Last Days and The Seventh Seal and Steve Zissou

I saw Gus van Zant's Last Days - purportedly about  Kurt Cobain's end of life - and saw again Bergman's The Seventh Seal recently. There is something fine and grand about seeing films on similar topics in such proximity; one remembers each and each gives understanding to the other.

I think I found them much interesting in conjunction than alone. I certainly had a deeper appreciation of Bergman's film this time around, not in contrast to van Zant's film, but in community with it. They pointed my understanding somewhere a bit further along the rough road of comprehension of symbols... which is not a simple thing at all, symbols being of many natures, not just one simple type we like to pretend they are.

Then I watched Steve Zissou: The Life Aquatic again. I cannot really tell you why this is a significant event in my life. All of Bill Murray's films seem to be fine sandpapers that smooth out some existential rough edges... of which I have many.
I have spoken of Broken Flowers of 2005 frequently, a film whose first 15 to 20 minutes I missed and found the experience without the introduction and setting the scene to be a much more engaging experience than I usually have with films. I sort of became unusually involved as I had to figure out what was the story line, and as it became clear, it was as if I were walking through the film next to Bill Murray.