CAVALERUL CARE JUCA ȘAH CU MOARTEA
THE KNIGHT WHO USED TO PLAY CHESS WITH DEATH

Summary/Abstract: Our study aims at describing Bergman’s masterpiece from 1957, namely „The seventh seal”. Throughout our article we wish to analyze the movie through the perspectives of Martin Heidegger, but mostly the ones of Søren Kierkegaard, because Bergman was influenced more by the Dane, than by the father of fundamental ontology. Alas, we will be trying to show how the knight „of faith” from the movie dwells in the category of the being towards death, using also some psychoanalytical concepts, borrowed from Freud, Jung and Lacan. The more consistent part of our analysis will focus on applying Kierkegaard’s concepts of the knight and the leap of faith, but also, we will be talking about angst, this fundamental affect, and namely, the form of anxiety in the face of the eternal, i.e. despair. We hope to find out that our knight of faith is searching for authenticity, mainly throughout his chess duel with Death, but also to underline the works of anxiety and despair, that lie in the soul of Antonius Block. We are considering also the fact that the metaphor of the chess duel vis-a-vis Death is emblematic of Heidegger’s notion of the being towards death. Kierkegaard’s concepts were also of great influence in other movies by Bergman, namely in the Winter’s light, where the main story is about a priest who loses his faith. We want to conclude with the fact that our humble attempt aims at showing that a many great concepts of Kierkegaard may be applied to Bergmanian filmography.

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