許多教徒當它是對於「神的追求」，哲學家說它是「存在主義」的彰顯，而「無神論」者亦鼓掌叫好。這就是『第七封印』之所以耐人尋味之故罷！ 

如果查證拍攝此片時的柏格曼，應該知道，他雖已不再有如早期導舞台劇時維持多年的虔誠( 希望「伴隨著巴哈的信仰的喜悅而活著」（見『柏格曼自傳』Latern Magica，第 63頁，1986年），卻也並非完全摒棄信仰，他自己也曾多次提及，『第七封印』源出自他童年時對死亡的畏懼，以及在路德教會Lutheran church看到的有關死亡的壁畫，那時，年幼的柏格曼，時而看到死神帶著鐮刀，在他的真實世界裡一閃而過（見『柏格曼自傳』第 45頁）。 

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/6370/7thseal.html

Bergman described the film as being "about the fear of death", but the effect of this film is as different from the existentialist handling of the subject as it is from a con ventional Christian one. At the time that the filrn was written and produced, Bergrnan had not yet turned agnostic, and was still struggling with the Lutheran beliefs in which he had been reared by his strict father who was a pastor. But Bergrnan's respon se to God is by no means pietistic. He later suggested that The Seventh SeaI explored "the idea of the Christian God as something destructive and fantastically dangerous, something filled with risk for the human being and bringing out in him the dark and destructive forces instead of the opposite".

  在影片最後，騎士的妻子讀著若望『啟示錄』第八章《開第七印》：「當羔羊開啟了第七個印的時候，天上靜默了約半小時(片刻)。」《七位天使接受號角》《吹前四號角》……部分時，死神也在眾人的靜默中現身，他們似乎並未特別意外。 

騎士再度要求上帝證明自己，他的心境，可能有如馬竇( 馬太)福音裡敘述，耶穌於十字架上時的最後吶喊：「我的天主，我的天主，你為什麼捨棄了我？( My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me？)」；而被隨從瓊斯救來的沉默婦人，首度開了口：「完成了( It is finished.)。」而這句話正是若望福音裡，耶穌於十字架上接受旁人浸醋的海綿潤純後說的話，也是祂理論上的最後的一句話，說完後，「就低下頭交付了靈魂」 。此時死神將眾人裹入他的黑色斗蓬，畫面也從婦人出神的面容轉化為剛逃過一劫的Mia，與其家人。如果就故事順序來看，彷彿是這些平凡市井小民的死亡，成就了象徵「聖家族」的Jof, Mia, baby一家人的新生命。故事至此，市井小民於某種程度的無知或蓄意(指騎士)間，以其簡單的生命成就他人，就此點而言，真有些「存在主義」的意味。 

  然而接著這些新生命，回到故事最初的礫石海灘，似乎取代了最初騎士與隨從瓊斯充滿疑問的地位。 

單純取代了世故，全然的相信取代了疑惑。那麼，「信仰的力量」才是獲得新生的背後因素嗎？亦或正如Marcel 所言，「藝術」(Jof為魔術師、演員、歌曲創作者，除騎士之外惟一活著看得到死神者) 取代了宗教成為新的救贖？還是Paco 所說，「愛」成為最後的救贖( 二十世紀起，愛情已儼然成為新的宗教) ？ 四零年代的柏格曼，的確是曾把救贖放在「最清純無邪的戀愛」中的。 

  再若銜接上Jof 最後的懾人幻覺 －－ 柏格曼賜給電影愛好者的偉大視覺禮物 －－ The strict lord Death bids them dance. ，以及片中被指為與魔鬼有所交易而被焚的女孩( 女巫)那段敘述，她深信「魔鬼」與自己同在且無所不在，而最後死亡時居然也未被火吞噬，反而經由此事件暴露出騎士的軟弱無力，他只能憤憤追問死神對女孩做了些什麼。這樣一來不得又讓人懷疑，在柏格曼心裡那個嚴厲的上帝，可能等同「恐懼死亡」，而信仰一個看不見的上帝 (「信仰就像愛一個置身黑暗中卻永不會現身的人，不管你多大聲的呼喚，他也不會現身。」) ，不如信仰一個看得到的死神。   

