Come and see

This strange Russian (or, actually, Belorussian) film has been considered by some the best war film ever. It is surely one of the most disturbing, but not so much because of its graphic violence (the harshest scene is the death of a real live cow), but because of its sheer psychological terror, since everything is seen through the eyes of a teenager during the invasion of Russia by the Nazis.

The film has several very poetic, almost surreal scenes, specially in its first part.

The director of "Come and See", Elem Klimov, is not known for any other famous film. In fact, he did not finish any other film after that, saying that he felt "drained".

The film is from 1985, when "perestrojka" and "glasnost" were starting to be heard here and there. Nevertheless, the film does not mention the Soviet horrors (only the Nazi ones) and therefore some say that it is a propaganda film for the Soviets. However, it is really just a powerful war film.

It can be watched fully on Youtube, starting below.

The Seventh Seal

“The Seventh Seal” may not be Ingmar Bergman’s best film, but it is for sure one of the most iconic of his whole career. Who can forget the image of Death playing chess with the Knight? There have been countless parodies of the scene, the best one perhaps in Woody Allen’s “Love and Death“.

It is also a film that, despite its grim theme, is actually quite funny (dark humor, of course).

While the performance of Max Von Sidow as the Knight is justly celebrated, my favorite character is his sidekick the Squire, interpreted by the great Gunnar Bjornstrand.

The scene of the burning of the witch (with its nod to Carl Dreyer’s “Joan of Arc”) is very haunting.

The film inspired several parodic short films as well. One of the best can be watched here.

Bergman’s film can be watched full for free, in the following link.