Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is a medieval allegory of faith and doubt, shot through with bright flashes of peace and joy, and marked by Bergman's powerful personality. It is Bergman's best-known work and one of the most influential films of all time.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 73 pages
Publication date: 12 November 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The Seventh Seal, a masterpiece by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, is widely regarded as one of his most iconic and distinctive works. The film's opening scene sets the tone with a stony beach under a leaden sky, where a knight is alone with his thoughts. Suddenly, Death, dressed in black, approaches, and the knight invites him to play a game of chess. This medieval allegory of faith and doubt is darkened by the horrors of witch-burnings and the plague, but it is also illuminated by moments of peace and joy, symbolized by the milk and wild strawberries offered to the knight by an innocent family of actors. In his captivating appreciation, Melvyn Bragg recounts his first encounter with this extraordinary film as a student and how it opened up a new world of cinema for him, distinct from the Hollywood he had grown up with. He also shares his later meeting with Bergman himself and how the director's powerful personality is evident in every frame of this troubling and inspiring masterpiece.

Weight: 126g
Dimension: 300 x 147 x 2 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781839021756
Edition number: 2 ed