Casablanca S. Bihary

 

There are not many people in the world today  that have not heard of Casablanca. Although no one would complain about this being the case about their film, that was not a main goal for this Warner Bros.  film. It was not written to be a memorable classic film, but with the plot, you can see why this is the case. It is indeed a classic love story.

Throughout the film you see the struggle of different people trying to get visas in order to leave and get to safety. No one really knows who the visas are going to go to. This gives the film a sense of mystery. According to Roger Ebert, the actors and actresses did not even know who was going to get the visas until the final day of filming. It appears as if keeping the receivers of the visas a mystery might have been a great idea. It made the film seem more real. You can see actress Ingrid Bergman playing a main character, Ilsa Lund, showing her true reactions to the events in the film. There is a scene where it is a close up of her looking confused. I have seen quite a few films with bad acting, but using this technique makes that literally impossible since you get to see the actors and actresses true feelings towards what events are going on in the film. 

Another one of the best things in this film is the way that lighting was used. Lighting seems to be one of the most influential things in a film. In Casablanca, it helps the viewer identify the mood of the film. As you can see in the photo below, you can tell that the main character  Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, is troubled by not only his facial expression, but by the darker lighting in the scene as well. 

In other parts of the film that are more positive, the lighting is brighter. Also, the different lighting creates different shadows that also help create different emotions for the viewers. I find the different lighting to be very beneficial since most films these days are in color, and the color represents different things. Casablanca is not in color, but that does put it at a disadvantage because the lighting technique helps portray the different emotions instead. 

Before I watched Casablanca,  I did not want to go through with watching it, but after giving it a chance, I realized that it really is a classic film. It is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again, and it will not get old. Watching it more than once is beneficial since you will pick up on more details. You will also have the knowledge of what happens later on in the film. This might make it a little bit easier for you to understand other events leading up to certain scenes. Although the film is not in color, it is still enjoyable to watch all of these years later.

Works Cited

Ebert, Roger. "Casablanca." All Content. N.p., 15 Sept. 1996. Web. 14 June 2013.