瓊斯問教堂畫匠：「為什麼要畫這無聊的東西？」畫匠答說：「提醒大家人人不免一死。」瓊斯又問：「這不是讓人更難過嗎？」畫匠答說：「偶而嚇嚇也不錯....，這樣他們就會思索。」瓊斯再問：「思索以後呢？」 畫匠想一想，答：「思索以後，他們就更怕....。」 

"I paint life as it is."   由於信仰的上帝看不見，眾人接受了看得到的死神宣佈的舞蹈盛宴。而即使理想主義者或懷疑論者如騎士，在他自以為聰明、與死神屢戰屢勝、看似成功拖延生命尋找意義的互動裡，是否也不知不覺受到死神的引誘，把不在乎死亡的軀殼交出之餘，也輸去了原本不必交付的靈魂。

  正當Jof、Mia在戲台上以喜劇娛樂村民時，村民報以噓聲，此時一群哀嚎的聲音打斷歡樂，自撻的教士隊伍來到，有的背負巨大十架、有的扛棺材、有的挑聖徒遺物，後面一群信眾以鞭抽打自己、或互相抽打，因痛楚而發出慘叫。教士們停下，對看戲的人說：「上帝審判我們，你們卻自鳴得意？....也許今天就是你的末日！....。」 村民崇敬而肅殺地迎接這群異數，或落淚或祈禱。戰爭與瘟疫的陰影之下，藝術與歡樂變成罪惡，而當我們自己選擇"假先知" ，用痛楚自撻來彼此折磨時，我們也正選擇了面對苦難的態度，甚或自己的命運。　　

以此點而言，並非上帝放棄人們，而是人們放棄了上帝。 

  當然，相信與否，就電影的觀點而言，它本身通常只提供「描繪」，而非「答案」。只是這些「描繪」在柏格曼的手中，異常地隱晦、曖昧，以至於使人不禁懷疑，在整個劇本甚至是電影完成之際，導演都還在「懷疑」當中，並未找出定論。 

  至於蔡禎問到片首出現的"老鷹"，我想答案也許就在下面這段。

《吹前四號角》( 大地燒毀三分之一、生物死了三分之一、人死死了三分之一、日月星辰暗了三分之一) 後的《三種災禍的預報》－－ 以後我( 若望) 也看見，也聽見在天空飛翔的一隻鷹大聲說：「還有另三位吹號角的天使，當他們發出號聲時，禍哉！禍哉！禍哉，地上的居民。 」

因此我 ( Albertine) 也猜測，難道"沉默女"最後說的瑞典文，會不會不是指耶穌於十字架上時說的"It is finished."，而是『啟示錄』第十六章第十七節《七位天使領受七盅》 －－ 由天上的殿裡，從寶座那裡發出一個巨大聲音說：「成了。」"It is done. "？ 這邊說的"完成"，用在此部電影意義就比較可怖與悲觀 －－ 亦即，上帝於此《七位天使領受七盅》章節懲罰完畢"反基督"的國與首都，而以基督聖戰出征的騎士等，在影片最後也被列入反基督受罰的行列了。 

所以，我又回到昨天問到的困惑 －－ 揭開『第七封印』之後，到底是完成了神的榮耀，還是預示災難的開始？

越想越昏，我看還是趕緊把網頁上的「陪審團」獎快快更正成「評審獎」比較實際一些。

 回應壹   by 慧慧  

我的疑問：騎士認為他成功地騙過死神，完成他生命當中所追尋的有意義之舉，不過他真的騙過了死神嗎（死神從頭到尾都沒有表示過要取 Jof 一家人性命）？

接下來，再回到最初始的問題：基督宗教的信仰，到底是相信上帝呢？還是畏懼死神？我想這是柏格曼的思想中最耐人尋思的一點（強烈建議各位有機會重看 The Seventh Seal 時，應該要看英文字幕）。我想柏格曼本人應該蠻鄙夷出自於畏懼死亡的信仰，這可以由唯一獲救的是目睹聖母顯靈的 Jof （信仰上帝）及其家人得到印證。

