Casablanca is a drama/romance film adaptation of a play titled "Everybody Comes to Ricks" by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. In the film the main character is called Rick Blaine, so without currently knowing anything about the play, I would guess that the Rick in film is after the title of the play. The film is about a love triangle between Rick Blaine and his former lover Ilsa Lund who is now married to Victor Laszlo, and both of these men are very much in love with her. What's different about this romantic film is that the romance takes place "against a backdrop of wartime conflict between democracy and totalitarianism." As quoted from the Alt Film Guide's "Casablanca Vs. Everybody Comes To Rick's".
Casablanca follows conventions from both the romance genre and the drama genre. An example of some of the romance conventions it follows are: two love interests parting ways: when Rick has to make the decision at the end of the film to do the right thing and send Ilsa off on the plane with her husband. Another conventions is that there are flashbacks in most romance films showing the lovers in better times, which is exactly what happens in Casablanca when Rick meets Ilsa again after not seeing her for such a long time. Drama films often feature character development of a character having to change themselves for the better. For example, in Casablanca, in the beginning Rick is very detached and refuses to get involved in anything. He says things like: "I never think that far ahead" and most importantly "I stick my neck out for nobody". However by the end of the film he gets himself involved with getting Victor Laszlo out of the country with his beloved Ilsa.
Some of the themes in Casablanca include: sacrifice, tragedy, corruption of war, and love. The theme of sacrifice arises near the end of the film where Rick is trying to help Ilsa and Victor escape onto a plane. He risks his own life when he holds Renault at gunpoint to make sure that Ilsa gets safely onto the plane. When Strausser shows up after a tip off by Renault, Rick has to kill him as he tries to intervene and prevent Ilsa and Victor from escaping. The theme of love is clear when Ilsa returns to try and get the letters of transit from Rick. Whether her love for Rick brought her back - or her love for Victor (thus trying to get the letters of transit for him) there is still a clear theme of love.
The film begins by showing a map that has the journey of a "torturous refugee trail" that goes from Paris to Casablanca which is in North Africa. The point of this introduction is to explain to everyone where some of the people in the film have traveled to, and also to give an idea of just how far they have traveled. The music in the background for this introduction very dramatic and bold, it isn't particularly scary or sad, but it isn't positive either. It has a kind of suspenseful tone to it, which helps to set the atmosphere for the rest of the film. It has a very WWII feel to it, which you would expect since the film was made during WW2.
Max Steiner composed all of the musical scores for this film. Behind the map when the location is announced, there is a clip behind that has footage of the location it's self. For example, when it says crossing through France, there is footage of the refugees all traveling in their masses with horses and such. Also when the map is going across the sea, there is footage of a boat crossing the sea. All of these clips are relevant to the time the film was set and thus help to set the scene.
The first shot that we see after this introduction is a long establishing shot of Casablanca from atop a tower which helps give the audience a very clear idea of where the film is taking place. The shot then tracks downwards to show the bustling streets below and suddenly the nice calm image that was above is gone. It looks like a very happy place, as there are lots of people juggling and although the film is in black and white, I would imagine that it is extremely colourful. There's some exotic sales taking place, such as men selling monkeys, which gives the audience the idea that the culture in this film is extremely different- especially considering that the audience who first watched this film were watching it in 1942 when traveling aboard was quite rare, so they would have found all of this very different and interesting.
Casablanca follows conventions from both the romance genre and the drama genre. An example of some of the romance conventions it follows are: two love interests parting ways: when Rick has to make the decision at the end of the film to do the right thing and send Ilsa off on the plane with her husband. Another conventions is that there are flashbacks in most romance films showing the lovers in better times, which is exactly what happens in Casablanca when Rick meets Ilsa again after not seeing her for such a long time. Drama films often feature character development of a character having to change themselves for the better. For example, in Casablanca, in the beginning Rick is very detached and refuses to get involved in anything. He says things like: "I never think that far ahead" and most importantly "I stick my neck out for nobody". However by the end of the film he gets himself involved with getting Victor Laszlo out of the country with his beloved Ilsa.
Some of the themes in Casablanca include: sacrifice, tragedy, corruption of war, and love. The theme of sacrifice arises near the end of the film where Rick is trying to help Ilsa and Victor escape onto a plane. He risks his own life when he holds Renault at gunpoint to make sure that Ilsa gets safely onto the plane. When Strausser shows up after a tip off by Renault, Rick has to kill him as he tries to intervene and prevent Ilsa and Victor from escaping. The theme of love is clear when Ilsa returns to try and get the letters of transit from Rick. Whether her love for Rick brought her back - or her love for Victor (thus trying to get the letters of transit for him) there is still a clear theme of love.
The film begins by showing a map that has the journey of a "torturous refugee trail" that goes from Paris to Casablanca which is in North Africa. The point of this introduction is to explain to everyone where some of the people in the film have traveled to, and also to give an idea of just how far they have traveled. The music in the background for this introduction very dramatic and bold, it isn't particularly scary or sad, but it isn't positive either. It has a kind of suspenseful tone to it, which helps to set the atmosphere for the rest of the film. It has a very WWII feel to it, which you would expect since the film was made during WW2.
