The Seventh Seal (1957)

What a fantastic, evocative film. While I had certain issues with the narrative, this was visually breathtaking. And it provided a very stimulating meditation on death, the meaning of life and the political uses of religion.

The modernist sentiment is summarized well by the Knight (who has returned home from the Crusades) as he plays chess with Death:

My life has been a futile pursuit, a wandering, a great deal of talk without meaning. I feel no bitterness or self-reproach because the lives of most people are very much like this. But I will use my reprieve for one meaningful deed. 

The context is medieval Europe and the Black Plague -as well as the Inquisition. All very appropriate subject matter for this modern expression of alienation, existential philosophizing. It's cynical when it comes to religion - but shouldn't it? And it draws on appropriate, apocalyptic imagery from the Book of Revelations. It's appropriate because that book is fucking scary!! But the scary revelation here derives not from angels blowing the trumpets of the Last Judgment nor is it from (say) the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (although obviously Death does play a major role here); rather the scary revelation the film represents is Nietzschean: the idea that god is dead. That god exists is a fiction we use to avoid reality. 

Max von Sydow is stunning here. He adds charisma and magnetism to the role. There is a nobility and dignity to his performance of the Knight. His melancholy demure, eloquence and Scandinavian looks makes him reminiscent of Shakespeare's Hamlet, somehow; this resonance is cemented even further by the memento mori which are everywhere here.  I can barely believe that from this rather high brow film von Sydow would go on to star in other, very much low brow films: most notably Ming the Merciless from Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon (1980) film. The latter, however, is alot of fun, even if it is uber-camp. Either way, he is stunning. **** stars from me.