Casablanca (1942)

I just finished watching Casablanca (1942) and it was as I expected to be.

Rick waiting for the plane to take off

I pretty liked the whole story. As a difference from modern movies, Casablanca doesn't focus on the romance between the characters, but mostly on the War and how that even has affected people's lives. While I was watching it, I feel that romance was just an extra ingredient that complements the story, just to add personal experiences while the director showed the reality of the Nazi invasion. To elaborate this romantic tone, there are some scenes that exposure a little on the struggle of couples during the armed conflict. Once they showed the struggle of a just married couple without money that was trying to reach America; while they also showed and elderly couple that had been married for a long time and they do have the money to flight to America. And then there's also the story  between Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) that breaks out all the conventionalisms of romance films. One may think that at the end of the movie they're going to be together because that is what 'happy endings' are, but instead the characters decide to do the correct thing for everybody. And this difference on the plot that shows that love is not only to be with the loved person but to do what is best for her is what highlights the movie from others of the same genre.

As I wrote in a previous post, I love the sound techniques that are present throughout the movie. Most of the sound are diegetic as the songs are played by Sam (Dooley Wilson), and they symbolize or reflect a feeling and an event to the protagonists, Ilsa and Rick. I consider that this practice makes more realistic the movie and it shows that a good production doesn't need special effects in order to promote a tone and demonstrate symbolisms to their audience.

There's also a shot that I think is one of my favorites. It's from when Rick is waiting for Ilsa at the train station and Sam brings him a letter from her. 

I love the way they played with the rain and the ink on the letter. It symbolizes Rick's tears and sadness. It makes the viewer feel the sorrow and melancholy he's feeling in that moment, At the same time, it establishes that her words need to be forgotten since she's no longer in Rick's life, therefore his tears are erasing all that Ilsa said in the past. It's a simple close-up to a letter, but it can reflect a lot of meaning.

Last comment:

Although I haven't researched about the Drama genre, the movie is convincing me to go for a Romantic production because it showed me that romance doesn't need to be the main focus of the story but a complement to it.

While I was watching Casablanca, numerous ideas for the development of a story came to my mind, I'll share them in a future post.

Update:

Yesterday I met with Mrs. Stoklosa to share my ideas. She suggested to focus more in the character development that in the story, which I'll do in the next couple of days,

She also encouraged me to continue with the Romantic genre if it is my preference and don't care about the modern conventionalisms of the genre so it could be different from what is being produced now. 

I feel that I have a clearer idea of what I want to do than I had last week. I still need to figure out who my protagonist is and what she wants (yes, it's a she), so I will concentrate on it this week and hopefully I will start filming in spring break.

Wish me luck,

Chao, chao!

Information about the characters on Casablanca  was found on:

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)>.

Image:

• "Photo by I-O." Photobucket. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <http://s190.photobucket.com/user/IanTheCool/media/casa45vi6.jpg.html>.