 回應貳 by PACO 

死神應是察覺到Jof一家的離去，可是他僅淡淡的對騎士說：你隱藏什麼？騎士說：什麼都逃不過你，死神答：什麼都逃不過我，誰都逃不過我，還諷刺地說：你的拖延戰術成功了嗎？蜜亞與約夫一家逃過死神，是Bergman對宗教的肯定，僅管他曾懷疑過，但是畢竟最後他所厭惡的只是教會和稅局。

整個故事結尾的驅向是正面的，最後的封印破除，羔羊揭開了那書卷，創造物已忍受過死亡，人類永恆問題的答案就在那裡：(1) 愛與神性的Jof一家人逃過死亡的浩劫( Marcel 注意到他們的演員--藝術家的身份，這是一個很有見地的發現，因為Bergman長久以來一直在他的作品中試圖以畫家，演員，作家的身份與上帝對話) (2) 其他的角色面對死神時都是平靜的，最後還在晨曦中，以流傳影史的著名山脊平線與死神共舞的鏡頭結束，這應是Bergman終於能正視死亡( 他安排死神在擊敗騎士後，茫然地說：我什麼也不知道 )，也是懼怕死亡的他，終於後來能說出：「我個人的觀點是，當我們死的時候，我們真的就死了，我們從有意識的狀態，進入完全空洞的狀態，我一點也不相信此外還有什麼東西存在，這使我覺得非常的安全。」的原因。   

 回應參 by Albertine 

借用另一句Bergman 的話呼應Paco 的結論：「我現在的選擇是接受生命。」

這是他1962 拍完" 沉默" 一片後說的，也是非常深刻的個人體驗。在讀過他自己寫出50多歲已成名時還被國稅局惡整到嚴重焦慮瀕臨崩潰，我更沉重地同意，一個看似簡單的人生觀點，背後有著多少沉痛與自省....

以下介紹兩個對"第七封印"的獨特見解： 

http://www.ucd.ie/~philsoc/7thseal.htm    à 齊克果說

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/nnh/7thseal.htm  à 西洋棋說

   http://www.ucd.ie/~philsoc/7thseal.htm  à 齊克果說

THE SEVENTH SEAL by Maryan Martin

Produced in 1957, The Seventh Seal is probably the one of Bergman’s films with greatest plastic beauty and the most sincere content. Among the constants of Bergman’s “cinema thoughts” - themes in which he expresses his deep personal anxieties, doubts, discoveries and fears - the mystery of death and the frustrated search for the meaning of life stand out clearly.
The Seventh Seal is a complex film, full of symbolism and dramatic suggestions. Based on a passage of the Book of Revelation (Chapter 8) about the end of the world, Bergman depicts Kierkegaard’s thoughts on the three stages of life, the anguish and despair, and framesit in the medieval Europe assaulted by black death (XIVC). Bergman himself has suggested a comparison between the plagues in the middle ages and the present fear of of nuclear catastrophe. The fear of death is an eternal companion to human existence.
All this together with the concrete vicissitudes of each one of the charcters, is presented in a symbolic chess game in which Anthony Block and Death itself confront each other. The background theme is the meaning of death, and therefore, the meaning of life. This will not be a question treated in the general way, but in the particular, concrete and anguished situation of each individual character. For this Bergman uses Kierkegaard’s analysis of the three stages of the way of life, embodied in the different characters of the film.  

The first stage:The aesthetic stage

This is the approach to life made by those who “who do not risk themselves in life”, those who live only for the moment, only for the immediate. It is the most common and wretched of stages for its frivolity, futility and shallowness. It leads to the most categorical emptiness, a cruel emptiness hidden under the mask of “happiness”. The aesthetic man has a meaningless life apart from the immediate satisfaction. He avoids facing death or pretends to despise it. He avoids suffering for he cannot find meaning in it. Deep down, he is a nihilist.
The best embodiment of this stage in the film is John the Squire. He is literate, cynical, pragmatic and hedonistic. His hedonism is rather subtle but also very radical: “One has to have fun with women without giving them any importance”. His cynicism is also seen in his songs: “Destiny does not exist/ tou are facing nothing./ You leap for joy today/ and will cry tommorrow.” He is proud of not being afraid of anything, not even of death (although, in fact, deep down he is). He mocks everything. This is his own description of himself: “...There you have John the Squire, he laughs at death, blasphemes to God, mocks himself and smiles at women. His world is John’s world. A poor and ridiculous fool for others and for himself: a poor fool. As indifferent for heaven as for hell”. Death horrifies him, but he is unable to see it in the final scene, even when he is facing it: “I can’t see anyone”. His reaction is one of radical nihilism, cold, full of despair. “We live in darkness [..] It is better to enjoy life and forget eternity. Now it is too late. In this supreme moment, at least enjoy the tangible truth before falling into the void.”  

