casablanca

Directed by the talented Michael Curtiz and shot almost entirely on studio sets, the film moves quickly through a surprisingly tightly constructed plot. The script for this film was written from day to day as the filming progressed and no one knew how the film would end [Would Ilsa stay with Rick or leave with Laszlo?]. Its collaborative screenplay was mainly the result of the efforts of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch - and producer Hal Wallis contributed the film's final line. Except for the initial airport sequence, the entire studio-oriented film was shot in a Warner Bros. Hollywood/Burbank studio.

Thematically, the film is typical in its appropriation of an official h

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And well she might have been confused, since neither she nor anyone else on the film knew for sure until the final day who would get on the plane. Leading actors to please any appetite. It speaks to the oppression of the one side - and the heroism and self-deprecation of the other. The opening scenes dance with comedy; the dialogue combines the cynical with the weary; wisecracks with epigrams. In “Casablanca,” he plays Rick Blaine, the hard-drinking American running a nightclub in Casablanca when Morocco was a crossroads for spies, traitors, Nazis and the French Resistance. Now she is with Victor Laszlo (Henreid), a legendary hero of the French Resistance. In her close-ups during this scene, Bergman's face reflects confusing emotions. By pinning the viewer's consciousness to Rick' s, most of what happens takes its logic from his point of view.

Casablanca is a film about the personal tragedy of occupation and war.

Stylistically, the film is not so much brilliant as absolutely sound, rock-solid in its use of Hollywood studio craftsmanship.

From a modern perspective, the film reveals interesting assumptions. ero (Laszlo), who stands for the civilizing values of home and community and an outlaw hero (Rick), who stands for ad hoc individualism. The fusion of Rick and audience begins when we first catch a glimpse of nothing more than Rick's hand as it signs a check. We are to believe that Rick's love for Ilsa was so great that he would have risked capture in France to follow Ilsa if she had told him the truth at the train station. We believe that Ilsa's love for Rick is so great, that she's willing to go through years of torment knowing what she's done to Rick, but that she did it for his own good.

Common topics in this essay:
Rick Ilsa, Formally Casablanca, Basically Casablanca, Casablanca Rick, Michael Curtiz, Ilsa Rick, Max Steiner's, , Bros Hollywood/Burbank, Lund Bergman, love rick, stick neck, train station, french resistance, love love,

Approximate Word count = 1073
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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