Letter surfaces from young Stanley Kubrick to Ingmar Bergman

A 1960 letter from Stanley Kubrick to Ingmar Bergman praising the Swede as the "greatest filmmaker at work today" has been posted at the Letters of Note website.

As noted at the site, the younger maestro was 30 at the time, with Paths of Glory and The Killing behind him, but the groundbreaking Lolita still to come (in 1962).

The full text is below, but one phrase in particular leaps out, and certainly foreshdows Kubrick's own development as an artist. "Allow me to say you are unsurpassed by anyone in... the avoidance of the obvious," he writes.

February 9, 1960

Dear Mr. Bergman,

You have most certainly received enough acclaim and success throughout the world to make this note quite unnecessary. But for whatever it's worth, I should like to add my praise and gratitude as a fellow director for the unearthly and brilliant contribution you have made to the world by your films (I have never been in Sweden and have therefore never had the pleasure of seeing your theater work). Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today. Beyond that, allow me to say you are unsurpassed by anyone in the creation of mood and atmosphere, the subtlety of performance, the avoidance of the obvious, the truthfullness and completeness of characterization. To this one must also add everything else that goes into the making of a film. I believe you are blessed with wonderfull actors. Max von Sydow and Ingrid Thulin live vividly in my memory, and there are many others in your acting company whose names escape me. I wish you and all of them the very best of luck, and I shall look forward with eagerness to each of your films.

Best Regards,

Stanley Kubrick