Casablanca

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Michael Curtiz’s “Casablanca” again and this time I saw it on the big screen. It felt like I was seeing it for a first time, minus the fact that I knew many character lines. The film is filled with heroic moments, loving scenes, insulting replies and overall feeling of hopeful doom. The cinematography holds, the editing is timely and the directing … oh the directing.

The characters are moving in a graceful dance in Rick’s cafe Americain. Movement is balletic and the lines are spoken with impeccable timing. Peter Lorre (Ugarte) has a supporting part in the film, but his expressionistic face is just as telling as in Fritz Lang’s “M.” Ferrari is played by Sydney Greenstreet and he has the same underlying and yet definite presence as in John Huston's “The Maltese Falcon.” The bartender, Sascha (Leonid Kinskey), and the waiter, Carl (S.Z. Sakall), are both necessary and comedic relieve addition to Rick’s cafe and without them the place will not feel the same. Major Strasser has the typical Nazi smile that if you mistake it for politeness you might end up with a knife in your back. Ingrid Bergman is pretty in her naiveness portrayal of the character of Elsa. Some of her lines are clear sign that the script was written many decades ago. A sentence like “I’m going to leave the thinking to you” brings smiles to women’s faces today. Captain Renault is probably the most charming of all the characters in Casablanca. His sense of humor and his observations of the nook and crannies in the behavior of other characters is uncanny. The film would have felt half made if this charming supporting character was absent or portrayed with less pizzazz. Humphrey Bogart is good in his own way, but I have never thought that he is one of the great actors of the Hollywood golden era. He is handsome as always and his rugged aristocracy make the character of Rick desirable and mysterious. Rick’s character requires portrayal of love so profound that it borders desperation. This is an emotion that I miss from Bogart’s performance. His fist pounding on the bar doesn’t extend the emotion inside of him, bur rather is external form of tantrum. The only thing that dates the film is the music. The big score composition symptomatic of all the Hollywood productions of that era is mundane and somewhat unnecessary.

The film is missing the sound design of Orson Welles’s film, but that can’t be considered to be a flaw. Its just that Orson Welles’s vision of sound is so unique and elaborate that it was impossible to imitate at the time of making “Casablanca.” As a matter of fact, this detail to sound design in films comes about 20 years after “Citizen Kane.”
The soft lighting is so flattering and Ingrid Bergman’s skin is silk like. I love her wardrobe and the hats she is wearing. One of the best romantic films ever made still holds 80 years after its initial release.

4 / 5

Director: Michael Curtiz
Staring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt