The Seventh Seal

1957 Director Ingmar Bergman

This film launched the international career of its director, Ingmar Bergman, and made a star of its 27 year old leading actor, Max Von Sydow. Endlessly imitated and parodied, this landmark film retains its ability to hold an audience spellbound.

A 14th century knight is wearily heading home after ten years' worth of combat. Disillusioned by unending war, plague, and misery he has concluded that God does not exist. As he trudges across the wilderness, he is visited by Death, garbed in the traditional black robe. Unwilling to give up the ghost, he challenges Death to a game of chess. If he wins, he lives, if not, he'll allow Death to claim him. As they play, the knight and the Grim Reaper get into a spirited discussion over whether or not God exists. To recount all that happens next would diminish the impact of the film itself. The Seventh Seal ends with one of the most indelible of all of Bergman's cinematic images: the near-silhouette "Dance of Death", which ironically was filmed on a whim due to the chance lighting conditions of the moment.

Sixty years later, Bergman's stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of film making and an essential building block in any collection.