THE SEVENTH SEAL is a notoriously challenging film. When it released in 1957, it quickly became a favorite of literature and art scholars who were just discovering film as an art form. The movie’s appeal laid in its historical and biblical references, symbolism, and mood. THE SEVENTH SEAL was an international hit, which signaled good things for a new brand of intellectual artistic culture.
Since the film’s induction into the film canon, dozens of directors and writers in both film and television have invoked its stark imagery either comedically or dramatically. The film’s almost overbearing seriousness lends gravity to a dark situation, and it also works well as a point of parody.
The dual function of the film as both enlightenment and comedy may have amused director Ingmar Bergman. He mentions the film only twice in his autobiography, The Magic Lantern, and when he does, he call it,
“an uneven film which lies close to my heart, because it was made under difficult circumstances in a surge of vitality and delight.”
His dismissive evaluation of the film belies its importance in cementing his place in cinematic history, and it downplays how this film is truly a unique, engaging, and artistically important work.
— Diana Martinez, Film Streams Education Director
