Classic Hollywood Cinema Style in Casablanca - Movie Review Example

ic Hollywood Cinema Style in Casablanca Movie by Visual Arts and Film Studies The of the School The City and State where it is located The Date With the invention of the sound cinema the golden age of Hollywood cinematography began to develop its distinct recognizable cinematic style and generate a great number of motion pictures that took their place in the treasury of the world’s visual arts. The term “classical Hollywood” was introduced by David Bordwell to denote the period of Hollywood filmmaking between 1920’s and late 1950’s when Hollywood cinema industry gained its face and became a synonym for cinematography in general (Bordwell). The growing cinema studios occupied the industry bringing the process of filmmaking on a greater scale and – along with that – opened more opportunities for the classic cinematic style development. The studios had huge capacities and resources and therefore continuously and prolifically offered new works to the community of cinema enthusiasts (Goldburg). Many directors, actors and producers were attached to certain cinematographic giants like MGM, The Twentieth Century Fox or Paramount working on the production of numerous movies belonging to such genres as western, musical, animation, comedy, biopic, melodrama and others. Art has always been willing to reflect and glorify the best traits and feelings typical for a human being as it not only conveys aesthetical value but also has a strong nurturing effect on the society. Probably the best thing the good movie could do is both entertain and touch the strings in the souls of spectators showing them the power of friendship, courage, helpfulness and love. Of course, there was the generous amount of beautiful and touching love stories among the movies produced in the golden age of Hollywood. Being sentimental and romantic, celebrating the virtues love endows a human being with, these stories have been relevant and close to the hearts of many people even up to nowadays. Even though the classical Hollywood filmmaking style has remained in the past and the canons of the golden age may now seem even somewhat naïve, classical movies are still watched, appreciated and admired as they were several decades ago. Talking about the universal classical masterpieces of Hollywood, one would certainly mention the movie that is considered to be one of the most vivid specimens of classical Hollywood cinematography and one of the most beautiful love stories ever, Casablanca. This brilliant motion picture was released in 1942 by Warner Bros. studio as an adaptation of an unknown play to be staged (Ebert). Casablanca is a classical melodrama with the historical background which made it even more relevant and understandable for people of the 1940’s and even later. Backed with the World War II embarking in Europe and ruining the lives of thousands of people, the love story depicted in Casablanca has become a mode of beautiful romance and true self-devotion. About Casablanca In the port city of Casablanca in the Northern Africa which was one of the main hubs of antihitlerite activity. Naturally, the plot of the movie cannot be observed only in connection with the World War II topic as it helps to understand the message provided in the movie. To me thinking, the director deliberately filled in the frames of the shot with the cigarette smoke: this suggests the thoughts of the war atmosphere and the uncertainty and blurredness of the future. Good old Europe is overwhelmed with flames of war, and the endless succession of refugees who cannot stand the Nazi’s regime, arrives to Casablanca hoping to get visas and depart to the New World seeking freedom of thought and deeds. War. Love. Parting. Casablanca was city of refugees and their last hope for the salvation from the Nazi’s bloody expansion. This city also seems similar to Limbo where forlorn human souls are trapped between the two worlds, and every single day is for all the world like the previous one as if people lived through one day again and again. Rick Blaine, the cynical and selfish restaurant owner from America in his late thirties, seems to be as influential as devil: his restaurant seethes with people of all hues: someone tries to sell diamonds to get some money, others are willing to pay a fortune for visas, men are playing cards and women are killing time listening to brilliant jazz performances of the black piano player Sam. The protagonist, Rick Blaine, is a miserable man despite of all his money, influence and useful connections (e.g. with the police officer Louis Renault). He was betrayed by his lover who left him heartbroken in Paris, and now his credo is “to stick his neck out for nobody”. Ebert wrote that he felt comfortable moving around this corrupt reality in Casablanca showing giving free vent to his natural cynicism (Ebert). But as Casablanca brings him and his lover together, he faces probably the most difficult dilemma of his life: either to be together with the woman of his life or to let her go giving her husband a chance to continue fighting against the fascists. This is the crucial moment of making choice between feelings and duty, between heart and reason, as destiny of many people depends on this choice. As Roger Ebert fairly points out, the moment of their first meeting after a long time apart doesn’t produce the effect that would be strong enough (Ebert). This is simply explained by the fact that the spectator is unaware of their stirring romance years ago. At