Trivia / The Seventh Seal

• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The most famous line of the film is "I am Death. I have come for you". Needless to say, it doesn't happen, or rather, it is an exchange between Block and Death.
  Block: Who are you?
  Death: I am Death.
  Block: Have you come to take me?
  Death: I have already walked by your side for a long time.
• Billing Displacement: Max von Sydow is billed fourth, even though he portrays the main character.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Ingmar Bergman.
• California Doubling: Except for the seaside scenes, the whole film was shot in movie studio backlot locations in suburban Stockholm.
• Creator Recovery: Ingmar Bergman credited the film with helping him overcome his crippling fear of death. Because the film dealt so overtly with the subject, he found it a highly cathartic experience.
• Doing It for the Art:
  • Bergman, bored with the comedies that he'd made his name with, took on this project with this attitude, writing "It's better to do this than a bad comedy. I don't give a damn about the money."
  • Also invoked in the film by church painter Albertus Pictor, who scoffs at the idea of making people happy with his art.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Max von Sydow has admitted he's actually a terrible chess player.
• No Budget: Because of their concerns about the film's commercial prospects, Svensk Filmindustri only gave Bergman a shoestring budget and a short filming schedule (36 days).
• Playing Against Type: Nils Poppe, Sweden's biggest comedy star, in a brooding drama, though he still plays Jof, the film's most lighthearted character.
• Self-Adaptation: Ingmar Bergman wrote the script based on his play Wood Painting.
• Star-Making Role: For Max von Sydow.
• Throw It In!: The iconic The Dead Can Dance scene at the end. The actors had already gone home when Ingmar Bergman caught sight of the sun setting over the hill, quickly had a few crewmen and tourists dress up as the characters, and shot the scene.

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