Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3.5/4
Is it really that good? Hmm, we'll see about that.
Indyfreak - wrote on 12/04/2014
Admittedly, I can see why this oft-touted example of world cinema is so highly acclaimed. The cinematography, the symbolic imagery, the atmosphere, the acting is all top-notch stuff. Is it so worthy of its reputation? Well I've only seen it once thus far and I was pleased to have found it accessible for me to comprehend and surprisingly humorous despite the macabre subject matter of death and pestilence affecting a medieval community. Max Von Sydow gives a great performance as his weary protagonist interacts with characters like the worldly squire Jof, the oafish blacksmith Plog, the sly actor Skat, and the cunning figure of Death itself. The grimy and dank setting is effective at conveying the characters' collectively dismal prospects. Despite having so much going for it and usually …
Rating of
4/4
A film about nothing and everything.
memento_mori - wrote on 08/06/2013
Ingmar Bergman is a master of... a lot of things.
He used framing perfectly, knew who to cast, knew what duration to pan into a shot, and to me is easily comparable to Stanley Kubrick through his directorial style. At this point, I have not seen many of his films, but of the ones I have seen, I have nothing to say except that they are a slice from heaven.
The Seventh Seal in particular holds a place close to my heart. It has everything I love. Great acting, a lengthy screenplay and philosophical dialogue. Even though it's in black and white, it feels like it's in color. You don't need color to imagine. I knew the strawberries and milk in that bowl were red and white. I knew Antonius Block's hair was sparkling blonde. I knew squire Jöns' heart was glowing with courage. I didn't need …
Rating of
3/4
"The Seventh Seal" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/18/2012
A knight freshly returned from the crusades challenges Death to a game of chess with the life of he and his entourage as the stakes, hoping to buy time to discover the meaning behind life and what follows. The reputation of a film like The Seventh Seal most certainly precedes it; consistently voted as one of the greatest films ever made, it was far from what I expected. It is a modern day Memento Mori and the collection of disparate medieval characters offering their own perspectives on life coloured with broad strokes of bawdy humour reminded me a lot of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and each obviously represents a different perspective on life and death and how we approach them. Rather than a story driven narrative, the film is more a deeply personal window onto Bergman's own angst …
Rating of
3.5/4
The Seventh Seal review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 01/28/2012
It opens with a scene: “And when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour... And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” - The Bible, Revelation 8:1 and 8:6. A dangerous plague spreads across. Knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) plays chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot). Blocks squire Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand) saves a servant girl (Gunnel Lindblom). They encounter the following actors, Jof and his wife Mia, with their baby son, Mikael. Karin reunites with Antonius. Skat and Lisa joins the group.
The strengths of this film include the direction and insightful screenplay. Quotes from the picture: Block – “I don’t regret anything.” “As long as I resist you, I live. If I win, …
Rating of
4/4
The Seventh Seal Revealed
kustaa - wrote on 08/06/2007
The best movie ever made. Perfect acting, perfect cinematography. Perfect script, directing and length. Deals with human race issues. If you love cinema, you can't not watch it.
Review I made when I saw it:
The 7S is sublime. I fell in love with Bergman's aesthetic since Smultronstallet. But this one is not only visually perfect. It has the best original script I've ever seen.
This knight, representing what is nothing but the very human kind itself, gives us such a deep vision of his own sins. This is the ultimate redemption movie. The knight... confronting the most terrible and hard fight against the most powerful enemy that we ever had- the death. So, how face it? How much of our life do we spend thinking about it? Is somebody out there who really cares that? Is someone waiting …
