The Seventh Seal Comparison

Many films throughout the ages strive to reflect and answer the large, convoluted questions of life. Very few films come close to the truth and clarity of Igmar Bergman’s 1958 film The Seventh Seal and Federico Fellini’s 1963 film 8 ½. The Seventh Seal and 8 ½ are vastly different from each other in many ways considering their plots, moods, and characters, yet they both communicate valuable lessons of life and death. The strongest link between these two films is their final scenes. The finales in both films are cryptic and lack full explanation, thus yielding room for various interpretations. In The Seventh Seal, the film set in the dark ages of Sweden concludes with a family who successfully escaped the grasp of personified Death watching,

As seen in the last scenes of each film, there are characters holding hands. Whether or not the handholding is forced, the director of each film seeks to portray the fact that life is a united experience. We hold hands through life’s chaos and we hold hands through death. Also, with the situations of life and death, both Bergman and Fellini show that we shouldn’t worry about these seemingly overwhelming pieces of our experience on earth. The notion of death and a stress inducing life are presented in a relaxed, yet effective way, primary through the choices of music and presence of comedy. It is as if both directors tell the audience to take a breath and stop worrying about these large concepts. Zack Handlen communicates in his A.V. Club review of The Seventh Seal that the film expresses that “We may all be the punchline in some cosmic joke that no one will ever hear, but we can still be kind to one another. (2009)”. Each story, though the main characters have different goals, eventually realize the importance of being kind to the people around them. Both The Seventh Seal and 8 ½ express a unique sense of vulnerability with the audience. Each director tells their honest opinion of how they see life. Bergman confesses his doubt of god and Fellini, through a series of almost entirely autobiographical themes, expresses his confusion of life. Through their different choices of film style might lead audiences to believe that they are different, Bergman and Fellini’s core themes of their respective films are massive and applicable to everyone who see