen Schulze, accessed on June 29, 2012.
  24. ^ Jörg-Peter Findeisen : Sweden. From the beginning to the present, Pustet, Regensburg 2003; Bengt Ankarloo: Trolldomsprocesserna i Sverige, Skrifter utgivna av Institutet för rättshistorisk forskning, Series I. Rättshistoriskt library 17, Stockholm 1971; Brian P. Levack: Witch Hunt: The History of Witch Hunting in Europe, C. H. Beck, Munich 2002.
  25. ↑ Wenzeslaus Maslon: Textbook of Gregorian Church Hymns, Georg Philip Aderholz, Breslau 1839, p. 108.
  26. ^ "We have no trouble in identifying Sir Antonius Block as an archetypal figure of the intellectual in search of God. He has lost innocent, unquestioning faith, yet life and death are meaningless to him without faith. [...] The Knight thus has failed in his quest only in terms of the conditions he has set; actually, although he does not recognize it, he has succeeded. He is almost completely selfish until he helps Jof, Mia, and Mikael. The basic problem of the Knight is not that God does not reveal Himself, but that Antonius is so confined by his intellect. He is so preoccupied with crying and whispering his questions that he cannot hear the still, small voice of God and cannot realize that in his case the Almighty has been merciful. [...] The Squire Jons seems to have found an answer: there is no God and the universe is absurd. His commitment is to life and the pleasures of the senses. Because he does not doubt and question, he is a man of action. [...] As the vision of the Knight is restricted by his intellect, so the Squire has limitations. His cynicism prevents him from admitting to the existence of anything beyond the physical world […] “- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, p. 291 ff.
  27. ^ Review in Daily Telegraph , March 8, 1962, quoted in Ingmar Bergman. Essays, data, documents , Bertz and Fischer 2011, ISBN 978-3-86505-208-7 .
  28. ^ Afterword by Jacques Siclier in Ingmar Bergman: The seventh seal, Cinematek 7 series - Selected film texts, Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg 1963, pp. 75–85.
  29. ^ "The chief justification for the view of a number of critics that The Seventh Seal is an existentialist film lies in the character of Jons. The fourteenth-century Squire would have no trouble understanding a philosophy which advocates that existence precedes essence, that the human condition is absurd, that man is free to create his own values, and that the man of good faith must engage in actions for which he accepts responsibility. The Squire's last words in the film might serve as an epigraph for any book on existentialism: 'Yes, [I accept death], but under protest.' It is thus understandable that many viewers identify more easily with Jons than Antonius Block and consider him the true hero of the film. ”- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, p. 291 ff.
  30. ^ Jesse Kalin: The Films of Ingmar Bergman, Cambridge University Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-38977-8 , pp. 191 ff.
  31. ^ "Influenced by the existentialist vogue that was cresting in the late 'fifties, many commentators presumed that Bergman was Albert Camus translated to the screen. […] But the connection is more apparent than real […] "- Frank Gado: The Passion of Ingmar Bergman, Duke University Press, Durham (North Carolina) 1986, ISBN 978-0-8223-0586-6 , p. 206 .
  32. ↑ Ingmar Bergman: Foreword to Wild Strawberries. A Film by Ingmar Bergman, Lorimer, London 1960, quoted from Paisley Livingston: Cinema, Philosophy, Bergman: On Film as Philosophy, Oxford University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-957017-1 , p. 126.
  33. ↑ In the published script as in the film, the action begins at or shortly before sunrise and ends in the morning of the following day.
  34. ↑ "The spine of the mythic dimension is a quest. [...] his journey is simultaneously a physical one and a spiritual one into his own psyche. [...] Between the appearance of Death and the actual death of the Knight how much time elapses? Is it but a matter of seconds and all the adventures of the film a dream, or the half an hour noted in St. John's Revelations, or the hour and a half of viewing time, or the twenty-four hours of cinematic time? In a sense, this question of time is irrelevant, for in the world of the spiritual or the unconscious physical time is suspended; the experiences of the Knight could have occurred in a moment or many hours. ”- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, pp. 291 ff.
  35. ^ "To the events of his physical journey, Antonius Block is chiefly passive. [...] he is so preoccupied with his inner journey that human beings, nature, and art mean little to him. [...] The Knight is, therefore, isolated from his fellow man and imprisoned in his dreams and fantasies. [...] Perhaps everything that happens to the Knight during his journey was staged (it is possible that the entire film is a dream) [...] We wonder why Jof and his family are allowed to live, for nothing and no one escapes Death. Or were they never threatened? Death has only insinuated that they were in danger. ”- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, pp. 291 ff.
  36. ^ "Death and chess represent finality [...] Chess is a war game [...] Chess is an intellectual game as well [...] Intelligence and will are critical skills as is the ability to presage events [...] The players vie for which color." to play, black or white, two colors with ages of iconography attached to them. […] All of the characters are pawns for the devil, God or both. ”- Vincent LoBrutto: Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures, Praeger, Westport (Connecticut) / London 2005, ISBN 978-0-275 -98144-0 , p. 286 ff.
  37. ^ "Bergman sets his characters as figures in a totally controlled chess game, their moves (actions and words) all part of a strikingly prearranged plan." - Marc Gervais: Ingmar Bergman: Magician and Prophet, Mcgill Queens University Press 2000, ISBN 978 -0-7735-2004-2 , p. 50 ff.
  38. ^ Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, Jonas Sima: Bergman on Bergman, Fischer, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-596-24478-1 , pp. 81-82.
  39. ^ "The plague in the film is obviously, as in Albert Camus's novel The Plague, not simply a disease, but a personification of the destructive forces inherent in the human condition. As such, it is a test of the inner strength and values ​​of individuals. The conclusion we can draw from The Seventh Seal is that Bergman's view of the majority of human beings, at least at the time he created the film, was predominantly negative. "- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975 , P. 291 ff.
  40. ↑ Egil Törnqvist: Between Stage and Screen: Ingmar Bergman Directs, Amsterdam University Press 1996, ISBN 978-9053561379 , pp. 110-111.
  41. ↑ "Most likely their omission is just an accident of filmmaking, and nothing more should be made out of it. [...] Karin and the girl have a quietness and peace of soul about them that [...] marks them as special. Perhaps they already have that for which the knight and Jöns have longed? ”- Jesse Kalin: The Films of Ingmar Bergman, Cambridge University Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-38977-8 , pp. 64-66.
