 "Photo: courtesy Photo")
Casablanca is continually placed on the many lists being made about movies, at any given moment, as one of the greatest films of all time, right up there with Citizen Kane. The difference between the two is that a critical eye and multiple viewings are required to truly appreciate Kane. Casablanca, on the other hand, goes down like sugar. One thing both movies have in common, however, is that you can watch them again and again. That's why this is our third annual screening of one of the greatest films, and also one of the greatest romances of all time, Casablanca, on Valentine's Day no less.
Way back in 1942 when Casablanca came out, no one quite anticipated its success; it was just another picture on the Hollywood assembly line. However, somehow we see in Casablanca countless correct decisions and an infinite amount of inimitable moments all coming perfectly together to be captured on film. The script, the cast, the direction and the cinematography all seem to have tumbled into this world from a mystical dimension. The movie wasn't made so much as it was conjured. Yet, a few key decisions almost irrevocably changed the Casablanca we know today. For one thing, the filmmakers didn't decide until the last minute what would happen in the final scene. In addition to that, Ronald Regan was an early choice for the Humphrey Bogart role, and, with all due respect to the Gipper, thank the great gods of celluloid perfection that he didn't get the part.
Bogie plays Rick Blaine, an American expatriate who owns a bar in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. It all takes place during World War II, and Casablanca, the movie attests, is the only way to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe. Rick was once an idealist. He even fought in Spain against the fascists but now we see he's a bitter, cynical, wounded man. He winds up possessing two of the most coveted objects in Casablanca - letters of transit and one-way tickets out of the country and across the ocean that can't be contested or revoked. It turns out the person who needs them most is the last person he wants to give them to: Isla Lund, his ex-lover from Paris just before the Nazi's marched in, played by the great Ingrid Bergman. She left him waiting in the rain at a train station and he hasn't seen her since.
"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world," Ilsa strolls into Rick's bar with, to Rick's surprise, a husband, Victor Lazlo, renowned hero of the French Underground. Lazlo needs those letters of transit to escape the Nazis and help the resistance, but Rick is hesitant. Is Lazlo who she left him for? Did she leave Lazlo for Rick in Paris and then regret the decision? Of course Ilsa and Rick still love each other. The story, at its core, is about resuscitating and requiting passions that had long remained repressed and about finding the good in oneself that had been lost and forgotten. It all ends with one of the most famous finales in film history, a fateful choice between self-sacrifice and self-gratification on a fog-enshrouded runway.
Bergman and Bogey are simply stunning on the screen, and their perpetually glistening eyes, welled up with almost-tears, can be contagious. Casablanca is pure with true emotion-- classical Hollywood filmmaking at its finest. There are great supporting characters in the film as well. The juiciest goes to Claude Rains as Renault, the smooth, sophisticated and corrupt Vichy French Captain, who's collaborating with the Nazis because that's who seems to be winning at the time. Sydney Greenstreet plays a sleazy and corpulent master of Casablanca's black market, and Peter Lorre, whom you would probably recognize, plays a similar sniveling black market dealer.
If you have not already seen Casablanca before, then let me assure you that you also already know at least two or three of the lines. The film is absolutely filled with iconic one-liners that have pervaded pop culture. Along with that treasure trove of movie quotes, Casablanca boasts a witty, at times lightning fast, script in the tradition of old Hollywood, infused with a certain timeless, rough-hewn poetry as well.
I'm sure you're waiting for me to reveal the be all, end all reason why Casablanca tops all the lists, but I'm afraid I don't have the answer. Maybe because it gives us, and especially gave audiences back in World War II, a magnificently well-crafted glimpse of what we could be and what we could have if we did the "right" thing, made the "right" choices. Maybe it's the perfect combination of action, romance, and comedy. I know we're showing Casablanca on Valentine's Day, but it's not just for the couples. Casablanca is perfect for any anti-Valentine's Day grumbler who's been left to wait in the rain one too many times, or who's never been able to wait in the rain for anyone at all. In the end, maybe Casablanca is so great because it makes you want to wait and get wet in spite of everything.
Join us for a free screening of Casablanca on Thursday, 2/14, at 7:00 p.m. in the MUB Theatre I.
Be well, FU
Be the first to comment on this article!