This one has been somewhat familiar to me for years - I think I first read about it in a book about cult movies, of all things, and saw it probably 25 years ago. It's clear to me now that I remembered only the beginning and end of it :)
This movie put Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman on the international stage and his followup, Wild Strawberries, cemented it. This is one of the first great international films to get worldwide acclaim, and probably the first Swedish one, to my knowledge but don't hold me to that
it's an Art house film - a very young'ish but world weary Max Von Sydow - (still going strong today, of course) - is coming back from the Crusades and into a land ravaged by the Black Plague. Right off the bat, he meets the personification of Death and proceeds to hold him off by tempting him to a game of chess, with Max getting away if he wins, and time to finish one last task as the game goes along if he loses.
On his way to the castle, the Knight and Squire encounter a motley crew of actors, housemaids, fallen theologians, witches, monks, etc on their way to his castle.
The story line is interesting but the big question - the one often repeated thru the film is "Why is God Silent?" - Not many films can do this either literally or metaphorically - but it's my understanding all of Ingmar's middle period dramas focus on this kind of a story - That puts this movie into a rare place that one won't find in today's action-raction sock-em world. (The new Scorsese film, Silence, based on a novel by Shūsaku Endō, will be another one if it's based on the source material closely) - as such it appeals to the lapsed Evangelical in me, having once gone thru several books on the subject - I'm not sure the film offers any answers for that, but at the least, it's very enjoyable to watch them being asked
There are images in this film that are parodied and replayed in popular culture still today, and of course, some of them are as old as the middle ages themselves.
It's an excellent film with some great actors, and is one of the best art-house films out there - the Criterion DVD offers commentaries, documentaries, some follow up commentary after the film, where the film critic and commentator for the film, Peter Cowie, states outright that this film sent him down the path of being a film critic and even an optional audio track with English - (does any serious film watcher use those? Maybe on a rewatching)
I've been looking forward to this one for a while, and was glad to watch it again as part of this project - def. one of the greats of international cinema
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