A skull is more alluring than a naked woman.
—-A painter speaks these words in the film. Why did he say such a thing?
To understand, one must walk through a procession of thoughts.
The Seventh Seal. For more than fifty years, this Bergman film shot in just thirty-five days has been consistently named among the top five in lists of the greatest foreign films—a benchmark for cinematic excellence. The film’s philosophy and message remain equally relevant and acclaimed. Of course, a film built upon the philosophy that life is false, death is true remains eternally delicious, like fresh-baked bread!
In the film we see man playing chess with his fate. What a desperate attempt to hold destiny at bay through the game! As long as he plays well, he can keep fate at a distance. Lose, and it’s all over! Man preserves himself through his achievements—before death, after death. In this endeavor, facing various circumstances, he lives his life through different strategies. The game progresses, death keeps dancing. To keep winning this game indefinitely is impossible; even the most skilled player must eventually accept defeat. That defeat is called death—physical or spiritual. This defeat must be accepted. Accepting defeat is the rule of winning.
Did God create man, or did man create God? In searching for answers to this philosophical question, Bergman repeatedly reminds us of death’s imperishability. Death is personified in this film. That entity declares: No one escapes my grasp! Strangely, this proclamation of death unites people from completely opposite poles in the film. Everyone joins hands, trying to evade death as much as possible and live on. This striving for survival is identical for all; and when death arrives with its final summons, everyone’s journey is the same, toward the same destination. God has created no creature that isn’t trapped in this mundane snare of life and death. Then is the credit for diversity not God’s, but our perception’s?
To win means to stay alive. This belief doesn’t enter anyone’s heart until they draw near to death. Where man doesn’t trust himself, how can this belief keep him victorious and alive? This is such a belief that frees man from fear, gives him the joy of living. Yet instead of living by this belief, man lives by beliefs that keep the entire span of his existence fearful and pallid. Man loves to live in fear. Neither belief in God nor disbelief can save us from death’s grasp—this is true. But if we manage death while we’re alive, we may not find meaning in death, but we do find meaning in life.
What leaves a deep impression is a concept shown in the film: the danse macabre, or the dance of death. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the danse macabre became very popular among European painters. Particularly on church walls, people from society’s highest to lowest ranks were depicted, hand in hand, dancing their way toward death. Whatever we may become in life through our achievements and positions, this final dance is identical for all. A question arises: don’t we also see this very choreography of thought from Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’ in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’?