Neva Lilla's views on Casablanca

The movie Casablanca was made in 1942, staring Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund.  This movie was critically acclaimed, winning three Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.  Casablanca goes perfectly with the first chapter in the textbook because the lighting and staging in this film is superb. The closeup shots of the actors really helped to tune into their emotions.  I also noticed that the use of eye-level shots was utilized a lot.  I especially liked when the camera panned across the set to slowly show a scene develop.  One scene that still sticks with me is the scene with Rick silhouetted at his safe, with the officer behind him.  I found this scene to be very intriguing because of the length and lighting they used. I  felt they were able to silently say something very significant.

 

Watching this movie with this first chapter in mind really helped me tune into the magic of cinematography.  The cinematographer really captured the mood of the film, with a little tension, drama and airiness of that time period.   This film also captured the scenery very well, I am a big fan of staging, how a film is stage can make or break a film and this movie utilized staging excellently. 

                                                                                           

Taking place in a small outpost in Morocco with beautiful architecture as the background to a love triangle during World War II.  Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund fall in love in Paris but Ilsa does not leave with him when he is expecting her to, never thinking he would see her again.  She and her husband walk back into Rick’s life unexpectedly in Casablanca. 

 During a time period with most movies ending with the two main characters walking away together into the sunset happy and in love, this movie flipped the ending with the main character letting his love leave with her husband and he is walking off in the fog. 

My critque of this movie however has left me question why this movie has had a reputation as a timeless film, to me this film could be considered to be a nostalgic film, not a timeless film.  A timeless film is one in which you can watch it at any time and relate with the content of the film, no mature the time period.  For this film though, I found it to be hard to relate with, and the linear plot line left me not as interested as I had expected after reading about the film.  With saying that, it does not however take away from the beauty of this film and how wonderfully it was shot!