“Casablanca” (1942) opens with a moody, dark setting in the depths of wartime Casablanca, Morocco, in the middle of World War II. The music swells, and our main character stares into the shadows. You can already see how his past is pressing in on him.
We then step into our main character Rick’s cafe, “Café Américain,” where there is a strange energy. Rick runs his cafe in supposedly “neutral” Casablanca. Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, keeps his composure well, and he is famous for his cool demeanor. Then, a figment of his past, Ilsa, portrayed by Ingrid Bergman, walks in, and that cool Rick we all knew begins to crack for the first time, and there is a practical tension arising that we as an audience can feel.
Who could blame him? Some may call it a bit dramatic that the man of the story loses his cool over a woman in a love story with such a fateful twist, but I believe that it’s fair enough. In Rick’s Cafe of Secrets and Jazz, Rick doesn’t care what anyone says. He throws out one of the most famous lines in the film: “Of all the gin joints in all towns in the world, she walks into mine.” Rick may not be going anywhere, but he’s hurt and says, “We’ll always have Paris,” reminding us that his memories with Ilsa aren’t going anywhere and are permanent.
Normally, while watching these old movies, it feels as if you need to force yourself to like them because of how critically acclaimed they are. You also find films like these trying too hard to be classic, but with “Casablanca,” this is not the case. Instead, “Casablanca” was a low-budget film with an outstanding script that followed two rules: if you must lose, make it memorable; if you love someone, set them free. Bogart (Rick), Bergman(Ilsa), and Claude Rains (Louis) put on amazing performances that bring this story to life.
Is making a classic like Casablanca easy? No. But how much of the success comes from the great directing from Michael Curtiz or the great screenplay (written by brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein) is hard to say. The soundtrack is essential too, from composer Max Steiner, creating classic songs such as “As Time Goes By,” a song that is as smooth as the cafe’s finest champagne.
