Nationalism and Sentimentalism in Casablanca - Essay Example

22 October Nationalism and Sentimentalism in Casablanca Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, and written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, has the social backdrop of the Second World War. The city of Casablanca, located in neutral Morocco, is the setting. Its bustling market bursts with conflicting images and personalities, with different kinds of people from various races, political affiliations, and social status interacting (or not) with each other. The shot soon shows Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who is depicted as a loner and owner of a famous bar saloon. He keeps to himself, but it can be seen from his demeanor that he hides something inside. This essay explores the interaction between the message and medium in a scene from Casablanca. The scene that will be analyzed is the scene when Annina Brandel (Joy Page), a refugee who is desperately looking for exit visas for her and her husband Jan Viereck (Helmut Dantine), converses with Rick and asks for guidance regarding her dealing with Renault. This scene demonstrates the themes of nationalism and sentimentalism; it uses the cinematic elements to complicate the portrayal of the themes, by showing how Rick fights his inner emotions, values, and goals, and these elements also reinforce the themes through expressing them through symbolisms and motifs, as well as the actions and words of the characters. Rick embodies his contradictions as an empty and “filled” man, which manifests more in the form of sentimentalism. He seems to not care for the idea of true love. French bargirl Yvonne (Madeleine LeBeau), in the beginning of the film, pleads for Ricks attention. She drinks heavily, showing her confusion with her feelings and Ricks feelings for her. She asks Rick for a date that night, but all he says is: “I never make plans that far ahead.” During this time, through a middle shot, Ricks back is on the audience as he busily writes on something on the bars desk. It shows his indifference to Yvonne. As he pulls Yvonne out, shadows fall on Rick. These shadows symbolize the darkness inside his heart. He seems to have no feelings for anyone. He does not believe in “love” or “passion,” which can be inferred as he brusquely shoves Yvonne out of his bar. This woman evidently likes him, but he does not care for her. His actions demonstrate how he also brushes aside love and passion away from his life. He has an emptiness inside him and the scene sends the first impression of Rick as a lonely introvert. Nonetheless, when he speaks with Annina, the scene reveals the complication between the appearance that Rick projects and his “real” self. With no reference yet to Ricks past, the scene with Annina depicts Rick the lover and Rick the neutral, bitter man. The middle shot shows Annina having a brief exchange with Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains). Renaults leery look at Annina already emits a sexual longing for her. There is enough light to show Anninas physical beauty, which makes her both alluring and vulnerable at the same time. Annina approaches Rick, who is seated alone in the table. Once more, Rick is drinking and smoking. Drinking and smoking aim to fill Ricks empty and dull life of running the saloon. These vices also cloak him with mystery, since many drinkers who are heavy smokers have psychological problems too. For this shot, he drinks briskly, like he wants the alcohol to immediately weaken his senses and emotions. The mise-en-scene includes Annina, two sources of light, his drink, cigarette, some customers, and a waiter serving the clients. More customers are coming in. The second floor of the saloon is also shown. These images demonstrate the classiness and lucrative business of Rick. His bar makes him rich and popular, but he does not act like one. He is not sociable and drinks alone, with a precedent that he never drinks with his customers. Rick projects the personality of “I-could-not-care-any-less.” As an owner of a social site in a busy city, he opposes the congenial image of a traditional saloon owner. Instead, he wants to be alone and wallow in this loneliness. In addition, the light casts little brightness on his face and his face is also hardly shown. There is more focus on his surroundings. It indicates that this is how Rick wants his life; he does not want attention from anyone, because he also does not want to give attention to anyone. Like what he said to Renault earlier, he will not stick out his neck for anyone, one of the manifestations of his neutrality. More than neutrality, this shot captures the coldness of Ricks life. By being neutral and inward-looking, he no longer appreciates his surroundings- the music and the laughter and banter of his crew and clients. He is out of touch of the outside. Sadly, he does not want to get in touch with his “inside” too, since his drinking and smoking also immune him from self-reflection. His alcoholism serves a great purpose- the purpose of forgetting where he was, where he is, and where he wants to go. His smoking also shades him from people. It disables the others from seeing who is- a broken and bitter man who resists love and companionship, when in reality, he needs it the most. When Annina asks about Renaults “word,” this conversation reveals her own sentimentalism, which reflects Ricks own sentimentalist attitude. Annina sits closely to Rick and admits that she and her husband lack the money to purchase exit visas, but Renault offers these visas in exchange of having sex with her. Annina is willing to sacrifice her virtue, if it will save her husband too. The medium shot shows Anninas wariness for this “sin.” She verifies with Rick if Renault can be trusted, because she does not want to engage in this sin without attaining the results she needed to save her and her loved one from persecution. Lighting comes from her left, as she acts nervously. Her hands are clasped and she moves with sadness in her gestures. The shot includes the lamp, the source of light and her drink. The light shows her frail and vulnerable beauty. Her eyes are teary