Max Steiner composed all of the musical scores for this film. Behind the map when the location is announced, there is a clip behind that has footage of the location it's self. For example, when it says crossing through France, there is footage of the refugees all traveling in their masses with horses and such. Also when the map is going across the sea, there is footage of a boat crossing the sea. All of these clips are relevant to the time the film was set and thus help to set the scene.
The first shot that we see after this introduction is a long establishing shot of Casablanca from atop a tower which helps give the audience a very clear idea of where the film is taking place. The shot then tracks downwards to show the bustling streets below and suddenly the nice calm image that was above is gone. It looks like a very happy place, as there are lots of people juggling and although the film is in black and white, I would imagine that it is extremely colourful. There's some exotic sales taking place, such as men selling monkeys, which gives the audience the idea that the culture in this film is extremely different- especially considering that the audience who first watched this film were watching it in 1942 when traveling aboard was quite rare, so they would have found all of this very different and interesting.
The camera work within this film is extremely well shot and very beautiful. The scenes are lit so that the actor's eyes are all very sparkly. I think it is also for scenes where characters are crying, such as during the flashback where Rick and Ilsa agree to meet at the train station and you can clearly see the tears welling up in her eyes. I think this is a really effective technique however, as eyes give away a lot of a persons emotions. It's not just the character's eyes that are lit in a specific way, all of the characters are illuminated beautifully. However this is due to the film being filmed in a studio rather than on location, which explains why everything is so staged and looks so beautiful. There is one particular scene were Ilsa is lit in such a way that she looks very angelic due to the lighting on her hair and the soft shadows around her face:
The costumes worn in the film generally all seem to be light in colour (except for some of the officers and of course the people in the flashback). Rick Blaine is wearing a white shirt and jacket with a black tie throughout the film. In fact, most of the men in the film appear to be wearing white/light coloured shits/jackets. Ilsa Lund also often appears to be wearing quite lightly coloured elegant outfits that consist of skirts or dresses. In fact, everyone in the film is dressed very smartly, however I think this is down to the fact that the film takes place in a very "upmarket" nightclub, so obviously everyone is going to dress smart otherwise they wouldn't fit in, or they may in fact have been turned away, because clothes are often used in films to show a characters wealth, and to be in a nightclub like the one in Casablanca, you're going to have to have lots of money- especially as there is a gambling den.
Since Casablanca was filmed in a studio rather than on location there is an artificial feeling to it, and the film seems to loose its sense of time passing. I personally found it quite hard to work out what kind of time period the film was supposed to be set on. Obviously there were flashbacks to shed light on the character's past, but this didn't help with working out whether the film was set in a 24 hour period or a period of a few days.
However as it was filmed in a studio, the director had much more control over everything and could construct the film to a way he liked. For example, he used blocking a lot during the film. Blocking is the careful positioning of actors to show how important they are to a scene. Everything is staged and characters in the background are often there for a specific reason. Props and background decoration are also important to help exaggerate the characters feelings and such. For example in the photo above to the left, the tables in the background all have nice white table cloths with fancy lamps and plenty of expensive looking alcohol. The reason for this setting is to portray how exclusive and posh the bar is.
However as it was filmed in a studio, the director had much more control over everything and could construct the film to a way he liked. For example, he used blocking a lot during the film. Blocking is the careful positioning of actors to show how important they are to a scene. Everything is staged and characters in the background are often there for a specific reason. Props and background decoration are also important to help exaggerate the characters feelings and such. For example in the photo above to the left, the tables in the background all have nice white table cloths with fancy lamps and plenty of expensive looking alcohol. The reason for this setting is to portray how exclusive and posh the bar is.
The way that the Nazi's are portrayed in Casablanca is interesting, as they aren't seen as threatening and evil like they generally are in films today, e.g "Inglorious Basterds". The Nazi's are seen as being very indulgent and enjoying themselves getting drunk. They're also quite camp as one of them orders a "girly" drink as opposed to something like whiskey that you see Rick drinking throughout the film. The Nazi's are actually quite outnumbered and when they try to sing their national anthem, they are very quickly out-sung.
Rick is portrayed in the film as an anti-hero. When he is first introduced he is seen playing chess on his own which gives the impression that he is both intelligent and a bit of a loner. His character is very realistic and less idealistic as he isn't trying to be anyone, he's just getting on with running his bar. Due to him being so relateable to the audience it will give them the idea that anyone can be a hero.
Rick is portrayed in the film as an anti-hero. When he is first introduced he is seen playing chess on his own which gives the impression that he is both intelligent and a bit of a loner. His character is very realistic and less idealistic as he isn't trying to be anyone, he's just getting on with running his bar. Due to him being so relateable to the audience it will give them the idea that anyone can be a hero.
Sources:
http://www.altfg.com/film/casablanca-vs-everybody-comes-to-ricks/
http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/?ref_=ttmd_md_nm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)
http://www.altfg.com/film/casablanca-vs-everybody-comes-to-ricks/
http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/?ref_=ttmd_md_nm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)
I also found this funny little cartoon that explains Casablanca in 30 seconds, I did actually find this surprisingly helpful, as it jogged my memory, as it covers the main events of the film.