A knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
EN
“Bergman wants to be the play actor, the jester in the marketplace, yet do not forget that he also wants to be a popular – a very popular – revivalist. He expresses himself with equal vulgarity in both roles, and with equal authenticity. [...] He has discovered that film as an art form means both the return of the jester and of the preaching mendicant friar.”
Ivar Harrie1
“With his eye pressed to the viewfinder, Fischer followed Raval's struggle with death. When Bertil Anderberg had fallen down, the scene was over. Fischer got ready to stop filming. Yet Bergman's customary “thanks” was not forthcoming. ‘Had the director fallen asleep?’, Fischer wondered – yet dutifully he let the camera continue to roll. At that point there was a break in the clouds. From where he was, Fischer had not been able to see it coming. Light streamed into the picture, an unexpected bonus.
Since then, many people have wondered just how that effect was achieved. ‘It was pure luck’ Gunnar Fischer said, banging the table in front of him. ‘Just imagine if I‘d stopped filming there and then...’ And at that moment, almost forty years later, one could sense that he could still hardly bear to think of the split second when he almost shut down his camera in that forest glade in the Råsunda studios.”
Mårten Blomkvist2
