THE SEVENTH SEAL Finale
The Dance of Death at the end of Ingmar Bergman’s 1956 mystical dramatic comedy Det Sjunde inseglet / The Seventh Seal remains one of the most haunting sequences ever filmed.
The film, one of Bergman’s best, is set during the black plague epidemic that ravaged medieval Europe, where a knight looks for answers about the meaning of life and death, and the existence of god.
According to a Roger Clarke article in The Independent, the Dance of Death scene was "both unplanned and improvised"
"After a long day’s shoot most of the actors and crew had gone home when Bergman observed an extraordinary cloud, looming and apocalyptic, on the horizon. The camera was hastily set up and Bergman pressed some electricians, and even a few passing tourists, into the scene. Of course, when Monty Python spoofed it in The Meaning of Life, the middle-class victims of the Grim Reaper all follow him in their Volvos — but that’s another story."
In the Seventh Seal cast: Max von Sydow (as the knight), Bengt Ekerot (as the chess-playing Death), Gunnar Björnstrand, Nils Poppe, and Bibi Andersson.
Clip posted by SirMixItAllUp.
Gérard Philipe, Danielle Darrieux in LE ROUGE ET LE NOIR
Danielle Darrieux Singing in 8 WOMEN
Timely IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Clip
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