May 5, 1995

IF ever a film seemed destined to age badly, it was "The Seventh Seal," Ingmar Bergman's medieval fantasy about a Knight playing chess with Death. The 1957 film was a major part of Mr. Bergman's international breakthrough, and the white-faced, black-robed Death figure was parodied almost as soon as it appeared. The image has passed from the still hilarious 1968 short "De Duva" ("The Dove"), in which Death plays a mean game of badminton, to a cameo appearance by Death two years ago in "The Last Action Hero." By the time an image appears in a Schwarzenegger movie, it has probably been co-opted beyond recovery. One of the many glorious surprises in the Bergman retrospective opening today at the Walter Reade Theater is how well "The Seventh Seal" holds up, its haunting and eloquent emotional power shining clear through the decades. Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, "Landscape of the Soul: The Films of Ingmar Bergman" is the centerpiece of a vast Bergman Festival. For the next two months, New York will be rich with work that displays the many forms of Mr. Bergman's genius.

Three hospitals with combined revenues of $635 million, 9,000 employees and 1,600 beds would consolidate, under plans announced here yesterday, to create the largest multihospital system in the state. All three hospitals -- Morristown Memorial, Overlook in Summit and Mountainside in Montclair -- would stay open under the plan, which must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission and the State Department of Health.

In the streets rising from Marseilles's old port, couscous is easier to find than croissants. Cockney neighborhoods in London are now bazaars for Muslims from Bangladesh. Muezzins call Turks to prayer from new minarets in Cologne. With 10 million to 13 million Muslims living in Western Europe, conservative and far-right politicians, including some voices in the French presidential campaign, have appealed to prejudice against the Muslim presence.

After months of on-again, off-again negotiations, Hoechst A.G., the German chemical and pharmaceuticals giant, agreed yesterday to buy Marion Merrell Dow Inc. for $25.75 a share, or $7.1 billion. The deal would create the world's second-largest drug maker, behind the recently merged Glaxo Wellcome of Britain and just ahead of Merck & Company. The sale is the latest multibillion-dollar merger of drug companies. Last year, Roche Holdings of Switzerland acquired Syntex, and the American Home Products Corporation bought American Cyanamid.

The Dow Corning Corporation said yesterday that it might file for bankruptcy to work its way out of a morass created by breast implant litigation. The company said it was "actively considering" filing for Chapter 11 protection, which would halt all litigation, as a result of the breakdown of a $4.25 billion settlement negotiated with it and several other companies last year. Dow Corning, which manufactured silicone breast implants given to more than one million women between 1964 and 1992, now faces 20,000 lawsuits, some with multiple plaintiffs.