152. Casablanca(1942)

Directed By Michael Curtiz

Synopsis

Everyone wants to get to Lisbon because it's a fucking great city.

Review

Casablanca is one of those films that I was always meant to watch, that I knew the plot of and the names of all the characters, I knew about half the dialogue in it and recognised all the scenes, but that I had never actually sat down and watched. The same will surely happen with Sound Of Music.

So I have finally filled this huge gap in my cinema knowledge, yay me. And I loved it, it is a great film, it isn't as technically accomplished as Citizen Kane for example, but it is a great story with a great setting. This setting is both the city of Casablanca itself but also the historical turmoil where it is set.

This is a film full of uncertainties, who will win the war? Will Ilse and Rick ever meet again? What happens after they get to Lisbon? But this is also a reflection on e what was actually going on in 1942. The war wasn't going particularly well and there were 3 more years of it to come. The film is also an amazingly affecting piece of propaganda and the scene where Victor Laszlo sings the Marseillaise actually brings a tear to your eyes.

The acting is superb, but even more that Bogey and Berman's performance, the ones which stand out for me are those by Peter Lorre and Claude Rains who steal the show each time they show up on screen. An essential piece of film history, watch it.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


One of the lines most closely associated with the film—"Play it again, Sam"—is a misquotation. When Ilsa first enters the Café Americain, she spots Sam and asks him to "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake." When he feigns ignorance, she responds, "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.' " Later that night, alone with Sam, Rick says, "You played it for her and you can play it for me." and "If she can stand it, I can! Play it!"

The line "Here's looking at you, kid.", spoken by Rick to Ilsa, is not in the draft screenplays, and has been attributed to the poker lessons Bogart was giving Bergman between takes. It was voted in a 2005 poll by the American Film Institute as the fifth most memorable line in cinema history.[Six lines from Casablanca appeared in the top 100, by far the most of any film (Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were next, with three apiece). The others were: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."(20th), "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" (28th), "Round up the usual suspects." (32nd), "We'll always have Paris." (43rd), and "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." (67th).


Best scene of the film: