The Seventh Seal (1957)

Max von Sydow: Antonius Block

Photos 

22 more photos

Quotes 

• Antonius Block : We must make an idol of our fear, and call it god.

• Antonius Block : Is it so terribly inconceivable to comprehend God with one's senses? Why does he hide in a cloud of half-promises and unseen miracles? How can we believe in the faithful when we lack faith? What will happen to us who want to believe, but can not? What about those who neither want to nor can believe? Why can't I kill God in me? Why does He live on in me in a humiliating way - despite my wanting to evict Him from my heart? Why is He, despite all, a mocking reality I can't be rid of?

• Antonius Block : I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams.

• Antonius Block : Who are you?

  Death : I am Death.

  Antonius Block : Have you come for me?

  Death : I have long walked by your side.

  Antonius Block : So I have noticed.

  Death : Are you ready?

  Antonius Block : My body is ready, but I am not.

• Antonius Block : I want knowledge! Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand, uncover His face and speak to me.

  Death : But He remains silent.

  Antonius Block : I call out to Him in the darkness. But it's as if no one was there.

  Death : Perhaps there isn't anyone.

  Antonius Block : Then life is a preposterous horror. No man can live faced with Death, knowing everything's nothingness.

  Death : Most people think neither of death nor nothingness.

  Antonius Block : But one day you stand at the edge of life and face darkness.

  Death : That day.

  Antonius Block : I understand what you mean.

• Antonius Block : I shall remember this moment: the silence, the twilight, the bowl of strawberries, the bowl of milk. Your faces in the evening light. Mikael asleep, Jof with his lyre. I shall try to remember our talk. I shall carry this memory carefully in my hands as if it were a bowl brimful of fresh milk. It will be a sign to me, and a great sufficiency.

• Antonius Block : Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.

• Mia : You don't look so happy.

  Antonius Block : No.

  Mia : Are you tired?

  Antonius Block : Yes. I have boring company.

  Mia : You mean your squire?

  Antonius Block : No, not him.

  Mia : Who do you mean, then?

  Antonius Block : Myself.

• Death : When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.

  Antonius Block : And will you reveal your secrets?

  Death : I have no secrets.

  Antonius Block : So do you know nothing?

  Death : I am unknowing.

• [Death approaches Antonius Block] 

  Antonius Block : Wait a moment.

  Death : You all say that. But I grant no reprieves.

• Death : Don't you ever stop asking?

  Antonius Block : No. I never stop.

  Death : But you're not getting an answer.

• Antonius Block : They say you have consorted with the devil?

  Witch : Why do you ask that?

  Antonius Block : It's not out of curiosity, but because of utterly personal reasons. I would also like to meet him.

  Witch : Why?

  Antonius Block : I want to ask him about God. He must know. He, if anyone.

• Antonius Block : Nothing escapes you!

  Death : Nothing escapes me. No one escapes me.

• [Antonius Block lets Death choose which chess pieces to play] 

  Antonius Block : You drew black.

  Death : Appropriate, don't you think?

• Antonius Block : This is my hand. I can turn it. The blood is still running in it. The sun is still in the sky and the wind is blowing. And I... I, Antonius Block, play chess with Death.

• Antonius Block : I met Death today. We are playing chess.

• [watching a young woman get burned at the stake] 

  Jöns : Who will take care care of that child? Is it the angels or God or Satan or the emptiness? The emptiness, Sire?

  Antonius Block : It can't be so!

• Antonius Block : My whole life has been nothing but futile wandering, a great deal of words without meaning. I say that without bitterness or self-reproach, because I know it's the same for most men.

• Witch : Look into my eyes.

  [the knight meets her gaze. They stare at each other for a long time] 

  Witch : What do you see? Do you see him?

  Antonius Block : I see fear in your eyes, an empty, numb fear. But nothing else.

  Witch : No one, nothing, no one?

  Antonius Block : [shakes his head]  No.

  Witch : Can't you see him behind your back?

  Antonius Block : [turns around]  No, there is no one there.

• Jöns : [the witch is about to be burned]  Look at her eyes, my lord. Her poor brain has just made a discovery. Emptiness under the moon.

  Antonius Block : No.

  Jöns : We stand powerless, our arms hanging at our sides, because we see what she sees, and our terror and hers are the same. That poor little child. I can't stand it, I can't stand it...

• Antonius Block : From our darkness, we call out to Thee, Lord. Have mercy on us because we are small and frightened and ignorant.

  Jöns : [bitterly]  In the darkness where you are supposed to be, where all of us probably are... In the darkness you will find no one to listen to your cries or be touched by your sufferings. Wash your tears and mirror yourself in your indifference.

  Antonius Block : God, You who are somewhere, who must be somewhere, have mercy upon us.

  Jöns : I could have given you an herb to purge you of your worries about eternity. Now it seems to be too late. But in any case, feel the immense triumph of this last minute when you can still roll your eyes and move your toes.

  Karin, Block's Wife : Quiet, quiet.

  Jöns : I shall be silent, but under protest.

• Jof : Have we nothing to offer our guest?

  Antonius Block : Nothing for me, thank you.

  Mia : I picked some wild strawberries this afternoon. And there's milk fresh from the cow.

• Antonius Block : [to Death]  You're a traitor - and you tricked me. But we will meet again, and I'll find a way out.

• Antonius Block : There's so much to worry people.

  Mia : It's better to be two. Have you no one?

  Antonius Block : I had once.

  Mia : And now?

  Antonius Block : I don't know.

  Mia : So solemn! Was she your beloved?

  Antonius Block : We were newly married. We played and laughed. I wrote songs to her eyes, to her nose, and to her beautiful little ears. We hunted and danced. The house was full of life.