Casablanca

Orion · Jun 15, 2009

Also, if you get a chance to see the movie in high definition, do so. WB did a beautiful job remastering and transferring the film. The details I'd never seen before, after a half dozen viewings, were amazing; you'd almost swear it was filmed recently.

It's the only film I have on VHS, DVD, HD-DVD, and probably BluRay, eventually.

Spitfire · Jun 15, 2009

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Well, I for one enjoy hearing various opinions; we're all entitled to one, of course, but it gets interesting if there's thought behind them...and I'm sure I'm not alone.

My experience is just the reverse, Spitfire: I saw the film years ago and couldn't imagine what all the fuss was about. Then it came onto our Turner Classics Film channel a week or so ago and, as I've been reading a good deal of WWII stuff for one reason or another, decided to give it another go. I found it tremendously moving, because now I had a better handle on the picture AROUND the picture...it's only moving if you can understand it with 1942 eyes, and my ignorance prevented me from doing that. It goes without saying that I know that you have the knowledge to do so, without a doubt...and tastes differ, so there's no implication here that you'd like it "if only you understood." But...for me...that made all the difference in the world, and changed my impression of the picture 180 degrees.

Just one man's opinion, as always
"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

I absolutely believe I have the knowledge to enjoy Casablanca. I have just been forced to "enjoy" it too many times.
But age alone doesn't make movies into masterpieces.
When I look at Casablanca today and look at other movies from that period, I am not that impressed any longer.
They are ok - but masterpieces in threir own right? Sorry. I do not think so.
But I am glad we can agree to disagree

Tomasso · Jun 15, 2009

Spitfire said:
When I look at Casablanca today and look at other movies from that period, I am not that impressed any longer.
They are ok - but masterpieces in threir own right? Sorry. I do not think so.

How about Citizen Cane:

[YOUTUBE]IGUYOQUzrKU[/YOUTUBE]

Or Notorious:

[YOUTUBE]n0wFV6D3-2E[/YOUTUBE]

Blackthorn · Jun 15, 2009

Nashoba said:
If you live in the Bay Area in Ca, and you havn't already done so, you owe it to yourself to check out the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto.

Oh NO!! I had forgotten that theater exisited until this post. I was there often in the seventies, but then life got in the way... Then I got all excited after seeing your post, and I Googled it, and Casablanca played there 3 nights last week! I missed it! Of course I have it on DVD, but hey, seeing it on the big screen in that classic old theater would have been a real treat. I'm going to start keeping better track of the theater schedule now. Thanks for reminding me it is there, Nashoba!

WH1 · Jun 15, 2009

If you love the movie Casablanca you need to read "Round Up the Usual Suspects; the making of Casablanca Bogart, Bergman and World War II" by Aljean Harmetz. A very interesting book published in 1990's all about the making of the movie from its start as a play, the writing of the script and casting of the film. It also has a lot of information about the studio system and Hollywood going to war. Interestingly the movie was not considered anything special when it was being made. It didn't become such a big part of the social fabric until the 1960's when it was shown regularly at a theater near Harvard University and when Woody Allen made "Play It Again Sam" ( a line never actually uttered in Casablanca). Fascinating book.

H.Johnson · Jun 15, 2009

Excellent! I watched the film (for the umpteenth time) over the week-end and recalled reading an excellent book on the making of the film in it's WW2 context but I couldn't remember what it was called. I think this is it - thanks for reminding me.

scotrace · Jun 15, 2009

I read Round Up the Usual Suspects - it surely is worth the effort to track down a copy.

ladybrettashley · Jun 15, 2009

I adore Casablanca! But, then, i really prefer all those boring, old, black-and-white movies, as my girlfriend describes them.

I did get to see it on a big screen a few years ago; it was one of the "movies in the park" they play in the summer here. It was a lovely experience with a lot of crowd interaction and excitement (and a picnic!), but the movie quality on an outdoor screen isn't really going to reveal much more than watching it at home.

And i realized the most recent time i watched it that i have very nearly the same champagne saucers they use in the movie. I had picked them up at the goodwill earlier that same week!

Wally_Hood · Jun 19, 2009

All-time favorite movie. Can recite chunks of the dialogue. Someone somewhere pointed out this must be the ultimate preppie movie, because the leads don't work (Rick manages), they dress sharp, and they don't eat but drink pretty much all the way through the movie.

Don't get tired of it, agree it's a specimen of the Golden Age studio system, and admit it's definitely a product of its time, but, still, its a great movie and love it nonetheless.

NB: a fellow Casablanca fan told me that she once attended a movie in the park screening of it, and noted there were several fedora wearers and what not, but someone there was actually wearing a French policeman's uniform like Renault's!

Orsini · Jun 20, 2009

Casablanca is generally considered (at least in the United States) to be one of the best talkies ever made. It is shown number two on this list published by the American Film Institute:

http://www.filmmakerstore.com/afi100.htm

There are a total of four films on this list in which Bogart appears. I believe that is more than any other single actors or actress, but others are welcome to count...

As one of the other posters has pointed out, this is extremely interesting as it was "just another movie" cranked out by the studio system at Warner Brothers during that period.

The quality of the ensemble was, in my opinion, of a very high quality. Interestingly enough, Madeleine Lebeau (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0495495/bio), the charming actress who portrayed Yvonne and appears to have gone back to France after the end of hostilities, had an experience quite similar to the plot of the film: "Fleeing from the Germans in 1940, she and her husband eventually reached Lisbon, where they obtained visas to Chile, but on reaching Mexico they learned that these were forgeries. They eventually obtained temporary Canadian passports and ended up in the US."

Paul Henreid and Conrad Veidt also fled the homelands to get away from the Nazis. Austria's and Germany's loss was our gain.

Shangas · Jun 20, 2009

I think that's something that makes "Casablanca", an enduring classic. It was 'just another film', when it was created in 1941. Warner Brothers made it like it made dozens of other films, and attached no real importance to it. They saw little reason why 'Casablanca' should be any different from any other film.

According to the Special Edition DVD of "Casablanca" (which I have), one of the interviewees said that in the 1930s and 40s, during the Depression and the Second World War, the great film-studios of Hollywood were cranking out ONE MOVIE EVERY WEEK. Or some other, equally amazing statistic (I'd have to check on it, unless somewhere can confirm or deny this). To Warner Brothers, 'Casablanca' was just one of those approximately 50 movies which they made each year. When it became a hit, I think they were genuinely blown away.

It was such an amazing film that within just a couple of years of its release, there were already radio-dramas of it. One was made by the Lux Radio Theater, one was a parody acted out during the Jack Benny Program and another (starring Bogart himself, I believe), was also broadcast.

In my opinion, 'Casablanca's success is because it's about ordinary people, it wasn't trying to be a blockbuster, it was an ordinary film (if there are such things), and it didn't try to be great, it just was.

Tomasso · Jun 21, 2009

Orsini said:
Casablanca is generally considered (at least in the United States) to be one of the best talkies ever made. It is shown number two on this list published by the American Film Institute:

http://www.filmmakerstore.com/afi100.htm

There are a total of four films on this list in which Bogart appears. I believe that is more than any other single actors or actress, but others are welcome to count...

A quick skim shows Robert DeNiro and Jimmy Stewart with five; and William Holden with four. They just jumped out at me, there could be more.

Wally_Hood · Jun 21, 2009

Casablanca, just another movie? Yes, and no...

Indeed, film studios during the 40s had been cranking out product for nearly two decades at the pace of one feature, and several shorts, newsreels, cartoons, etc., per week. The nationwide practice was to go to the movies once a week; they generally changed on Wednesdays. With new entertainment each week, at reasonable prices, people could take in a movie regularly. With repeat customers coming in like clockwork, studios' profits were substantial.