The second stage: the ethical stage

The ethical stage is a superseding and antithesis of the aesthetic. The ethical man assumes and accepts in a passionate way the split of his own life. He understands that he can solve his crisis by appealing to ethical principles and duties, to the light of his reason and to his will. He believes in the moral selfsuficience of man, but he also sees himself obliged to recognise his weakness and limitations, his sins and his faults. He ha to choose or to reject from the point of view of faith, what prevails ove him and seems absurd and incomprehensible.
Anthony Block the knight is the precise and splendid embodiment of this stage. He is the central character in the film. He is on his way back from the Crusades. He has gone to them out of duty, renouncing in this way to the pleasures of his recent marriage with Karen. His attitude is rather stoic at this point. But he despises himself, he is empty, he wants to die. He does not dare to take a leap of faith. He wants “to see God, to understand, not to believe”. he wants to re-establish his own lifeby “one single action which will give peace”.He defies Death itself, trusting his bishops and castles. The leap of faith is incomprehensible for himand, therefore, impossible. He wants to reach salvation by his own force. Faith is a suffering for him. Faith seems to be something unattainable, as he is watching it only with the power of his reason and his will. he cannot help admiring peace and simplicity of those who live faith. Faith resembles the bowl of milk that he is generously handed by his friends the comics, Mary and Joseph. Everything, the light, the landscape, the music, irradiates serenity and peace. It is like a revelation for him, a revelation not completely fulfilled due to his excessive self-confidence, hoping to checkmate the king (i.e. to clarify the mystery of death, to understand, to dominateit). In his eagerness to learn he will even approach the diabolic - the scene with the witch in whose eyes he wants to read an answer, the answer.

The Confession

The dramatic inner struggle of the ethical man is depicted in the scene of the confession (partly reproduced here). Anthony reveals his inner struggle in a confession, unaware that he is talking to Death itself, omnipresent, imlacable and treacherous.

- ”I want to have a confession but I do not know what to say; my heat is empty...I feel a deep contempt for my being; indifferent to men and to things, I am far away; prisoner in aworld of ghosts, I long to know what there is afterwards.

- Are you looking for any guarentee?

- Why the cruel impossibility of reaching God with our senses? Why does He hide from us in a nebula of promises that we did not hear and of miracles that we did not see? [...] what is going to happen to us, the ones that want to believe but cannot? Why do I not get to kill God in me? Why is He still living in my being? Why is He, humble and suffering, with me, in spite of my curses that aim at removing Him from my heart? [...] I want to understand, not to believe. I want God to offer me His hand, to turn His face towards me and to speak to me.

- He does not speak.

- I am calling him from darkness, and in the darkness no one answers my calling.

- Maybe there is nothing.

- Life would lose all its meaning. Nobody can die looking at death and knowing that he is walking towards nothing.

- Most of the men neither think of death nor of anything.

- But one day they will be at the edge of life and will see the darkness [...] Fear makes us create a saviour image, what we call God. [...] I have wasted my life in enjoyments, senseless trips and chats. My life has been an absurd constant and I think I regret it. I was a fool. Now I feel the bitterness of the wasted time. [...] (he discovers the strategy he will be using to beat Death in the chess game and in that moment Death reveals itself) You betrayed me!! I will find a way out!! [...]

In the midst of his doubts and his drama, of his despair, the ethical man still trusts his own strength and qualities , even to defeat Death. But at the end he will succumb as every one else does: “God,you have to exist!”  