first sight, it could seem a usual eternal triangle story with the woman having to make choice between two men, but as a spectator delves under the surface watching the movie, it turns out to be more complicated and dramatic. Of course, the long-lasting dramatic effect produced by the movie would have been much weaker without the brilliantly chosen actors’ cast. It is difficult to imagine anybody else coping with Rick Blaine’s character better than Humphrey Bogart did. Although that was the first melodramatic part in his career, he managed to give life to the character making it attractive, conveying the complicated array of Rick’s feelings and attitudes and spicing it up with misty dreary looks and witty throwaways. Ingrid Bergman, in her turn, portrayed Rick’s sweetheart Ilsa: a beautiful fragile sophisticatedly dressed woman struggling to cope with her old feelings which came alive as soon as she met him. Sometimes it may even seem that Bergman exaggerates her character’s emotions overdoing her part. But as soon as the spectator gets used to this style Bergman’s acting turns out to add as much dramatic effect to the love story as needed: she seems to light the romantic scenes with a mysterious gentle glow (Crowther). Ilsa – similar to Rick – suffers from the need to choose between her love to him and the feeling of infinite respect and duty towards her husband, the leader of antihitlerine movement Victor Laszlo. Paul Henreid – similar to Bogart, was the star before Casablanca and had undoubtedly added splendor and attractiveness to the movie. In general, the trio of leading characters fills the brilliant engulfing plot with the vivid emotions. When talking about the plot, one should mention that the ending remained in the dark to the last (Boeder). It was unclear in the process of how the movie would end which actually added to suspense of the movie. In general, Casablanca is a great example of successful and skilled mixing of strong and impressive romantic plot elements with exotic “tropical” air of North-African city, thrilling suspense of the war-related adventures of the characters and action ingredients of the movie. The screenplay of ‘Casablanca’ is widely considered to be one of the best screenplays throughout the history of cinema. Although the storyline set-up may have been called far from original (judging from the position of the modern level of cinematography development), one has to understand that the movie saw the world more than 70 years ago. Being almost an iconic specimen of the classical Hollywood cinema, ‘Casablanca’ has played a crucial role in development of genres like drama, melodrama and their plot foundations. The filmmakers managed to extend and enrich the eternal triangle story so well that the spectator spends all the movie time sitting in suspense and anticipating the brilliant outcome. Needless to say that many throwaways of the movie screenplay have turned out to be so witty and recognizable that they became catchwords, especially among the movie enthusiasts. Each phrase is picked with care and each shot is elaborate including soft and gorgeous close-ups conveying all the inner turmoil of the protagonists. At the same time, another screenplay’s strong point is the careful work on the secondary characters: Captain Renault, the piano player Sam, Major Strasser and Sasha, the bartender. Each character is carefully elaborated and has his/her own ‘flavor’ showing off the storyline and adding volume to it. A special attention should be paid to the soundtrack of the movie. ‘As Time Goes By’, a touching main theme used in the movie along with the completely different in mood patriotic ‘La Marseillaise’ accompanies two main directions of the plot development. The background music is perfectly chosen and satisfies the expectations of the most sophisticated cinema enthusiasts: varying in mood and the volume of sound, it emphasizes and complements the story canvas. The Specimen of Classical Hollywood Cinema When we talk about classical Hollywood cinema, we mention and expand on the key features typical for the movies of that period that distinguish these movies among the other cinematic products. One of the principal features of the classical Hollywood motion pictures is classical narrative style typical for all the movies. The narration is typically character-focused and highlights the goals and obstacles faced by the characters (Wilkin). Characters are psychologically motivated in their actions and behavior styles, the motivation being rather clear in order not to leave the spectator confused. The structure of narration is rather logical and well-organized leading the key character through the challenges on his/her way towards the goal. Eventually, the protagonist succeeds or fails in reaching the goal. All the cause and effect relations are on the surface, the narrative establishes parallels between the events and definitions of them (Coppieters). What is also peculiar is that there is always a distinguished protagonist (or two) (tcf.ua.edu). Observing ‘Casablanca’ in terms of these principles, one can see that there are two protagonists or main characters – they are Rick Blaine and Ilsa. Moreover, Ilsa also functions as a link in the narrative connecting Victor and Rick (Film Education). Despite historical context put on the background of the story and a handful of secondary (yet rather important) characters, the narration focuses on this couple of lovers and uses their personal motivations as a catalyst for the plot development. For