The Seventh Seal (1957)

The Seventh Seal (1957)
a.k.a Det sjunde inseglet
Director: Ingmar Bergman
==Plot Synopsis==
A man (Max von Sydow) seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper (Bengt Ekerot) during the Black Plague.
==Male Deaths==
*Bertil Anderberg [Raval]
*Gunnar Bjornstrand [Jons]
*Ake Fridell [Blacksmith Plog]
*Erik Strandmark [Jonas Skat]
*Max von Sydow [Antonius Block]
==Female Deaths==
*Inga Gill [Lisa]
*Maud Hansson [Witch]
*Inga Landgre [Karin]
*Gunnel Lindblom [Mute girl]
== Trivia ==
# Ingmar Bergman credited the film with helping him overcome his crippling fear of death. Because the film dealt so overtly with the subject, he found it a highly cathartic experience.
# The inspiration for this film was said to be drawn from the period films of Akira Kurosawa, of which Ingmar Bergman was a big fan.
# The chess pieces used in the movie were sold from Ingmar Bergman's estate in 2009 for 1m Swedish Krona (around USD$145,000 at the time).
# Ingmar Bergman based the entire iconography of the movie on murals in a church where his clergyman father used to go and preach.
# The last two minutes of the film are pure improvisation. The actors have played the whole final scene, when Ingmar Bergman saw in the sky a cloud of unusual shape. He told the troupe again wear costumes and directed a new version of the final scene in one take. 
# The church where Jöns and Antonius Block arrive 15 minutes into the film is actually a model hung in the dead tree in the foreground.
# Of the 50+ films he has done, this is one of Ingmar Bergman's own rare favorites.
# Max von Sydow's first film for Ingmar Bergman.
# Filmed over a period of 35 days for only $150,000.
# The film's most iconic image, of a knight playing chess with death, is lifted from Täby Kyrka in Täby Municipality, Sweden. It was painted in 1480s by Albertus Pictor and is notable for not being painted over during the Reformation.
# The title is a Biblical quotation from The Revelation of St. John the Divine, chapter 8.
# Selected by the Vatican in the "values" category of its list of 45 "great films."
# Ingmar Bergman began writing the screenplay for The Seventh Seal (1957) while he was in Stockholm's Karolinska Hospital, recovering from a stomach complaint. 
# The script was initially rejected. Ingmar Bergman would end up rewriting it five times. It was only after the success of Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) at Cannes that it started to be considered more seriously.
# The script is based on a one act play Ingmar Bergman wrote 1953-4 as an exercise for the acting students at the Malmö City Theatre. He asked the pupils to suggest roles that they wanted to play. Based on this he wrote a few pages of monologues. After the exercise Bergman processed the material to the finished piece called Painting-On-Wood(1963), with many similarities with "The Seventh Seal".
# Official submission of Sweden for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 30th Academy Awards in 1958.
# Jury Special Prize at Cannes Films Festival, 1957.
# The procession of flagellants chant the Dies Irae, a famous thirteenth century Latin hymn thought to be written by Tommaso da Celano. Before stopping in the village they chant stanzas 1-4 and the Lacrimosa, stanza 18. These are repeated as the procession departs.
# Both Van Halen and Scott Walker (from his album Scott 4) have named a song after The Seventh Seal (1957), both are inspired by this Ingmar Bergman film. The Van Halen one also mentions The Virgin Spring (1960).
# The film has been lampooned frequently over the years, most notably in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Love and Death (1975), and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).
# Nominated in the "Palme d'Or" at the Cannes Film Festival, France 1957.
# Nils Poppe was famous in Sweden for being a comedic actor, therefore it's quite appropriate that his character, Jof, is a jester.
# This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #11.
# Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Björnstrand, and Bibi Andersson reunited with Ingmar Bergman in The Magician (1958).
# The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
== Gallery ==
DanceOfDeath.png|Max von Sydow, and 5 others
Category:1957 Films
Category:Films directed by Ingmar Bergman
Category:Swedish Films
Category:Fantasy
Category:Religion
Category:Films
Category:Films based on stage plays
Category:Black and White Films
Category:Art Films
Category:Films by SF Studios
Category:Cannes Film Festival Award Nominees
Category:Cannes Film Festival Award Winners
Category:Palme d'Or Nominees
Category:Cult Classics
Category:Films submitted for Best International Feature Film