Despite being just another movie in the vast Hollywood system, it was held in high enough regard to win Best Picture Academy Award.

The title had been changed from the play's Everybody Comes to Rick's to simply Casablanca because of the conference there with Roosevelt and Churchill. The topicality of the name may have piqued public interest.

Orsini · Jun 21, 2009

Tomasso said:
A quick skim shows Robert DeNiro and Jimmy Stewart with five; and William Holden with four. They just jumped out at me, there could be more.

By that time, I was out of fingers...

I should have said: "...more than any other single actors or actress who served in World War Once and shot a prisoner in the posterior in the line of duty..."

Tomasso · Jun 21, 2009

Orsini said:
By that time, I was out of fingers...

I hear you. When Frank Sinatra's count passed three I quit.

Orsini · Jun 21, 2009

Tomasso said:
I hear you. When Frank Sinatra's count passed three I quit.

There are a lot of big fish on that list...

WH1 · Jun 21, 2009

Orsini said:
The quality of the ensemble was, in my opinion, of a very high quality. Interestingly enough, Madeleine Lebeau (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0495495/bio), the charming actress who portrayed Yvonne and appears to have gone back to France after the end of hostilities, had an experience quite similar to the plot of the film: "Fleeing from the Germans in 1940, she and her husband eventually reached Lisbon, where they obtained visas to Chile, but on reaching Mexico they learned that these were forgeries. They eventually obtained temporary Canadian passports and ended up in the US."

Paul Henreid and Conrad Veidt also fled the homelands to get away from the Nazis. Austria's and Germany's loss was our gain.

The majority of the people in the movie were actors who had left europe due to the Nazi advance. I believe it is one of the more interesting aspects of the movie. It gives the film a ring of truth I guess.

It is interesting to note and somewhat ironic that several of them made relatively successful careers portraying Nazis in Hollywood. Veidt was a highly accomplished actor in europe prior to coming to the US.

Lensmaster · Jun 21, 2009

As has been pointed out, Casablanca wasn't made as an art movie or big budget blockbuster. It was a routine war movie being pushed out by the studio. What made it a great, Best Picture winner was the direction and casting. It's a war picture with no war, at least not directly in the movie. It's a character study in which everyone's lives are being affected by the war.

H.Johnson · Jun 23, 2009

It's interesting to compare 'Casablanca' with the later Bogart film 'To Have and Have Not'. The latter is an interesting plot development of the Hemingway novel in that it is cleverly transferred from Cuba and rum-running (with a sad ending) to French Martinique and heroic (if undefined) agent smuggling, with a happy and romantic ending.

It is also much more 'out' (as they say today) in its identification of French Nazism. There is no suggestion of German occupation as there is in Caasablanca. The police are called 'the Gestapo' at one point and yet are clearly French Colonial. Similarly, French Marines are seen to fire upon Free French sympathisers on several occasions.

As a film, it seems very slow today with perhaps excessive use of character cameos and I guess you either like the musical sequences (with Hoagy Carmichael) or you don't (I do). On balance, I think I prefer THAHN to Casablanca.

Edward · Jun 23, 2009

I'm a recent convert, myself, having seen it for the first time only a few months ago. I love it. for me, it's the combination of Bogie's hard-faced anti-hero and all that superb dialect which makes it really work. The double-act of Bogie and Rains is hilarious (Rains of course always gets pass from me following his Invisible Man, a film imbued by sentiment from its Rocky Horror link.... that's another story, though). I actually laughed out loud when Rains says "...me, I like to think that you killed a man, but that's probably just the romantic in me." (Funny, and echoes of The Great Gatsby - "he looked like...he'd killed a man.") Something I rate it especially highly for is its lack of a drippy, sappy, "romantic" ending.... had the same film been made today, some highly improbable plot contrivance would no doubt have been shoe-horned in so that Bogie and the lady would end up together. Such is the age of the focus group who demand such things.....

(I'm still rather bitter about what they did to Little Shop of Horrors, can't you tell?)

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