The third stage: the religious stage:

This stage is built on one single faith - here understood in Lutheran terms, i.e. a faith apart or even against reason and evidence, a faith where works and morals are not the key matters. Renouncing all rational certainty and without human merits, the “religious” man takes a leap, makes the decision of believing. Breaking up with all the traditional squemata, in the midst of the closer darkness of reason, freedom takes a free step: faith. In this naked freedom of faith man finds his authenticity (even though apparently he behaves like a fool).
For Kierkegaard, the religious man lives tragically his “leap” of faith, but in Bergman this tension disappearsand is substitutedfor the most tender simplicity. This is the case of Joseph the acrobat. He is preciselythis, a tumbler, to call our attention to the “leap of faith”. His most astounding characteristic is his simplicity. He does not give himself any importance of all. Faith is the most natural thing for him. By living his faith so “naturally” he “supernaturalices” his life. Serenity and peace surround his family life (the names Joseph,Mary and michael are not coincidental). Generosity springs spontaneously in them. They are unable to wish or to do any harm. Sometimes they are mocked or humiliated by others, but this does not disturb their profound peace. The knight, always trying to win by his force and his reason, finds in their company brief moments of happiness. But the omnipresence of death (allusion to the mask) ends this gently instantaneous revelation.
Only Joseph, Mary and Michael, with the help of the knight escape from the fatal and inexorable death. In the final scene, the man of faith can see how Death drags behind it everyone ”towards darkness, in a strange dance, fleeing from dawn” where he is. Although his moral behaviour is not always correct (stolen bracelet) his faith supplies the imperfection of his life.

The other Characters:

Jonas, the director of the comics - Aesthetic, hedonist. Life is a comedy for him. His adultery with Lisa shows the frivolity and sensuality of those in the first stage.
Ploff, the blacksmith - He complains that “life is disgusting”, but does not reject its seductions.
Rabal, the thief - cruel to everyone but coward. he will die because of the plagues.
Soldiers - aesthetics they laugh at the comics and at Death.
The crowd - superstitious aesthetics, horrified by the fear of Death and judgement, but they will soon forget it all because they do not wish to change their lives.
The penitents - presented in a scaring choreography with great effects, this group represent the hopeless ethic life.
Karen - Anthony Block’s wife, impassable, nearly stoic, narrates the coming of the apocalyptic angel of death.
The maiden “saved” by John - Her name is not even mentioned. In the final scene it is she who “sees” what Death is and will pronounce her only words “Consumatum est”.

At the end Death:

The central character is, no doubt, Death. It will reveal the life of each one of the characters. It is the enigma that solves all the enigmas. Bergman presents it as an implacable fate that appears everywhere, although each one will show different attitudes towards it. It does not matter. It ends even with these attitudes...except one.
Joseph and his family watch from a happy place as, under a dark, stormy sky, Death leads the knight, John, Ploff, Rabal and the others in along chain. It leads them “towards darkness, fleeing from dawn”. Death is an opaque wall. Behind it, Bergman can see only darkness. In this side, salty tears of the men that live in anguish and desperation; bitterness. there is only a gleam of hope: the faith of Joseph, a simple man that “leaps” towards dawn.
 

   http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/nnh/7thseal.htm  à 西洋棋說

The film offers a second, more literal way of reaching that other reality--going up. It is, of course, our conventional notion that heaven is "up there" somewhere. But, as I read him, Bergman develops it very precisely in this film by his use of a chess allegory that determines much of the incidental imagery of the film. (I was particularly proud of this ingenious analysis.)

I checked the relationship between the English words for the chess pieces and the Swedish. Some are the same, but some are, in interesting ways, not. One pun that holds in both langauges is "play." The playing (spela) of chess matches the playing (spela) of the strolling trio of actors. Both are traditional images for the transitoriness of life (juxtaposed, for example in Don Quixote, chapter 12 of Book II). All the world's a stage, and Death robs us of our roles. Death jumbles--and humbles--the chessmen all together when they are put back in the box.

The "eight brave men," the common soldiers, who burn the witch correspond to the eight pawns, and, appropriately, "pawn" in English becomes bonde or peasant in Swedish. The "rook" or "castle" in English is torn or tower in Swedish, but the English verb "to castle" becomes in Swedish rockad, which means to cloak or to cover with armor. (For non-chess players, castling is a two-in-one move, tucking the king safely behind its castle.) Clearly, what the Crusader is doing in the film is going inside his castle, and indeed, when, in the final shots, Death gathers them all in, he enfolds them in his huge cloak, filling the screen with black.

