I haven't seen
The Seventh Seal, or at least not the whole way through: I fell asleep the one time I starting watching it on TV, something attributable to the lateness of the hour rather than any inadequacy of the film. But I've seen the sequence where the knight meets Death and challenges him to a game of chess, though I don't know how the game goes or what happens in the end, either in the game or in the film. I'd imagine that it was by some distance the most famous depiction of chess in the history of cinema: and when Ingmar Bergman
died I located the sequence and watched it again.
One cannot be a chessplayer and watch the sequence as if one were not. To most viewers the role of chess would be incidental - or rather, functional, the game serving a role in the plot (to prolong the life of the knight and to offer the possiblity that he may escape his fate) and symbolic (the game itself representing the human struggle against difficulty and death). One sees all this, of course, but
as a chessplayer one also watches for what light the film may cast
on chess. It's impossible to avoid and no doubt it skews your perspective - I even found myself assuming, as the knight searched in his bag, that he was trying to locate a piece missing from his set - but it's not wholly a bad thing. One's understanding can surely be greater if one possesses greater knowledge: it must surely be useful to the critical appreciation of the film if some viewers, at least, come at it from a perspective that is different but is relevant.
Watch the sequence, as a chessplayer or otherwise: it begins with a quote from the Book of Revelation.
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
3 comments:
Justin: "I've seen the sequence where the knight meets Death and challenges him to a game of chess, though I don't know how the game goes or what happens in the end ..."
I've not seen the film either but my experience suggests that death always wins in the end.
There are some stills from A Matter of Life And Death here under its US title. Other chess reference include several mentions of Phiildor by Marius Göring and at some point I'm sure either Niven or Roger Livesey is seen reading a Best Games collection - but I can't remember whose!
Alekhine's
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