Det Sjunde Inseglet (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)

Some films are crystallised in popular culture in a single iconic image. With The Seventh Seal, it's Max Von Sydow sitting on a beach playing chess with Death. It's a fair summation: the game in effect forms the framework for the whole film, mirroring the inexorable march of the plague across medieval Sweden and Von Sydow's crusader knight's metaphysical struggle with divine will in the face of the apparent randomness of the world.
For all the nihilism, Bergman still manages to work in counterbalancing light interludes with a sprightly troupe of travelling players, and the laconically self-deprecating pronouncements of the knight's squire also serve to alleviate a critique of human cruelty and stupidity, whether that of the church or of the merely fearful, which could otherwise so easily have been stifled under the weight of the indignation Bergman obviously feels.
It's not Bergman's most rounded work, being overly fond of the Greek chorus and the pat solution, but earns its role in cinematic history nevertheless for the sheer force of some of its imagery.

7/10