Cinematography of the Film Casablanca - Movie Review Example

?Casablanca is 1942 Hollywood ic of an unforgettable bittersweet love story between a man and a woman in time of war. It created an iconic role for Humphrey Bogart as Rick, a cafe owner in the neutral Casablanca with mixed clients from the French, Italians, Germans and refugees searching for a way out of war. The movie immortalized the song “As Time Go By”, and melancholic scenes with Ingrid Bergman remain unforgettable to all ages of this ever celebrated and superb classic story of a battle for love and honor. The film is famously known for its black and white cinematography as established by Arthur Edeson. Edeson helped director Michael Curtiz in visualizing by focusing on the shadows and maximizing the use of proper lighting and angles. Wide-angle shots are placed in the beginning scenes giving importance to the place of Casablanca and how a German plane flies behind the sign for Rick's Cafe. The wide shot of the planes just over the cafe shows how important this place will be in the next parts of the story. An establishing shot will soon be noticed as camera angles focuses inside Rick’s cafe as if the audience were walking inside for the first time, giving wide angle shots of the patrons inside the club. Some medium shots are placed on individual characters such as the colored man piano player, until an extreme close up shot of a slip of paper is shown with an “OK” sign by Rick. Here it is established that Rick is an important man, in a medium shot, he is shown slowly puffing a cigarette. The shots through out the scenes create such continuity and gives credibility to the empty life of Rick. The intensity of the setting in a neutral country of Morocco is established with the mix of characters from the Allied forces and the Germans. It also creates an impression on how “all is fair in love and war” as what the story line would develop. There is also a use of proper lighting maximized with the proper decor to create at 1940’s kind of American cafe with live band and gambling, but still the production team maintained certain props to make sure that the audience would remember that it is still in Morocco like the Islamic architecture that remains obvious in the interior. There is heightened use of lighting to create shadows especially to give focus on melancholic state like after curfew encounters at Rick’s cafe with Renault as he searches for money or documents. It creates a touch of mystery establishing that the main character Rick is an amoral man who after a painful heartbreak has remained to be neutral and cynical. He is portrayed as a bitter and sad man, as focused on the medium and close up shots of a face that seems to be sad and old despite earthly success. He moves slow and somehow gloomy with the background of shadows and smoke that surrounds his cafe. As for Iisa the leading lady, angles are focused on her sad and somehow glowing face with eyes that appears to be always in tears. The musical score also creates an impression. Most part of the film revolves around the song “As Time Goes By” as it somehow relives a memorable time in Paris by both Rick and Iisa. Songs from the 1930’s to the 1940’s are also eloquently highlighted and combined with national anthems from France and Germany, The audience are reminded that this is not just another love story, it maintains the political issues of World War II. Bogart plays a superb role of a romantic leading man, the sad and indifferent bad boy ruined by a past love. At first he seems to be the typical strong man, full of machismo and ego without caring for anyone in the world but himself. But a sense of humanity is shown by how he treats his employees such as Sam, the piano player. As Bergman enters the scene, we notice that indeed this could be the woman that has created all this illusion. When Sam had an encounter with Iisa, he pretends to have never met her before. It is obvious then that this woman would be someone important. Bergman portrays the role of Iisa with so much justice. The focus on her soft face makes a lasting impression in every audience. She is immortalized to be the sad lady who is full of pain and regret but left with no choice but to help her patriotic Czech husband Victor Laszlo escape from the Nazi Germans. The screenplay is also breathtaking by itself, screenwriters Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch made sure that the adaptation was reflected in lieu of the time the film was made, during World War II. The lines are created to build up certain characters in subtle subtext that keeps the audiences guessing. An example is the confusion if Captain Renault, a corrupt official, is friend or foe to Rick. It would soon be established in the end that indeed the Captain is a friend. The story line may have created more avid followers of the film other than any aspect of the movie. A story of love in a time of war creates a memorable scene for every audience. It creates the sad reality of relationships broken not by ones free will, but by outside circumstances such as war. The sad part is that no matter how many times fate would bring Rick and Iisa together, self-sacrifice seems to be inevitable. Because even if both characters can choose to be happy together, outside circumstances bring them to a moral choice of thinking of others before themselves. The film is immortalized, not just by its bittersweet story line but also by a perfect combination of a superb plot, talented actors and unforgettable cinematography. Casablanca had created a lasting impression on how a classic black and white film is properly made as played with proper contrast of lightings and shadows. It brings focus also on the actors’ ability and skills by creating proper angled shots that give justice to their roles. It creates a different than usual ending for classic Hollywood films; here there is no happy ending, the boy doesn’t get the girl. . Work Cited Casablanca. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Perf. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Raines, Conrad Veidt, Peter Laurie, Sidney Greenstreet. Warner Brothers, 1943. [1999]. DVD. Read More