Monday, July 30, 2007

The God Spider Has Come...

One of the greatest directors of all-time past away today. The great Ingmar Bergman is no longer on this Earth. The world has just gotten a little less cooler again.

Check out The Seventh Seal, Fanny & Alexander, Smiles of a Summer Night, Through a Glass Darkly, and Wild Strawberries to see cinema pushed to it’s limit.


Like a lot of people, I first encountered Ingmar Bergman with The Seventh Seal, which remains my favorite from his body of work. The Seventh Seal is a brilliant meditation on the existence of God and death. For many people when they think of The Seventh Seal, they automatically think of Max von Sydow’s Antonius Block facing off against Death in a game of chess. Me, I think of the scene where the Knight and his Squire come across the Witch being burned at the stake.

Squire: “Who will take care of that child. God, the devil, the nothingness? The nothingness, perhaps?”

Antonius Block: “It can't be so!”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And when I think of Max von Sydow's Death, I think of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. "Best 5 of 7".

Do you think Max looks back at his career and kinda regrets making "Strange Brew"? Where he plays the evil Brewmeister Smith? Or his small role in "Judge Dredd"? He's been in a few stinkers.

Take off, you hoser!