  42. ^ "Contrast so permeates this film that it becomes a theme. Types of contrast, manifested in the elements of the narrative, the visual, and the auditory include the following: illusion versus reality, nature versus man, skepticism versus faith, emotions versus intellect, courage versus cowardice, selfishness versus compassion, and lust versus love . "- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, pp. 291 ff.
  43. ^ "The play of light in The Seventh Seal shows plainly the contrasts between the contemporary patterns of action. In the lighting of the Knight's story, the dark, the black, dominates. Above Jof and Mia there almost always hovers a brightness of grace, as if the action took place in another reality. ”- Stuart M. Kaminsky, Joseph F. Hill: Ingmar Bergman: Essays in Criticism, Oxford University Press 1975, p. 157 .
  44. ↑ a b Review by Theo Fürstenau in Die Zeit on February 16, 1962, accessed on June 30, 2012.
  45. ↑ Peter W. Jansen : As in a mirror. In: Tagesspiegel , July 14, 2003, accessed on January 13, 2018.
  46. ↑ "[...] the most crucial section of the scene [in the chapel] is a lengthy shot of approximately two minutes in which the two actors barely move. In future films the director increasingly uses such lengthy, static shots […] “- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, pp. 291 ff.
  47. ^ "Bergman uses long takes in which composition and staging bring power and visual dynamics to every frame. In a two-shot characters often do not look at each other. By allowing the lens to observe both characters as they face in different directions, Bergman examines the strain of intimacy, the physical and psychological relationships they have with each other and their environment. ”- Vincent LoBrutto: Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures, Praeger, Westport (Connecticut) / London 2005, ISBN 978-0-275-98144-0 , pp. 286 ff.
  48. ^ "The Virgin Spring, even more than The Seventh Seal, is severely restrained in its use of sound effects and music. Bergman, like Bunuel, is never afraid to rely on stretches of absolute silence for dramatic effect [...] - Roger Manvell: Ingmar Bergman: An Appreciation, Arno Press 1980, p. 31. "
  49. ↑ Martha P. Nochimson: World on Film: An Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell / John Wiley & Sons, Chichester 2010, ISBN 978-1-4051-3978-6 , page 312; Philip Mosley: Ingmar Bergman: The Cinema as Mistress, Marion Boyars, London 1981, ISBN 978-0-7145-2644-7 , p. 81.
  50. ^ Philip Mosley: Ingmar Bergman: The Cinema as Mistress, Marion Boyars, London 1981, ISBN 978-0-7145-2644-7 , p. 81.
  51. ^ Philip Mosley: Ingmar Bergman: The Cinema as Mistress, Marion Boyars, London 1981, ISBN 978-0-7145-2644-7 , p. 38.
  52. ^ "The film, indeed, incorporates all the traditions of Scandinavian period cinema, with the spiritual doubt and savage battle personal to Bergman." - Peter John Dyer in Sight & Sound , No. 4, spring 1958, quoted from Jerry Vermilye: Ingmar Bergman: His Life and Films, McFarland & Company, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-2959-2 , p. 94.
  53. ^ "During a period of apprenticeship in which he directed nineteen films, culminating in Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), his approach, as he has admitted, was eclectic. With The Seventh Seal he emerged as a mature and significant director. [...] Bergman is in complete control of his cinematic techniques. […] If The Seventh Seal, or other Bergman films, is marred by experiments that failed and visions that are unrealized, it is because Bergman is continually testing the potentials of cinematic art. ”- Dennis DeNitto, William Herman: Film and the Critical Eye, Macmillan 1975, p. 291 ff.
  54. ^ Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, Jonas Sima: Bergman on Bergman, Fischer, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-596-24478-1 , p. 143.
  55. ^ Richard A. Blake: Ingmar Bergman, Theologian? In: The National Catholic Weekly, August 27, 2007, accessed July 8, 2012.
  56. ↑ Gösta Werner: Den svenska filmens historia: en översikt, Stockholm: Norstedt, Stockholm 1978, ISBN 91-1-783391-4 , quoted from Hauke ​​Lange-Fuchs: Ingmar Bergman: His films - his life, Heyne, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-453-02622-5 , pp. 121-127.
  57. ↑ Screams and Whispers in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used .
  58. ↑ Article on the history of the opera Die Zauberflöte in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 6, 2004, accessed on July 8, 2012.
  59. ↑ Opus 27 , article in Der Spiegel , No. 32/1965 of August 4, 1965, accessed on July 8, 2012.
  60. ↑ Quoted in: The Seventh Seal. In: Ingmar Bergman Foundation .
  61. ↑ Klaus Bresser in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger of April 14, 1962, Peter John Dyer in Sight & Sound , No. 4, spring 1958, quoted from Ingmar Bergman. Essays, data, documents, Bertz and Fischer 2011, ISBN 978-3-86505-208-7 .
  62. ^ Review by Bengt Idestam-Almquist in Stockholms-Tidningen , February 17, 1957, quoted from Ingmar Bergman. Essays, data, documents, Bertz and Fischer 2011, ISBN 978-3-86505-208-7 .
  63. ^ "A piercing and powerful contemplation of the passage of man upon this earth. Essentially intellectual, yet emotionally stimulating, too, it is as tough — and rewarding — a screen challenge as the moviegoer has had to face this year. ”- Review in The New York Times, October 14, 1958, accessed June 30, 2012 .
  64. ↑ Quoted from Hans-Peter Rodenberg (ed.): The overestimated artwork, Lit Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10939-2 , p. 109.
  65. ^ "[...] an unusually pure example of a typical 50s art-film strategy [...]" - Review in Chicago Reader on February 25, 1986, accessed on July 9, 2012.
  66. ^ "[...] contains some of the most extraordinary images ever committed to celluloid. Whether they are able to carry the metaphysical and allegorical weight with which they have been loaded is open to question. "- Time Out Film Guide , Seventh Edition 1999, Penguin, London 1998, ISBN 0-14-027525-8 , p. 807 .
  67. ↑ James Monaco : Understanding Film. Art, technology, language, history and theory of film and new media. With an introduction to multimedia, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-499-16514-7 , pp. 325–326. (5th revised and expanded new edition).
  68. ^ Time Out Film Guide , Seventh Edition 1999, Penguin, London 1998, ISBN 0-14-027525-8 , p. 807.
  69. ↑ Andrew K. Nest Ingen: Transnational Cinema In A Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition, Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2005, ISBN 978-0-8143-3243-6 , S. 235th
  70. ↑ Constantine Nasr (ed.): Roger Corman: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi 2011, ISBN 978-1-61703-166-3 , p. 28.
Vatican film list
religion

