death that has prevailed since the opening. The encounter with death in the beginning of the film sets the tone for all that is to come. The timelessness of the sea give way to the growth and life of the interior as the knight and his vassal travel, but the life of the countryside contrasts with the death that is everywhere as a result of the plague. The chess game is a device that adds to the theatricality while moving the action further from the real world.
The contrast created between life and death is a theatrical device. Death appears in several forms in the film, being an ever-present shadow over life. Life is represented by the family group that is part of the traveling players--husband, wife, and child. The traveling players themselves indicate the theatricality of the film and the idea that deeper ideas can be heightened and presented in dramatic form. Death is seen in the person of Death himself, in the face of the dead shepherd
...