the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Phil Bagnall, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Ingmar Bergman’s Det Sjunde inseglet.

Death stalks the countryside of medieval Sweden. Antonius Block is a knight returning home after a long crusade to the Middle East, and horrified to find that the black death is ravaging his homeland. On the beach, Block is confronted by the spectral figure of the Grim Reaper himself. Block challenges Death to a game of chess, hoping that he might escape his opponents glare. As Block continues his journey home, he tries to make sense the fleeting nature of human existence and seeks desperate reassurance that something – anything – lies waiting beyond.

At time of recording, it was ranked 155th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show notes:

• Recorded 19th May 2020.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Note: We had originally planned to discuss The Seventh Seal on the passing of Max von Sydow, and to use it as a springboard to our world tour. With the COVID-19 outbreak, we didn’t feel comfortable talking about it for a little while. However, it felt appropriate to discuss it at the end of our season of world cinema on the list.
• The Seventh Seal at The Internet Movie Database.
• The IMDB 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
• Follow Phil on Twitter.
• Read Phil’s reviews at Scannain.
• Max Von Sydow talks to The New York Times about his life and career, April 1983.
• Terrence Rafferty celebrates Max Von Sydow as “the greatest actor alive” at The Atlantic, December 2015.
• Stephanie Zacharek celebrates the life and career of Max Von Sydow for Time, March 2020.
• Alex von Tunzelmann at The Guardian takes a look back at the surreal production of The Greatest Story Ever Told, December 2009.
• Mark Goodacre takes a look at John Wayne’s infamous cameo in The Greatest Story Ever Told for The New Testament Blog, September 2017.
• Jen Chaney at The Washington Post reports on Max von Sydow’s handwritten “thank you” note to the Academy for his second Oscar nomination, January 2012.
• Grainne Humphreys shares Max Von Sydow’s handwritten response to the Dublin International Film Festival on Twitter, March 2020.
• Keith Phipps at The Dissolve reflects on how The Seventh Seal became the archetypal arthouse film, October 2014.
• Dennis Lim at The Los Angeles Times reflects on the cinematic afterlife of The Seventh Seal, June 2009.
• Bosley Crowther’s original review of The Seventh Seal for The New York Times, October 1958.
• Zack Handlen discusses The Seventh Seal at The A.V. Club, November 2009.
• Julie R. Thomson at The Huffington Post on how the Sex on the Beach cocktail got its name, July 2017.
• The Reverend Robert E. Lauder discusses “the Silence of God” as a theme in the cinema of Ingmar Bergman for The New York Times, February 1973.
• Elaine Pagels tries to put The Book of Revelation in its original historical context for NPR, March 2012.
• The Reverend Douglas M. Donley argues for The Book of Revelation as a history rather than a prophecy at The University of Baptist Church, June 2018.
• Emma Robinson writes about The Seventh Seal as an allegory in Cinema Scandanavia, June 2014.
• Bosley Crowther at The New York Times writes about allegory and metaphor within The Seventh Seal, October 1958.
• Ian Freer at Empire breakdowns the chess game at the heart of The Seventh Seal, July 2011.
• Aliya Whiteley at Den of Geek breaks down the use of chess in cinema, March 2013.
• Alex Barrett at The BFI celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of The Seventh Seal, February 2017.
• Scott Broussard reflects on The Seventh Seal for The Solute, July 2017.
• Cinema Worchester celebrates the theme of apocalypse within The Seventh Seal, October 2018.
• Anthony Lane at The New Yorker discusses the importance of religion within the work of Ingmar Bergman, February 2018.
• Alex Bauer at Cinenation discusses the importance of religion to The Seventh Seal, June 2016.
• Richard A. Blake at America Magazine discusses Ingmar Bergman as a religious filmmaker, August 2007.
• Catherine Wheatley at Sight & Sound reflects on Ingmar Bergman’s “Faith Trilogy”, February 2018.
• Ingmar Bergman talks to The BBC about his teenage infatuation with Adolf Hitler, September 1999.
• Ty Burr at Boston.com reflects on Ingmar Bergman’s complicated Nazi history, August 2007.
• Laura Hubner at Criterion discusses the production and development of Ingmar Bergman’s Summer with Monika, May 2012.
• Scott Breuninger at Irish Studies on George Berkeley’s obsession with tar water, Spring 2009.
• Michael Cieply at The Los Angeles Times on the emerging fascination with cryonics, September 1990.
• Tad Friend at The New Yorker on Silicon Valley’s obsession with living forever, March 2017.
• Sean Donovan at The Film Experience reflects on the overlap between Bergman’s Winter Light and Schrader’s First Reformed, July 2018.
• Seth Sherwood at The New York Times on modern Elsinore, August 2015.
• Peter Crowie discusses the production and development of The Seventh Seal for Criterion, October 1987.
• Anthony Lane at The New Yorker offers a retrospective on the films of Ingmar Bergman, June 2004.
• Gwladys Fouché at The Guardian on the complicated relationship between Sweden and Ingmar Bergman, July 2008.
• IngmarBergman.se offers a brief overview of the sometimes tense relationship between Bergman and his home country, June 2019.
• Martin Kettle at The Guardian on how Ingmar Bergman presented a vision of Sweden to the world, July 2007.
• Richard Brody at The New Yorker wonders why Bergman appealed as much as he did to American arthouse audiences, March 2017.
• Joe Queenan at The Guardian reviews the entire Ingmar Bergman filmography, March 2007.
• Alex Barrett at The BFI on Ingmar Bergman’s filming of faces, January 2018.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: death, ingmar bergman, max von sydow, phil bagnall, plague, podcast, The 250, the seventh seal, world tour |