Bernie Michalik's posterous site

I was thrilled to see that Casablanca was playing at the rep theatre close
to my work today. I finshed up, skipped over, grabbed my ticket and popcorn
and sat down to watch one of the greatest films of all times. I've seen it
many many times and I still love to go see it. Here's some random reasons
why:

The big screen experience: watching it on the big screen really adds to the
enjoyment of the film. The light, the sound: all comes across better on a
big screen. Plus, watching it on a big screen in an old theatre like I did
really made me feel like I was going backwards in time. It's a great
experience just for that. They don't play too many old movies on big
screens anymore. Casablanca is so great they make an exception.

Map: I love that Casablanca starts off with a voiceover explaining the
context and then has a map with a moving line to show going from one place
to another! It dates the film, just like the cars and the airplanes and
even the fact it is black and white.

Actors: the actors in the film are wonderful. Obvious there is Bogart and
Bergman and other big stars, but even the minor characters shine in the
film. It's worthwhile going to Wikipedia and looking up the film just to
read about the actors and their backgrounds. It's astounding.

Beauty: Ingrid Bergman is beautiful and that certainly shows in this film.
I've seen it many times and know what she looks like, but I still find it
astonishing how beautiful she is when she appears in the film.

Lines: it is hard to listen to Casablanca without all the famous lines
jumping out as you watch it. The lines I love best are among the banter of
the actors. The humour is witty and droll, and you really need to watch
Casablanca numerous times to get it all. Claude Rains has the best lines,
but Bogart, Greenstreet and others also get in a lot of clever parts as
well.

Counterparts: Casablanca is a film about counterparts. So many I can't list
them all here, but some are: Paris-Casablanca, French-Germans,
cynics-heroes, Ricks vs the Blue Parrot, Rick-Renault, Rick-Laszlo, Ilsa in
Paris-Ilsa in Casablanca, etc. There's this great duality in so many
aspects of the film that helps provide tension and drama throughout the
film.

Suspense: perhaps because it was being written even as it was filmed, and
because it was filmed in sequence, the film has a great deal of suspense.
One can easily see it going in any direction quite believably, and it
changes direction often. There is a broader suspense as well. The film was
made in 1942. You have to bear that in mind when you watch it. At the time
Nazi Germany controlled most of Europe and threatened much of the world.
How WWII was going to turn out was very far from decided.

Noir: Casablanca has a great film noir quality to it. While Laszlo is
almost a two dimensional character, most of the others are cynical and of
doubtful morality. It gives the film a great, dark quality. Indeed, much of
the film is shot in darkness, reflective of the inner state of the actors.
After Rick sees Ilsa again, he is despondent and gets drunk. The scene is
so dark you can barely see Rick or Sam in the picture.

Arabs: one think I liked about the film is that Casablanca the city is
filled with Arabs and so is Casablanca the film. Of course it should be,
but this is Hollywood. The casting and everything about the film seems
more authentic than you might suspect.

Music: the music of this film is superb. While watching it, I was remarking
that even the throw away background music is great.
You really want to pay attention to the background music through the
scenes: it's lovely.

Boy/racism: one thing that really jumped out at me was when Ilsa refers to
Sam as a "boy". The sad thing is that it was not done out of malice: boy
was what you called black men, at least in America, at that time. Despite
that denigrating term, Rick, as Sam's boss, treats him as well as any of
his white employees. Certainly Ilsa is fond of him and calls him by his
name when she speaks to him. But that really struck me.

Romance: as much as Casablanca is a suspence film, it is also a romantic
film. While distasteful to me, you could call it a rom-com, since it has
lots of both. I think part of the great appeal of Casablanca is that it has
all of those elements blended so well.

Camps: another thing that struck me was the talk of putting people in
concentration camps. I suspect at the time they were considered prison
camps. Later we would know them as death camps. Laszlo survives a year in
such a camp. I couldn't help but think his next visit to a concentration
camp would be a death sentence.

Airport: in these days of maximum security at airports, I love how to get
on a plane in this film, you drive up to the airport, give the staff your
bags and hop on. There's something romantic about treating airplanes as
taxis.

Find an opportunity to watch Casablanca again. You won't regret it.you know
it's good, but it is better than you remember.
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