June 14, 2002
Casablanca
Ahh, Casablanca... What more
can I add to all the paens that have been written, and all the odes of
love that have yet to be written? I can say it is one of my
all time favorite movies, and is the one I've seen the most. A
conservative estimate would be that I've seen it 50 times, quite
possibly up to twice that number. And to all those people who wonder
how someone can watch a movie that often, I refer you to Roger Ebert's
wonderful review in his book The Great Movies, where he
compares watching Casablanca with listening to your favorite
music CD - just a nice evening with a comfortable friend.
The serpentine story of a disillusioned saloon owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who meets an old flame, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), who, it turns out, is the wife of a Resistance leader, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). After much twisting and turning, they all try to do the right thing, and it ends with one of the most famous lines in film history: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.".
My favorite character, actually, and the one I would most like to play in the sequel, is Captain Renault, the Louis in the above quote, played most wonderfully by Claude Rains. While something of a slimeball, he's a happy-go-lucky one, who knows what he likes and what he can do, and is happy with that. He has some good lines ("I'm shocked, shocked to find out gambling is going on here!", and "I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me."), and in general comes out smelling like roses, as you would expect to happen with someone like Captain Renault.
The DVD is simply spectacular. I've watched all kinds of incarnations (although, sadly, I've yet to actually see it in the movie theaters), including the excellent video, but the DVD is liking watching a brand new movie. The filmmakers went to great lengths to have all kinds of action happening in the background, and you can finally see it. The "colors" are gorgeous shades of black and white, and the sharpness is eye-popping. It also includes a nice little documentary, as well as trailers for Casablanca and many other Bogart and Bergman films, including the Casablanca sequel, Passage to Marseilles.
We spent some time last night dissecting Rick's motivations, and to see when he gets over being bitter and finally gives Ilsa credit for doing the right thing. It takes a couple of incidents for him to figure it out, but while he is pissed, he's got some wonderfully poisonous lines, like "Did you leave me for Laszlo, or was there someone in between.... or aren't you the kind that tells?" and "I saved my first drink for you.". But the nice sub-plot of the young Hungarian couple (notice they are in several crowd shots before that, and are also trying to get a visa while Ilsa and Victor are visiting Capt. Renault) resolves itself through the "honest" roulette wheel, reminding him that perhaps somebody did love him that much. Ilsa then visits him and explains to him just how complicated life can be. So much has been written about the happenings on the Casablanca set (too much, I think, robbing the movie of some of its magic), but the fact that Ingrid Bergman didn't know the ending (heck, no one knew who she would end up going with until the last takes), gives her confusion some real credence and adds a special poignancy to the visit in Rick's apartment. It is a fun line of investigation and one that I'll certainly visit again with my friend who introduced me to the Casablanca drug. We watch it together quite often, and I'm sure more mention of this all-time classic will happen in here.
Buy The Great Movies
Buy Casablanca (2-Disc Special Edition) from DVDPlanet
Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre
This WW2 classic takes place in war-torn Casablanca and tells the tale of mysterious nightclub owner.
Posted by jdarnold at June 14, 2002 7:56 AM
