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Select media
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Stills must not be reproduced, copied or downloaded in any way.
Film details
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Featuring
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Country
Sweden
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Year
1957
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Genres
Fantasy Period drama
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- Det sjunde inseglet Original
- Riddaren och Döden Working
Introduction
“The Seventh Seal survives as a compelling, if obsessive film, visually beautiful but permeated by the lighter as well as the darkest aspects of religious experience.”
Roger Manvell, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1990
Bergman’s allegory about a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) who plays chess with Death (a white-faced, shrouded figure played by Bengt Ekerot) was a landmark of arthouse cinema in the late 1950s. Taking its title from the Book of Revelation, the film examines the knight’s crisis of faith during a dark period of human history, tackling issues of existential doubt and despair that touched a nerve with audiences living in the aftermath of the horror of war.
Filmed in sombre black and white by Bergman’s then-regular cinematographer, Gunnar Fischer, The Seventh Seal convincingly evokes a 14th-century of dread and superstition and abounds with startling apocalyptic imagery, from a black bird on the wing against stormy skies to the final, silhouetted danse macabre on a hilltop.
Bergman returned to the middle ages for his Academy Award-winning 1962 allegory The Virgin Spring, again starring Max von Sydow.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Antonius Block, the knight
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Karin, the knight's wife
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Jons, the squire
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Jof, the jester
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Mia, the jester's wife
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Death
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Plog, the blacksmith
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Lisa, the blacksmith's wife
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Jonas Skat
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Raval
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mute girl
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the witch
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church painter
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monk
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[young man outside church]
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[tavern keeper]
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[peasant in tavern]
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[woman in tavern]
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[merchant in tavern]
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[leader of the soldiers]
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[soldier]
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[soldier]
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[disabled man]
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[Mikael, Jof and Mia's son]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[flagellant]
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[corpse on hillside]
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Credits
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Unknown:
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A Film by
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Svensk Filmindustri Presents
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Production Manager
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Studio Manager
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Assistant Director
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Script Girl
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Screenplay
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Based on the play 'Trämålning' by
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Director of Photography
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Assistant Photography
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Stills Photography
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Editor
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Art Director
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Costumes
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Make-up
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Music
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Music Director
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Choreography
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Sound
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Assistant Sound
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Special Sound Effects
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Ranked 93rd in the critics’ poll