Thursday, June 03, 2004
Playing chess with Death
Good lord this was a good film. I'm talking about The Seventh Seal, directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1958.
It follows the journey of a knight and his squire returning from the crusades. One day, on a beach, the knight is approached by Death. In order to try and save his life, he challenges Death to a game of chess. If he wins, Death leaves, but if Death leaves, he can claim the knight. The movie follows the knight's path through the plague infested countryside as he plays a few moves with Death every day. The stark b&w cinematography of this movie is just amazing. The movie is definitely a "stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning".
It comes highly recommended. *****
