“Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.”

Black Death strikes Europe in the middle of the 12th century. Antonius Block went to the Holy Land as a faithful young warrior, but returns to Sweden tortured by doubt and uncertainty. The thought that there might not be a God is unbearable to him. When Death suddenly stands before him, he wants proof and challenges Death to a game of chess. Before he dies, the great warrior wants to do one last meaningful thing.

Ingmar Bergman’s most memorable films deal with questions of love, memory, and faith. Fifty years later, more viewers may have seen parodies of the images that Bergman established here — most notably, Woody Allen’s hilarious Love and Death — but the original still stands as an existential exploration of intellect and humanity.