The Seventh Seal

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Now treated as an unquestioned masterpiece, The Seventh Seal was actually met with a split reception in Sweden on release, where the cinematography was admired but Bergman's script was widely attacked as pretentious — one Swedish critic dismissed it as superficially resembling his weakest early work. International critics were far more enthusiastic, and it was that foreign reception which made Bergman's global reputation. The divide between its initial Swedish skepticism and its subsequent canonization across virtually every major critics' poll is itself the defining story of the film's legacy.