Stanley Kubrick to Ingmar Bergman: “You Are the Greatest Filmmaker at Work Today” (1960) — openculture.com

If you saw our post on Stanley Kubrick’s ten favorite films in 1963, you may remember that Ingmar Bergman ranked high on his list, specifically with 1957′s Wild Strawberries. Three years earlier, Kubrick had mailed the Swedish filmmaker a fan letter praising his “vision of life,” “creation of mood and atmosphere,” “avoidance of the obvious,” and “truthfulness and completeness of characterization.” Could a screening of Wild Strawberries, a film which stands as evidence of all those qualities, have moved the 31-year-old Kubrick to write to Bergman such words of appreciation about his “unearthly and brilliant” work? The dream sequence above, made haunting in a way only Bergman could do it, showcases just one of the many facets of that picture’s mood, atmosphere, and unearthliness.

Read More