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Review #4: Casablanca (1942)
Casablanca is one of my parents favourite films of all time, therefore I grew up watching it, the amount of times I viewed it is unrealistic, in fact I'm pretty sure I've learned by heart every turn the movie takes, every piece of dialogue and every scene that grips your beating heart. How dramatic right ? Well this film well deserves it, if it's not one of the best movies of all time, then it's definitely the best romantic movie of all time.
With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully or desperately toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became to great embarkation point but not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a torturous roundabout refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseilles....across the Mediterranean Oran...then by train or auto or foot across the rim of Africa...to Casablanca in French Morocco. After getting abandoned by the love of his life, Rick Blaine leaves France heartbroken and goes to Casablanca where he will own a nightclub. Years later, Ilsa Lunda the woman he still adored coincidentally enters the same pub with her husband Victor Laszlo. The couple have came to town due to the request of Ugrate who has planned to sell them letters of transit that will allow the escape to America. And what happens next are a bunch of gripping events with intense story telling, a heart touching romance and witty dialogue sprinkled all over the film.
What's so great about Casablanca is that it's central focus isn't even the romance despite it being a romantic film, in fact I felt more interested in every other interaction between the characters but the two leads, don't get me wrong I still felt very gripped by the chemistry of Ilsa and Rick and loved their relationship, but I also enjoyed even more whenever the supporting characters interacted with each other or the leads, the film at the end of the day is a character study of Rick Blaine in my eyes. And there's also a lot of focus on the war side of the events, and how chaotic things were back then, there's a lot of comedic moments such as the pickpocket scenes and the closure of Rick's café, and that's because of the outstanding screenplay, literally the whole movie is quotable. The film itself never feels convoluted, regardless of all of the happenings, and none of them take away from the romance between Ilsa and Rick or even Ilsan and Victor. Everything is very well balanced.
Humphrey Bogart's performance is legendary, it is so astonishing it will live on endlessly, and his chemistry with Ingrid Bergman who plays Ilsa is extraordinary. The supporting roles as well are played so well and are perfectly realised, I would love to see a short film about each and every single one of them and of course my second favourite character of Casablanca (the first being Rick), Louis Renault who steals every scene he's in. Rick's Café Américain is a character in itself, it is the point of intersection and the place where the characters assembled.
I can't even begin to explain how good the directing of the film is, nothing that I say can even compare to its greatness, every frame is well thought out and well shot.
I can't seem to find one critique or problem all throughout this masterpiece and trust me I tried, one thing I will say is that I didn't like Ilsa as much as others did, some of her actions quite bothered me, and I was really annoyed at how she was able to get away with them without repercussions, but that only adds to the realism of the characters and their imperfections.
This is a MUST SEE movie, It's impossible to give it the praise it deserves because it's as close to perfect as a film can be, therefore I will gladly give Casablanca an A+
Here's looking at you, kid.
Casablanca is one of my parents favourite films of all time, therefore I grew up watching it, the amount of times I viewed it is unrealistic, in fact I'm pretty sure I've learned by heart every turn the movie takes, every piece of dialogue and every scene that grips your beating heart. How dramatic right ? Well this film well deserves it, if it's not one of the best movies of all time, then it's definitely the best romantic movie of all time.
With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully or desperately toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became to great embarkation point but not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a torturous roundabout refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseilles....across the Mediterranean Oran...then by train or auto or foot across the rim of Africa...to Casablanca in French Morocco. After getting abandoned by the love of his life, Rick Blaine leaves France heartbroken and goes to Casablanca where he will own a nightclub. Years later, Ilsa Lunda the woman he still adored coincidentally enters the same pub with her husband Victor Laszlo. The couple have came to town due to the request of Ugrate who has planned to sell them letters of transit that will allow the escape to America. And what happens next are a bunch of gripping events with intense story telling, a heart touching romance and witty dialogue sprinkled all over the film.
What's so great about Casablanca is that it's central focus isn't even the romance despite it being a romantic film, in fact I felt more interested in every other interaction between the characters but the two leads, don't get me wrong I still felt very gripped by the chemistry of Ilsa and Rick and loved their relationship, but I also enjoyed even more whenever the supporting characters interacted with each other or the leads, the film at the end of the day is a character study of Rick Blaine in my eyes. And there's also a lot of focus on the war side of the events, and how chaotic things were back then, there's a lot of comedic moments such as the pickpocket scenes and the closure of Rick's café, and that's because of the outstanding screenplay, literally the whole movie is quotable. The film itself never feels convoluted, regardless of all of the happenings, and none of them take away from the romance between Ilsa and Rick or even Ilsan and Victor. Everything is very well balanced.
Humphrey Bogart's performance is legendary, it is so astonishing it will live on endlessly, and his chemistry with Ingrid Bergman who plays Ilsa is extraordinary. The supporting roles as well are played so well and are perfectly realised, I would love to see a short film about each and every single one of them and of course my second favourite character of Casablanca (the first being Rick), Louis Renault who steals every scene he's in. Rick's Café Américain is a character in itself, it is the point of intersection and the place where the characters assembled.
I can't even begin to explain how good the directing of the film is, nothing that I say can even compare to its greatness, every frame is well thought out and well shot.
I can't seem to find one critique or problem all throughout this masterpiece and trust me I tried, one thing I will say is that I didn't like Ilsa as much as others did, some of her actions quite bothered me, and I was really annoyed at how she was able to get away with them without repercussions, but that only adds to the realism of the characters and their imperfections.
This is a MUST SEE movie, It's impossible to give it the praise it deserves because it's as close to perfect as a film can be, therefore I will gladly give Casablanca an A+
Here's looking at you, kid.