Alfred Hitchcock directed the 1945 film Spellbound, which features dream-sequence designs created with Salvador Dalí.
Spellbound is a psychological thriller starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Its story centers on psychoanalysis, memory, guilt, and an apparent identity crisis, making a dream sequence an important part of the film’s visual design.
Hitchcock invited Dalí to create images for that sequence because he wanted something more vivid and unconventional than a standard cinematic dream. Dalí produced striking concepts involving large eyes, a tiled floor, playing cards, and other symbolic forms. The finished sequence was shortened from the original conception, partly for practical and production reasons.
Dalí did not direct Spellbound and did not create the entire film. His contribution was specifically associated with the dream imagery. This distinction matters because his best-known film collaborations were with Luis Buñuel, including Un Chien Andalou and L’Âge d’Or.