La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1905) • The Passion of the Virgin of Orléans (1928) • Monsieur Vincent (1947) • Francis, the juggler of God (1950) • The Word (1955) • Ben Hur (1959) • Nazarin (1959) • The 1st Gospel - Matthew (1964) • A man in every season (1966) • Andrei Rublev (1969) • Mission (1986) • Sacrifice (1986) • Thérèse (1986) • Babette's Feast (1987) • Francis (1988)

values

Intolerance (1916) • Rome, Open City (1945) • Isn't life beautiful? (1946) • Bicycle thieves (1948) • The fist in the neck (1954) • Friends to the last (1956) • The seventh seal (1957) • Wild strawberries (1957) • Uzala der Kyrgyzstan (1975) • The wooden shoe tree (1978) • The hour of the victor (1981) • Gandhi (1982) • Goodbye, children (1987) • Decalogue (1988–1989) • Schindler's List (1993)

art

Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror (1922) • Metropolis (1927) • Napoleon (1927) • Four Sisters (1933) • Modern Times (1936) • The Great Illusion (1937) • The Wizard of Oz (1939) • Ringo (1939 ) • Fantasia (1940) • Citizen Kane (1941) • Luck came overnight (1951) • La Strada - The Song of the Road (1954) • Eight and a Half (1963) • The Leopard (1963) • 2001: A Space Odyssey ( 1968)

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 26, 2012 .