instance, the reason for Rick’s confusion as he meets Ilsa at his restaurant is unclear at first, but it is explained with further flashbacks showing the affair he and Ilsa had in Paris and the strange and unexpected way it ended in. Another example is Rick’s decision to let Ilsa go with Victor. It becomes rather understandable that the choice between his personal happiness and the noble cause is challenging for him. Nevertheless, the main character sacrifices his love for the sake of salvation of many people. Talking about whether Rick succeeded or failed in achieving his goal, one might get puzzled as he left standing alone in Casablance while his beloved woman flew away. But to my thinking, he definitely succeeded as he managed to overcome his personal hesitations and gain enough strength to let the beloved woman go for the general welfare. Mise-en-scene is also an important part of the narrative including sets and costume design, lighting effects and other details provided in order to create a feeling of being inside of the movie and make the scene look more realistic (Wilkin). In ‘Casablanca’, the typical lighting layouts for the classical Hollywood are observed: three-point lighting accentuates the characters and backlight differentiates the actors from the background. For example, we see such lighting layout in the episode in Paris where Ilsa and Rick talk about her late husband sitting on the sofa. When the camera moves to Ilsa, we see her face being softly lit and the backlight emphasizing the fringes of her silhouette from the background. Another distinctive trait of classical Hollywood films is so called continuity editing system. This means that the editing is ‘invisible’ or hardly noticeable. Within such editing system, the camera is rather unobtrusive (tcf.ua.edu), It doesn’t draw attention to itself, so that the flow of the action could be smooth and continuous. Watching ‘Casablanca’, we don’t notice the movements of camera as it occupies a sort of ‘passive’ position creating an effect of real time. Speaking of codes and conventions accepted by the classical Hollywood, one cannot but mention that this set of “rules” was a reflection of expectations and tastes of the society of that period. Moreover, they can even be called guides for filmmakers as following the conventions allowed them to produce a movie that would find a great deal of appreciation from the audience. Produced with the joint efforts of the director, studio actors, and writers and completely shot in the studio capacities, ‘Casablanca’ is the fruit of collaborative work and the reflection of many people’s vision (SparkNotes). But this movie as a specimen of classical cinematography also conforms to the codes and conventions regulation the production of the studios. The movie has the clearly distinguished good and evil parties embodied, for instance, by Victor as the leader of antifascist movement and Major Strasser as the representative of Hitler’s regime. Except that, the movie celebrates moral principles embodied in the self-sacrifice of Rick, the noble willing of Lazslo to struggle against fascism, etc. Concerning the elements, forbidden by the codes, we also observe none of them in ‘Casablanca’: there no erotic scenes, nudity or lustful kisses (kisses are aesthetical and obscenity-free); no sympathy for criminals. To draw a conclusion, it should be said that ‘Casablanca’ is deservedly considered to be the part of the treasury of global cinematography and one of the most prominent masterpieces of classical Hollywood film industry. It seems that it is impossible to fail to recognize the style of the film watching it even nowadays as the balanced combination of peculiar stylistic devices, acting and lighting style, narration organization and unforgettable music makes ‘Casablanca’ the bright specimen of the golden age of Hollywood. References: Boeder, L. Casablanca - Bogart and Bergman in a Timeless Romance. [Online] Available at: http://classicfilm.about.com/od/epicswarmovies/fr/CasablancaRevue.htm [Accessed 12 August] Bordwell, D.; Staiger, J.; Thompson, K. (1985). The Classical Hollywood Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press.  Classical Hollywood Cinema. [Online] Available at: http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/DShabazz/T112/F01/Lecture5&6.htm [Accessed 12 August] Coppieters, K. (1995) Narrative Conventions in Classical Hollywood Cinema. [Online] Available at: http://pages.uoregon.edu/jlesage/Juliafolder/CLASSICALNARRATION.HTML [Accessed 12 August] Crowther, B. (1942) Casablanca (1942) Casablanca With Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, at Hollywood. New York Times. [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C06E1DF1039E33BBC4F51DFB7678389659EDE [Accessed 12 August] Ebert, R. (1996) Casablanca. [Online] (Updated 09/15/1995) Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-casablanca-1942 [Accessed 12 August] Film Education. Casablanca. [Online] Available at: http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/Casablanca_new.pdf [Accessed 12 August] Goldburg, Michael. Classical Hollywood Cinema. [Online] Available at: https://faculty.washington.edu/mlg/courses/definitions/classicalHollywoodcinema.html [Accessed 12 August] SparkNotes. Casablanca. [Online] Available at: http://www.sparknotes.com/film/casablanca/section1.rhtml [Accessed 12 August] Wilkin, M. (2003) The Classical Hollywood Style. [Online] Available at: http://www3.telus.net/mikail/Classical_Hollywood_Style.pdf [Accessed 12 August] Read More