Movie of the Day: The Seventh Seal (1957)

"I met Death today. We are playing chess."

96 min  -  Drama | Fantasy  -  16 February 1957 (Sweden)

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Writer: Ingmar Bergman

Stars: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot

Memorable Quotes

1. Antonius Block: Is it so terribly inconceivable to comprehend God with one's senses? Why does he hide in a cloud of half-promises and unseen miracles? How can we believe in the faithful when we lack faith? What will happen to us who want to believe, but can not? What about those who neither want to nor can believe? Why can't I kill God in me? Why does He live on in me in a humiliating way - despite my wanting to evict Him from my heart? Why is He, despite all, a mocking reality I can't be rid of?

2. Antonius Block: I want knowledge! Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand, uncover His face and speak to me.

Death: But He remains silent.

Antonius Block: I call out to Him in the darkness. But it's as if no one was there.

Death: Perhaps there isn't anyone.

Antonius Block: Then life is a preposterous horror. No man can live faced with Death, knowing everything's nothingness.

Death: Most people think neither of death nor nothingness.

Antonius Block: But one day you stand at the edge of life and face darkness.

Death: That day.

Antonius Block: I understand what you mean.

3. Antonius Block: I shall remember this moment: the silence, the twilight, the bowl of strawberries, the bowl of milk. Your faces in the evening light. Mikael asleep, Jof with his lyre. I shall try to remember our talk. I shall carry this memory carefully in my hands as if it were a bowl brimful of fresh milk. It will be a sign to me, and a great sufficiency.

4. Antonius Block: Nothing escapes you!

Death: Nothing escapes me. No one escapes me.

5. Antonius Block: Who are you?

Death: I am Death.

Antonius Block: Have you come for me?

Death: I have long walked by your side.

Antonius Block: So I have noticed.

Death: Are you ready?

Antonius Block: My body is ready, but I am not.

6. Antonius Block: I met Death today. We are playing chess.

7. Death: When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.

Antonius Block: And will you reveal your secrets?

Death: I have no secrets.

Antonius Block: So do you know nothing?

Death: I am unknowing.