"The Seventh Seal" considered as a comedy

Death to Block: "What the fuck is up?"

Today a snazzed-up new special edition of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal comes out in a standard-definition  DVD, and even more exciting (for me, at least) Blu-ray disc, courtesy of the fine people at the Criterion Collection. In his New York Times DVD review column on Sunday, my friend Dave Kehr marked the occasion thusly: "[The] 1957 art-house classic is even angstier on Blu-ray." Now I know that Dave has his issues with Bergman (some of which are eloquently articulated here), but that's just unfair. 

Quite a few of Bergman's detractors—or perhaps I should say "doubters"—find what they perceive to be the morbid self-absorption of his characters difficult to take. But the situations of the medieval-times-set Seal are hardly the stuff of mere free-floating existential anxiety. The lead character—or at least the fellow we believe to be the lead character at the film's beginning—Antonious Block, is a knight just returning from the Crusades. He has seen and suffered much, and is obviously struggling with what we'd call post-combat stress syndrome as he challenges Death to a game of chess on a rocky beach. As Block and his mordantly droll squire Jons ride further inland, they discover their homeland is beset by plague, and that many of their country folk are reacting to this state of affairs rather, well, medievally. Cruelty, intolerance, and religious lunacy are running amok. This would seem to qualify as a genuine calamity. Angst might be the mildest of the appropriate reactions to the situation. 

And for all that, Seal is hardly as heavy as the reputation which precedes it. Indeed, the new Criterion edition contains an also-new essay by the estimable Gary Giddins titled "Send In The Clowns" (trebly clever, that; thematically apt, and lifted from the title of a famous song from a Stephen Sondheim musical based...on a film by Ingmar Bergman, Smiles of a Summer Night). Here Giddins notes: "In 1958, American reviewers emphasized the film's foreignness, its cerebral artiness. In his enthusiastic New York Times notice, Bosley Crowther described it as 'essentially intellectual' and 'as tough—and rewarding—a screen challenge as the moviegoer has had to face this year,' which evokes all the appeal of an algebra problem or a firing squad. Few called attention to the film's comic sensibility and its affinity with other movies and cultural strategies of the period, which in retrospect are harder to miss."

What always gets me upon re-viewing Seal these days is how fleet it is—just a little over an hour and a half, and replete with character and incident, it's a tight, ever-in-motion contrivance; what one might take to be its angst-laden longueurs (and there aren't many of them) in fact always build to a punchline that stings like a scorpion. Giddins notes the Quixote/Sancho Panza-Mutt/Jeff relation of lanky Block (Max von Sydow) and stocky Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand). Then there's the film's slapstick,as in the dire fate of the actor Skat,  which is even (inadvertently, alas) funnier in the English dubbed version of the picture (which you can actually choose on the Criterion edition): "Hey, wait a minute! That's my tree he's sawing!"

And finally, if one wants to get all Aristotelian about it, Seal does, finally, in very particular respects, hew to a classic definition of comedy, particularly if you choose to take Jof, the holy fool played by Nils Poppe, as its true hero instead of Block. His beautiful wife Mia (Bibi Andersson) has the film's affectionate last word. This picture ends on images of sunshine and babies, a happy domestic scene of life going on, not indefinitely, for sure. But still. 

In any event, these new discs ought to prompt more than a few cinephiles to look at this still very impressive film with fresh eyes.

UPDATE: In comments, Griff very civilly points out that my digital camera shots off the plasma screen depicting certain scenes from Seal, well, stink. Point taken. They are now replaced with screen grabs ripped directly on the computer from the standard definition disc. One of these days I suppose I'll get an external Blu-ray drive with which to do such things all proper like. It's not (so much) an economic thing right now as much as from what I've heard these things are bears to install and operate. 

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Nice article Glenn. I was surprised when I first saw 'Seal' to find that it wasn't the numbing, doom-laden apocalyptic film i'd been told about. It is very light and spry, with lot of little wry and comedic touches.

Thanks to Criterion for this re-release, especially since it is paired with Marie Nyreröd's wonderful 'Bergman Island'. Good timing too, just before midsummer.

[Tony Dayoub]

I agree. Seeing it again (perhaps it's because of the newly improved subtitles) reminds me of the film's heavy doses of gallows humor. Jons and the cuckolded Blacksmith especially play a large part in making the movie entertaining, taking it beyond the grim, contemplative, metaphysical examination that Bergman's film is known for.

[steve simels]

I can't find the picture over at Google images, but for me, The Seventh Seal was fatally skewered at the old (funny) National Lampoon.

