Spellbound. 1945. USA. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Screenplay by Ben Hecht, based on the novel by Frances Beeding. With Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Jean Acker. 35mm. 111 min.
A dedicated psychoanalyst (Ingrid Bergman) attempts to help an amnesiac could-be murderer (Gregory Peck). Hitchcock explains his reasons for wanting artist Salvador Dalí to collaborate on *Spellbound*’s famous dream sequence: “I asked [producer David O.] Selznick if he could get Dalí to work with us and he agreed, though I think he didn’t really understand my reasons for wanting Dalí. He probably thought I wanted his collaboration for publicity purposes. The real reason was that I wanted to convey the dreams with great visual sharpness and clarity, sharper than the film itself. I wanted Dalí because of the architectural sharpness of his work.”