The Seventh Seal

It made me realize that films can be art. It inspired me to become a film director. This is one of the most powerful and significant films ever made. --Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct)

The Seventh Seal is a cultural touchstone with images so imitated (and sometimes parodied) that its timeless power and stark visual poetry can’t be forgotten. Returning exhausted from the Crusades to find medieval Sweden gripped by the Plague, a knight (the great Max von Sydow in a career-defining role) suddenly finds himself face-to-face with the hooded figure of Death—and then challenges him in a game of chess. It’s one of world cinema’s finest allegories of humankind’s search for meaning, in a work that director Éric Rohmer called “one of the most beautiful films ever.” With Gunnar Björnstrand, Bibi Andersson, and Bengt Ekerot as the definitive on-screen vision of the Grim Reaper. (96 mins., 35mm)