Interestingly, the "knight" in the film is not the chess "knight" in English. Rather, the Crusader is the king in English and Swedish (kung), the piece identified by the cross it wears. The Swedish word for the chess knight is springare, or "the leaper," presumably because the chess knight jumps over other pieces. As such, it is the only piece that always moves up off the board. In Bergman's allegory of chess, it is the juggler who leaps up, and it is the juggler who customarily sees the supernatural, both Death and the Holy Mother and Child.

The only other chess piece that can rise off the plane of the board during the game is the crusader-king (in Bergman's allegory, the Crusader), but only when castling--going home, being enfolded in a cloak, like this Crusader. Thus the Crusader can see death, and he and Jof are the only ones who can. Until the end. Then, once the game is lost and the pieces--the characters--are to be lifted up off the board and put back in the box, they too can see Death. Except for the "leaper," these visions beyond the physical plane of the board, like the Crusader-king's, see only the allegorical figure of Death. The "leaper" (in Kierkegaard's "leap" of faith?) can see not only Death, but also the holy life of the Mother and Child.

In a quite literal way, then, one goes up to the level of the supernatural or the holy. The church painter, although committed to the world of the death-religion and to painting "life as it is," stands above things, on a scaffold. He is able to prefigure the events of the film in the scenes he paints of a man dying in torment, of Death sawing down a tree where a man has tried to hide, or of the Dance of Death which is the last scene of the film. The "witch," lifted up, sees Death and the existential emptiness. The actor, Skat, fleeing the burly smith he has cuckolded, climbs a tree. Up there, he can see Death, and, when Death cuts down the tree (an image from the allegorical painting), he is dead and to be put back in the box. After he is taken away, a squirrel jumps up on the felled tree--life goes on.

Jof, however, is a greater artist than the church painter or the other actor. He says his visions give "not the reality you see, but another kind." He hopes his Christ-like infant will grow up to achieve what he calls "the impossible trick," keeping the juggled ball always in the air, above the board, as it were. Jof's powers as a seer are almost exactly parodied by his tormentors' forcing him to jump up and down on the board table in the grotesque scene at the inn. Bergman himself is this kind of artist: he has called himself "a conjurer" working with a "deception of the human eye" that makes still pictures into moving pictures. He, like Jof, can see a supernatural world into being. 

  相關連結

遲鈍第七天 http://www.readingtimes.com.tw/authors/vincent/movies/movie32.htm 重述死亡的經典

http://lib.tngs.tn.edu.tw/e/e05-3.html  
安東尼是一位隨十字軍東征的騎士，當戰爭結束後，他返回自己的故鄉瑞典。彼時，他的家鄉適逢瘟疫、瘧疾與霍亂等惡疾的肆虐，安東尼親睹這幕人間悲劇，不禁懷疑起對上帝的信仰，而無情凌厲的死神總是再一旁虎視眈眈地準備不時造訪，安東尼身為保護聖教的勇士，便拿起他的妻子作為賭注的籌碼，而與死神對奕。
　
在此同時，另有一支遊走的表演藝人也再巡遊各地中見到了這幕人間慘劇，其中更有將人作宗教犧牲的可怖景象，在表演的旅程中，安東尼遇見了表演戲班中的一對年輕情侶，在他們身上，安東尼見識了人與人的相互扶持共同克服生命難處的愛與希望，這股力量訪若黑暗世紀的一點光明，也為殘敗的世間景象帶出些微的生存契機。
　
而安東尼與死神對奕的結果似已不再重要，不管輸或贏，在安東尼的心中已有了解救人間最基本卻也是最重要的答案了。

http://vc.cs.nthu.edu.tw/~jhchang/store-room/teach/direct10.htm 柏格曼論電影
http://www.fhl.net/gp/991226.htm 【主題電影】第七封印  作者：陳韻琳
http://iwebs.url.com.tw/main/html/hef/000830a.htm 死亡隨時在發問--英瑪．柏格曼的無神論電影
http://www.readingtimes.com.tw/authors/vincent/movies/movie32.htm
http://61.144.25.119/gate/big5/www.southcn.com/lady/huati/recommend/20020909