This is another rather disappointing entry in the BFI Classics series, a padded look at one of European cinema's most famous totems, Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal', that medieval allegory of plague, faith, doubt, death, God and chess.

It is disappoint because it promises so much but doesn't deliver. The opening chapter, 'Art and Religion', looks at Bergman's attempts to return Art, its creation and reception, to the condition of medieval craftsmanship and faith, when to create was synonymous with worship. Bragg, an acclaimed novelist and arts broadcaster (he made a film about Bergman in 1978) has recently produced two major series on religious subjects, but any hope for a serious tackling of this aspect in Bergman's work, and 'The Seventh Seal' in particular, is quickly jettisoned in favour of less demanding chapters on Bragg's first exposure to cinema and Bergman (the usual 'alternative to Hollywood' stuff), and the importance of Bergman's childhood (which is obvious to anyone who's seen a Bergman film, especially 'Fanny and Alexander'; although it's alarming to discover the young Bergman's obsession with Hitler, for whom his stern pastor father was a dead ringer).

Another chapter deals with the genesis of the film in a play Bergman wrote for an acting school, but fails to analyse the way Bergman, in this and all his work, systematically uses theatre and acting as a metaphor.

What is especially disappointing is that the final chapter, a brief synopsis of the film, is brilliant, full of casual asides that are actually dazzling shards of critical insight. Too late, Bragg reveals he has the measure of this dark, enigmatic, unnervingly comic film (one actually dismissed by most Bergmanophiles as superficial and uncharacteristic, but Bragg doesn't mention this) - Bragg's intelligence is dimmed by the rigid format of the series.