“Bergman’s work suggests that dreaming is cinema’s natural state.” This video essay for the Criterion Collection is a great example of how an idea fermented by watching the films of a single director can then be expanded to the whole of cinema.

Michael Koresky and Casey Moore trace the influence and imagery of dreams in Ingmar Bergman’s movies. They pinpoint the many instances of dreamlike scenes, and then connect these observations to Bergman’s overall poetics.