The Seventh Seal (film discussion)

In the late fourteenth century
a knight returns from the Crusades to a Sweden in the grip of the
Black Death. He sits on a beach, sets up a game of chess, and waits
for Death, who duly arrives to take him. The Crusader, however,
says he knows that Death likes to play chess, so why don’t they have
a game? If the Crusader wins, he gets a reprieve
(for the moment, at any rate); if Death wins, he takes the Crusader
with him immediately.
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About the film:

A magically powerful film. (The New Yorker)

Perhaps the first genuinely existential film. (Andrew Sarris)

The Seventh Seal marks the great divide in Bergman’s life and work. With it death and desperation fall away, life and hope appear. (Time Magazine)

All of Bergman's mature films, except the comedies, are about his discontent with the ways that God has chosen to reveal himself. But when he made "The Seventh Seal” he was bold enough to approach his subject in a literal manner; to actually show the knight playing chess with Death, an image so perfect it has survived countless parodies. (Roger Ebert)

Bergman uses this fanciful pretext to examine the realities of human existence. The chess game becomes a symbol for the importance of the personal struggle to find meaning in the face of death. The outcome of the game is inevitable, for Death will win, but the personal struggle still contains great hope. (Emanuel Levy)

The Seventh Seal was always my favourite film, and I remember seeing it with a small audience at the old New Yorker Theatre. Who would have thought that the subject matter could yield such a pleasurable experience? (Woody Allen)

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The film can be watched here

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We all seek meaning in our lives and dread futility. Philosophy doesn't provide facile answers, but the philosophical quest to make sense of our fleeting lives is one that we all share.

This group will explore possible answers by looking at a mixture of approaches. Not only philosophical writing, but also literature, history, poetry and films.

The organizer is not an expert in any of these writers but has a long experience in organizing similar meetings. He also has an Oxford PhD in European History as well as a Cambridge MPhil on the same discipline. He currently teaches foreign languages.