They photoshopped Bobby Fischer's head onto Max Von Sydow's body for an ad for a self-help book entitled "Bobby Fischer Shows You How to Cheat Death."

[Christian]

Finally somebody helps bury this idea that Bergman is some spartan austere humorless doom-n-gloomer. Sometimes, yes (WINTER LIGHT comes to mind). But there are plenty of sardonic or witty or funny moments in his work. The Holy Fool being the prime example, who I agree is the film's real "hero." Even the chess scene is high art satire.

[Dan]

For me, the movie that ruined Bergman for me was "Du Duvre". Which if you haven't seen it is available on Google Video.

"Seal" is actually one of the few Bergman movies I like, but I need to rewatch it. Hmmm, maybe picking it up with "Marienbad" is in order...

[Griff]

Glenn, no disrespect, but your digital camera "frame grabs" of these Blu-ray images really do no justice to Mr. Bergman's film.

[Glenn Kenny]

@ Griff: You are correct, helas. I had a few minutes before I had to get out of the house so I've replaced the images with proper screen grabs off the standard definition version.

[DUH]

Uh...you're going to title a post "'The Seventh Seal' considered as a comedy" and you don't even so much as mention Bill S Preston, Esq and Ted "Theodore" Logan in this context? (Cf. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_i9CgT_J5QxQ/R-lKFCpBIQI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/e4OljZJMHbE/s400/10918361_gal.jpg)

WTF, sir? William Sadler is an even better Death than Bengt Ekerot, I think.

"Um, best two out of three?"

[Christian]

And to prove Bergman had a sense of humor, has everybody forgotten his sole collaboration with Jerry Lewis?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A5OfaMlIto

[demimonde]

Heh. I thought "Virgin Spring" was a satire when I first saw it.

[Dan Coyle]

Oh, so THAT's what the ending of Last Action Hero was all about.

[Paul Johnson]

I'm always surprised by the myths about Bergman movies. Not just the canard that his movies don't have a sense of humor, but even more bizarrely the idea that they're sexless (I specifically remember David Edelstein claiming this in a review of one of Liv Ullman's Bergman-scripted films), when often the saving grace of even the most oppressive Bergman films is their sensuality. I've seen Kael pulled out to attack Bergman (along with the entire tradition of European art house cinema he represents), which is odd since though she saw serious flaws in Bergman's worldview (and what artist doesn't have seriously flawed world views), she thought he was a great filmmaker, and listed Smiles of a Summer Night and The Seventh Seal as favorites (she also saw The Seventh Seal as a kind of black comedy). I often feel like people are responding to a caricatured version of Bergman that they have filed away in the back of their minds rather than the film in front of their eyes.

I contend the best way to watch a Bergman film is to put aside the notion that his films are attempted philosophical treatises, and think of him as a Swedish George Cukor - fantastic with actresses, and good at conveying the wistful dreams and anguished disappointments of artists and the moneyed classes.

[craig Keller.]

The biggest canard is maybe the notion that Bergman "didn't make cinema."

This isthe delusion of a few contemporary and extremely chaste American critics, but not of the French -- or the fine critics of many other lands, for that matter.

Bergman is god.

[Dave Kehr]

Jesus, Kenny, can't a guy get away with a cheap joke in a listing anymore? (Please, don't call those one sentence throwaways "reviews"!) Yes, the picture does have a few half-smiles in it(more than his ostensible comedy "Now About These Women"), but honestly, does it really dispel the "idea that Bergman is some spartan austere gloom-and--doomer"? For that, you need to go to the truly hilarious "From the Life of the Marionettes."

[Glenn Kenny]

Sorry Dave, but what can I tell you? I needed the hook, that's my only excuse.

[Christian]

At least it levels the playing field so that Bergman can be noted for more than what seems to be a 60's leftover idea about "Art Films." I think it was Pauline Kael who wrote that Bergman wasn't even a good filmmaker, minus her love for his earlier, funnier works (like Woody).

[Dave Kehr]

I know, Glenn! Just kidding. Hooks R Us.

[MovieMan0283]

I showed Seventh Seal to a friend of mine a couple years ago, not sure what he would think; while a movie buff, his taste didn't always align with mine: he (and my father, on the same viewing) had been highly critical of Mulholland Drive, for one. But as Seventh Seal unrolled, he laughed, often, and with it, not at it. I had forgotten how humorous the film could be. This, combined with a storm outside which coincided perfectly with the apocalyptic climax to the film, made for a thoroughly enjoyable viewing and a reminder that aside from everything else he was, Bergman was a consumate entertainer.