1. The Seventh Seal (1957)
Weary knight Antonius Block is returning home after the Crusades with his servant Jons. The whole of Sweden is riddled with plague. On the beach he meets Death - a white faced, black cowled man - who engages him in a game of chess. Antonius thinks the longer he can prolong the game, the longer he will live. Block and Jons venture forth to the former's castle after meeting a bunch of actors. They stop in a church on the way home and Antonius goes in to confess - where he meets Death again as his confessor. He admits to Death that his life has been meaningless but that he would like to do a good deed before he dies. In an abandoned village, Block saves a girl from rape whilst he is looking for water. Back in town Block and Jons run into the acting troupe again who are performing. Block invites the actors back to his castle where they will be safer from the plague. They pass a girl who is going to be burnt for witchcraft but Block stops and asks her to conjure up Satan so he can ask him about God. All he can see is the girl's hysteria and he gives her some herbs to ease her suffering. At Block's residence, one of the actors can see the knight play chess with Death and he is anxious to flee the castle while Death is preoccupied. Death wins the game of chess after Block knocks all the pieces off the board. He says - "No one can escape me" and asks Block if he has done his good deed. Block replies that he has. He sits down with his wife for one last supper and prays to God that he guides them "because we are small and frightened and ignorant". The film's portrait of the Middle Ages is hardly accurate, but it is unlikely that Bergman set out to direct a period piece. Rather he used the time period to express some very mid 20th century views on existentialism. Bergman's father was a Lutheran priest and he grew up in an environment of intense Christianity so the film is very bold in its treatment of God, death and the sheer wonder and mystery of being alive. Death is everywhere we go - we cannot escape it in the end, so we cling to the idea of a God who will grant us eternal life when we die. The depiction of Death as a chess game is very apt as we manoeuvre our way throughout life. The meaning of life is examined with Block admitting that his life has been useless. He has fought in the Crusades only to come home to a broken Sweden that flies in the face of everything he fought for. He sees the eventual message of the film - that our deeds are only judged on how good we are to those around us, and thus he wants to do something meaningful in the eyes of God - a kindness - before he capitulates to death. Achieving these good deeds is central to humanity and Christianity.