The Seventh Seal

Ingmar Bergman uses the chess game as a frame, not an engine: the board returns at intervals while the time goes to the company on the road. The knight asks the question, but the film’s one clear answer goes to the jugglers Jof and Mia. It began in theatre: in 1953-54 Bergman wrote a one act play for Malmö city theatre actors, and that text, later titled Trämålning or Wood Painting, became the draft. Svensk Filmindustri refused it, so Bergman flew to studio head Carl Anders Dymling, dropped the script in his lap and said now or never, and got a minimal budget and 36 shooting days. The medieval landscape is less open air than it looks: most was shot at Råsunda studios, the celebrated opening at the Hovs hallar cliffs in Skåne. The closing dance of death was unplanned: the crew had packed up ahead of a storm, Bergman saw a strange cloud, cinematographer Gunnar Fischer swung the camera round, and since some actors had gone, a few grips and some tourists danced instead. A good fit if you come knowing the chess scenes take up a small part and will spend the rest on country roads and at a witch burning. Not for anyone expecting an answer to the knight’s question; the film leaves it empty.