The Seventh Seal

This post only makes sense if I start by confessing that I'm the only person in the world never to have seen The Godfather. Well, that's not exactly true: I probably have seen the whole thing, but only if you string together 20 years of watching disconnected sections of it on TV. I am starting here because it is such a clear and obvious example of my cultural illiteracy. I could have started by admitting I've never read Crime and Punishment or Paradise Lost, nor listened to the B Minor Mass or Die Walkure, nor walked the streets of Venice or Athens, nor seen the Mona Lisa (which is pathetic because I've been to the Louvre). Anyway, as part of a series of ongoing mid-life crisis-related acts, I am making a list of all the classic books I've never read, movies or artworks I've never seen, cities I've never visited, and so on. Not because I actually intend on reading, seeing, or visiting them, but because making lists is fun. That said, I did finally watch Bergman's The Seventh Seal, and it was so enjoyable that I'm seriously considering taking my list and making a concerted effort to start knocking off items. And no, smartass, it wasn't just enjoyable because I was able to find the scenes that were parodied in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (a highly underrated film, but that's for another post). It was enjoyable because it was genuinely a powerful film, especially if like me you spend a lot of your time grappling with the meaning of existence.