Seventh Seal Poem by gershon hepner

Our passion for the Nordic noir
has sources in “The Seventh Seal, ”
the berg that icily Ingmar
created, teaching us to deal
with death, the skull that always lurks
beneath the skin, with earthy humor,
a whey-cheeked clown that always lurks
around like a malignant tumor,
conquered not in games of chess
but recollections of sweet youth
and of a loving wife no less
significant once she’s departed
than what she used to be, alive.
Death need not make us downhearted
if we accept it while we thrive
on memories that do not fade,
and welcome it as our last guest,
abandoning the false crusade
against the sunset in the west.

Inspired by an article on Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” by Peter Cowie (“Death Personified: The long-lived appeal of Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’”, WSJ, January 16,2010, which appeared in the same issue of the WSJ as an article in which Laura Miller discussed “Nordic noir, ” which she states is what attracts reader to Scandinavian detective stories (“The Strange Case of Nordic Detectives: The growing appeal of Scandinavian crime fiction, existential malaise and bad coffee”) :
No single film of the art-house era (c.1956-68) exerted as great an influence on so many directors and critics as did 'The Seventh Seal.' From Woody Allen to Walter Murch, from Philip Kaufman to Richard Corliss, these individuals remember the night they saw Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece as vividly as they recall the death of Marilyn Monroe or the assassination of JFK. Bergman was just shy of 38 years old when he began shooting the picture on a modest budget during the summer of 1956…
The authentic—and abiding—virtues of 'The Seventh Seal' may be too easily concealed beneath its façade of symbolism. In the mid-1950s, the threat of nuclear Armageddon lurked in the background of everyday life, like the plague that ravages medieval Sweden in the film. Yet by setting his drama in the Middle Ages, Bergman ensured that it would not date as ruinously as a film like 'On the Beach.' In 2010, John Doe's dread is of a terrorist attack, but the film's resonance is the same. And while much of the dialogue reeks of a Lutheranism Bergman was trying to cast off, the 'doubt' at the film's core chimes with new-millennium qualms about consumerism and globalization. So 'The Seventh Seal' might have become obsolete were it not for the strength of its story and characters. And what a story: Man locked in a Faustian struggle with Death. Bergman dares to personify Death, baleful in his black cowl and gown, his face evocative both of the whey-cheeked clown and what T.S. Eliot called 'the skull beneath the skin.' His opponent is the credulous Knight who, like many of Bergman's characters, wants to believe in God's mercy but yearns for some 'oracular proof' after years of mindless fighting in the Crusades. The film includes less exalted and more sympathetic characters, such as the Squire, with his earthy humor and acceptance of the inevitability of Death and extinction (but 'under protest, ' as he wryly remarks at the moment of reckoning) . Even Jof and Mia (read Joseph and Mary) prove engaging in their innocence and the simplicity of their pleasures. It's hard to resist an emotional rush when they all share a kind of 'communion' on the hillside at dusk, with the Knight speaking of his long-lost wife and the joys of a vanished youth.


1/17/10