Casablanca, a film of the early 1940's, was famous for not only its fascinating story line but its remarkable edits. The film opens up with a montage of historical background of what was happening in Germany at the time under Hitler's rule, and as the narrator is talking about the different routes that the refugees had to take, there is an overlap in the camera. There is a map that lays lightly on top of a moving and restless crowd. This was an outstanding first scene, because it immediately gave me knowledge on what the film was going to be about and kept me interested. Another thing that I noticed while watching the film was the atmosphere and mood that was created by the characters. In the first five minutes of the film, someone is shot. There is so much motion going on that it makes the audience almost feel as if he or she is actually there. Yet, at the same time, there is a hopeful attititude from the people, in fact, one of the girls looks up at the plane and says, " I hope I am on that plane tomorrow." Right before she says that line, there is an upward shot as if she is looking up at it, which makes the audience feel like they are actually there. This scene relates to a particular scene in the film The Parent Trap, when the two sisters are leaving camp and they are on their way back home. Ofcourse, they are so excited to swap parents, but at the same time, they don't want to leave eachother. This two sided emotion keeps the film relatable. One thing that I found very confusing was the lack of response to the guy being shot in the first scene. Understandably so, it was much more common for that time period, but I would have expected at least a little more of a reaction. Another thing that I found very interesting was that Rick was not shown until the audience heard about him from others, like the fact that he "Never drinks with customers. Then, Renault mentions "Rick is amazing. If I were a girl, I would marry him", which immediately let the viewers know that he was a very important character who was superior to the rest. The hype that is created makes the film more engaging and curious so that they want to watch and find out more. Another characteristic that I noticed while watching casablanca was the light vs dark outfit combinations. When we are first introduced to Rick, He is in an all white suit while all of the officers enter Ricks restaurant in darker colors. This creates an automatic perception that the darker outfitted characters were the "bad guys", while the lighter ones were the good guys. And that was exactly the case. Another outfit-character match was when Ilsa arrived in Rick's cafe at night while he was drinking alone. Ilsa arrived in a long coat and something over her head. This creates a sense of mystery and curiosity of what Ilsa and Rick's past was. After viewing the entire film, do you believe that Ilsa actually had a deep and existent love for Rick, or do you think it was partly so her and Lazlow could get on the plane to safety? And if she did really love him, wouldn't she stay with him in Casablanca? Isn't that what true love is all about?
Opening Scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pYG1Vbgq0o
I liked how you touched upon the technical aspect of the beginning of the movie. You brought up points that I had never thought about in detail before. One other topic you mentioned was the idea of costumes. The History Channel Magazine Article stated that “Casablanca was the first film Warner made under the ban on the use of silk and wool for costumes” and that it “limited” Ilsa’s costumes to “simple cotton outfits”. Although the budget for Casablanca did not have room for exceptional outfits, the costumes still manage to play a significant role in the film with the dark costumes symbolizing characters with malicious intentions and lighter costumes symbolizing “good” characters.
ReplyDeleteAs for the questions you posed at the end of your blog post, I believe Ilsa leaving Casablanca was not true love. I think, if anything, the fact that she left, and that Rick let her leave, is true love all in itself. To me, it was true love when Rick let Ilsa go on the plane, because in that moment, Rick gave up the only person he ever really cared about because he knew that she would be happier and would have a better life if he let her go.
You brought up really good points and picked up on tiny, but important details to the plot. I think we both had similar questions and observations throughout the film, especially the fact that within the first 5 minutes, someone is shot yet people react subtly as if it were common as well as the atmosphere being hectic, hopeful and fearful all at once. All of these elements certainly kept me engaged as an audience member. It's interesting that you bring up The Parent Trap and that particular scene, I wouldn't of normally thought of that but I see the connection between both movies, really cool! As for your question, I think that Ilsa and Rick definitely shared real love, however because they knew so little about each other it makes me question if they genuinely love each other or the "idea" of each other. I find Ilsa to be a very dependent character when it comes to men, and because of her circumstances with her husband, Rick, and the war around her, her love for Rick was ultimately not strong enough to make her stay with him and give up her previous life.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about the many different aspects that make up this movie. You talk about hope, camera angles, and Rick. I like how you brought up the scene about the man being shot within the first few moments of the movie and no one reacted to it. It was like they were used to things like this every day and this shows the difference in the time periods between then and now. In response to your questions I think that Ilsa loved Rick yes at one time in her life and still had feelings for him, but she realized that now she's married to Laszlo and thats who she needs to be focused on and love. I also feel that if Ilsa really truly did love Rick enough she could stay with him in Casablanca, but Ilsa is just a very shady girl who has too many things in her life going on and she can't decide what she wants or needs.
ReplyDeleteInteresting response to the montage at the beginning of the film, would you have liked to have more of that scattered throughout the film, or do you think that would have been too much? Another interesting topic you brought up was the fact that no one reacted to the man being shot in the beginning. Do you think people were just too scared to show emotion? Perhaps someone would have reacted, but they chose to cut it from the script, and if so, why do you think the writers chose to do that?
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Ilsa was truly in love with Rick because if she was, she could not have possibly left him. Although divorce was frowned upon at the time and Casablanca was a dangerous place to be, she would have risked it all to be with Rick if she loved him as much as she said. However, I do believe that Rick was in love with Ilsa because he sacrifices his own happiness in exchange for her guaranteed safety.
I like how you decided to talk about the montage, nobody really every discussed that. It really gave a solid context of what was the situation and how stressful the consequences were for Laszlo and Isla. I also think that opening scene of somebody getting shot really sets the mood of the movie as well. Everything is high risk and high reward. Even later in the film one of the characters threatens to murder them because of how likely death is. I think she defiantly had a love in her heart for him but if she decided to stay she would have betrayed somebody else to get that love back. This trade would put a damper on any relationship. Sometimes the moment isn't right and memories will have to do.
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