The Seventh Seal

Already having an affinity for all things Swedish, I of course love this movie so far.  The balance of dark comedy and seriousness is done very tastefully, and proves that comedy can portray deeper meanings.  
I also think the fact that Death isn't this entirely horrifying character(although he is one super ugly dude), tells us that Bergman thinks death isn't a completely scary thing and we should be able to laugh at it sometimes.  Nonetheless, he's still Demonic and we know that'd we stay away from him if we saw him walking down the street. 
In the first beach scene we see our protagonist[?] "baptize" himself and then drop to his knees, praying.  I think the fact that after doing this he walks right up to death and challenges him to a game is symbolic for the thinking of religious folk.  He thinks that because he has God on his side, he will be able to escape death or "make a deal with him" as he tries to do.  But, we see that death ignores his attempts at negotiations and just goes on playing the game.  Also, the scene in the Church reveals that the protagonist will not be able to cheat death for long, and death will always be listening in, one step ahead.


As for those merry gypsy people, Mary and Joseph immediately reminded me of...well, Mary and Joseph(of the Bible).  However, Joseph seems very intent on finding meaning in life and seeing symbols, whether they are present or not.  Mary, on the other hand, is more skeptical and seems to be the rational one.  That other big dude they live with might be the existentialist of this film, but I'm not sure yet(I think I remember him having one line that hinted at that, but I can't remember it).


Overall, this promises to be a very interesting film, artistically and thematically!