The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is probably Bergman's best-known work and the film that most clearly bears the director's unmistakeable signature.
The opening scene sets the tone: a stony beach under a leaden sky, the knight alone with his thoughts, then the approach of black-clad Death, whom the knight invites to play a game of chess. Bergman's medieval allegory of faith and doubt is dark with the horrors of witch-burnings and the plague. But it is also shot through with bright flashes of peace and joy, ...