The Seventh Seal (1957)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman. With Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe. A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.

The Seventh Seal (Swedish: Det sjunde inseglet) is a 1957 Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Denmark[3][4] during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) and a game of chess he plays with the person

In medieval Sweden, a knight returns from war only to find a ravaged homeland. He meets up with a group of travelling players and eventually confronts the embodiment of death with whom he engages in a game of chess.

Returning exhausted from the Crusades to find medieval Sweden gripped by the Plague, a knight (Max von Sydow) suddenly comes face-to-face with the hooded figure of Death, and challenges him to a game of chess. As the fateful game progresses, and the knight and his squire encounter a gallery of outcasts from a society in despair, Bergman mounts a profound inquiry into the nature of faith and the torment of mortality. One of the most influential films of its time, The Seventh Seal is a stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning and a work of stark visual poetry.

A knight returning from the Crusades finds a rude church still

Amazon.com: The Seventh Seal (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Bibi Andersson, Inga Gill, Maud Hansson, Inga Landgré, Gunnel Lindblom, Bertil Anderberg, Anders Ek, Åke Fridell, Arne Carlsson, Gunnar Fischer, Ingmar Bergman, Marie Nyreröd, Lennart Wallén, Allan Ekelund: Movies & TV

Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece about a doomed medieval knight who plays chess with Death is one of the great classics of world cinema. On its 60th anniversary, we count up the reasons it's still so special.