and her voice shakes, as she reveals her moral dilemma with Rick. Readers who think Rick is stone-cold would think that he is not the right person to seek love and morality advice from. Some smoke smolders near her; it comes from Ricks cigarette. It imposes a sense of how Rick will impact Anninas life later on, a form of foregrounding. Rick tries to listen dispassionately, but as his hands move across his face, it appears he is affected by Anninas problem, as if he understands what it means to love someone so much. The sentimentalism of Annina does not just move him. It stirs something inside him; it awakens something in his heart- a long-forgotten emotion that is bound in loving and bitter strands of memories. Indeed, Anninas sentimentalism also belongs to Rick. The close-up of Anninas face evokes pity and memories from Rick. She keeps her tears from flowing and strives to stay calm and strong. Annina implicates that Renault is still willing to give them visas, even when they do not have enough money. Rick implicitly understands that the sexual predator Renault has something else in mind as the payment for the visa. His face cringes somewhat with this realization. He sadly confirms that Renault keeps his word, though without saying, the latter is a scoundrel for his indecent proposals. The swift cut from Annina to Rick and back to her underlies that they are the same person. They know what it means to be utterly in love and sacrifice everything for that love. Annina asks Rick: “You are a man. If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?” While she asks this, the camera focuses on a close-up shot of Rick. Her question has struck him. His eyes show a glimpse of his past, as he is almost about to cry. This scene is the first indication that Rick is not the stone that he appears to be. He has a past and it broke him. Rick has several seconds of expressing a wide range of expressions from his face. These include emotions of love and wonder. He has been in love and reveled in its wonderful power and passion. Nonetheless, he controls himself and dryly responds to Annina: “Nobody ever loved me that much.” When he says this, he has bitterness in his voice, as if someone promised to love him that much but failed to deliver on that promise. Upon remembering this, Rick regains his old cold self and angrily advices Annina to go back to Bulgaria. Going back is more realistic than loving someone so much, because this can lead to hope and then pain and misery, which is what he must have experienced. But Annina insists on doing everything for love and emphasizing that Jan is more of a “boy.” She is saying that she is more mature than Jan who would not understand her “sacrifice” for their safety and freedom. Rick responds: “Yes, well, everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out.” Rick sends a mixed message. On the one hand, he stresses that everyone has problems and he does not care what happens to Annina and Jan. On the other hand, he empathizes with Anninas sacrifice for true love. It is possible that he would help her, which he does later on. Nationalism is also expressed in this scene, but under the theme of sentimentalism. Rick sends the message to Major Strasser that he is a neutral. He does not care who wins the war and does not even emphasize his nationality. His past and present (veiled) actions, however, demonstrates that he is a sentimental nationalist. For instance, he declines a German customer from entering his bar. He also prefers drinking French wine. Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) already notes that Rick often supports the “underdog,” while Renault previously describes Ricks anti-Fascist activities in the past. As much as Renault wants to forget his sentimental identity, he also wants to bury his nationalist self. Nationalism and sentimentalism are strong passions. Rick must have felt it better it was better for him to bury both under his psyche, since one comes with another. He lives and does business in Casablanca, because it is a neutral city and he wants to stay neutral too. Nevertheless, no matter how much he buries his former nationalist and sentimental self, he has a hard time doing so. His interaction with Annina exposes his weaknesses; his inner and real self continues to emanate. His sentimentalism and nationalism remains in his life. He can only pretend to be cold and neutral, but he cannot stay that way forever. The war rages on. It is a war that surrounds him and makes him choose whose side he is on and he eventually chooses the Allied Powers. At the same time, the war inside Rick brews chaotically. Anninas charm reminds him of Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and their short-term romance. He wants Ilsa for himself, but he knows that she is bound to another man as his wife. One of the motifs of the movie is luck. Gambling needs luck, while some songs in the film speak of luck. But the film reiterates that life is not about luck alone and more about making choices. The music “As Time Goes By” entails that Rick has to make the right choices, not just for him but for Ilsa too, which can last the tests of time. In the end, he sacrifices their love, because as a sentimentalist, he wants to preserve the institution of marriage too. Casablanca intersects the themes of sentimentalism and nationalism, as cinematic elements both complicate and reinforce them. They complicate these themes by showing contradictions between appearance and inner identities and they also reinforce these themes through a wide range of symbolisms, motif, and characterization, as well as the script. This film shows the conflicts between man versus man and man versus himself/herself. The scene analyzed specifically proves how film can describe such conflicts using different cinematic elements, in order to “show” that no matter how much people bury who they are, this identity will resurface and re-assert itself on individuals with fervor and this time, with permanence. Work Cited Casablanca. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Perf. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henred. USA: Warner Bros., 1942. DVD. Read More