On Sunday me and Esther went to see ”The Seventh Seal” by Ingmar Bergman. I was quite surprised that she wanted to join me because my way of putting the idea forward probably wasn’t the most impressive.

-“Hey, I’m gonna go and see this film tomorrow. I’m really excited. It’s supposed to be the most depressing film ever made! Wanna come?”

Apparently she found that description appealing! It was a bit tough finding the motivation to go the next day since it was on in the afternoon and we had both been out quite late the night before (and had had a fair bit of wine..good night though!) but since it wasn’t just any movie we both managed to get out of bed.


The thing is that it wasn’t all that depressing after all! I don’t know where people got that idea from. Personally I found it almost uplifting. Amusing even. The film was about a knight who had gone on a journey to find out whether God really existed, but had only found misery, disease and pain. And then Death came along to take his life but agreed to play chess with him for his soul first. I don’t know how people could possibly find that depressing? :)

Ok, ok I guess I can understand that you might not find the message that “we all live in hell and then there will be even more hell after we’ve died” particularly cheerful. Not really worth celebrating. Might not make you want to dance or skip or whistle. But from a different perspective there can almost be a certain comfort in the fact that the same anxiety that we are suffering from today is exactly the same as it was in the 14th century, when the film is supposed to be taking place. Or in 1957 when it was first released.
It sort of makes me feel that if people were tampering with these questions 700 years ago, well, then it would be rather vain on my part to believe that I would come up with any new answers that they didn’t managed to find there and then!
But having said that, I guess we all start from scratch the day we were born, so we all have more or less the same prospects of coming up with some amazing new insight.

This made me think of the director of the film, Ingmar Bergman. He’s always been famous for being very deep and maybe a bit difficult. And he’s supposedly always been quite depressed. And even though a lot of people would say “Well, no wonder he’s depressed after insisting on working with issues like that…”, I think it’s more the other way around. I think it must have been his state of mind that forced him to go in the directions that he did and that gave him his creativity and purpose.

Since he just died a couple of months ago, I was thinking about that fantastic mind of his and all those insights he must have found during his life that had now died with him. Unless he’s written them down, that is. It should be illegal to die without filling out some sort of questionnaire beforehand about what you had discovered during your time here on earth!
Think about it! Everybody has had some sort of vision during their lifetime, some sort of wise thought or answer or revelation. As the human species it should be in our common interest to gather and save as much as possible from each and every person who has lived. It would be like building a gigantic puzzle, instead of us simply starting with a blank sheet over and over again.

Now I’m going to make it my mission to find whatever Bergman has written to see if he’s found some answers to the questions I’m asking myself. I mean, I don’t really know how old he was when he died, but let’s say he was in his eighties. Then he might have lived for about 55 years more than I have now, which means he’s had 55(365)+(55/4)=20088 more days to find something than I’ve had. Which could save me some serious time. I might even consider giving myself a break! :)

But then again, the reason he chose the 14th century as the settings to the film might have been a way to show us that the questions raised are eternal and that after 700 more years into the future, we’ll still be pulling our hair out in agony over the same sodding things…

Ah well…

Either way, it gave me some form of comfort and when I saw this miserable knight (see picture) carrying the world on his shoulders being exhausted by spending his life looking for the truth, I felt for him. He had some sort of unearthly beauty about him, that you normally only find in princes and princesses in fairytales.
And I felt that if I had seen him in the street, I would have wanted to run up to him and shake him by the shoulders, shouting “I understand you! We can join forces!”.
But unfortunately it happens to me very rarely that I run into medieval knights in the streets. I don’t know where you tend to spend your time, but personally I’d have to say that I can’t remember the last time I saw one even in the supermarket or the post office!

After the film, Esther wanted to show me a “secret treasure” of hers, which turned out to be a dark, damp and absolutely mesmerizing cellar in the shape of a wine bar.


Unfortunately she’s made me promise not to give out the address or even a vague direction of the place since it’s so popular already it’s almost always packed with people. Although the fantastic/annoying thing is that it’s so low to the ceiling, it’s virtually impossible to stand up among the tables, so if you manage to get one it’s possible to avoid the crowds for as long as you sit down.

Sitting there I suddenly realised that was probably one of the places in London where you’d be most likely to see a potential knight! I was almost beginning to feel hope, but sadly none popped around. But I’ve figured out why since then. Quite obviously they’re all hanging out in the Tower of London. Silly me…