A few years ago I watched this film as part of my Halloween watchlist, which I do every October, and it immediately became one of my favorite discoveries. The version I watched is a degraded copy available on archive.org that looks like it may have been ripped from a VHS, or at the very least hasn't undergone any kind of meaningful restoration, but the visuals still dripped with beauty and atmosphere. Sybille Schmitz is a dark, haunting presence of strength and beauty as Maria, a woman who comes to a small village looking for work. She winds up taking on the role of "ferryman" after the man in charge of this post died while transporting a mysterious gaunt figure (who seems to precede Bergman's vision of Death in The Seventh Seal) across the lake. Over the course of her stay, Maria falls in love with a wounded soldier who escapes to the out-of-the-way town to recuperate while hiding from the enemy, but when the Grim Reaper shows up to collect the soldier, it's up to Maria to outwit him and rescue her beloved.
The only flaw in the movie is the ending--the way that Maria gets rid of Death doesn't really make a lot of sense or live up to the folkloric milieu out of which the story operates, but that's a minor complaint. See it for the atmosphere and Schmitz's hypnotic performance.
The only flaw in the movie is the ending--the way that Maria gets rid of Death doesn't really make a lot of sense or live up to the folkloric milieu out of which the story operates, but that's a minor complaint. See it for the atmosphere and Schmitz's hypnotic performance.
