Year taken: 2012-2013
Professor: Ernesto Castillo
Class: INGL3055
University: University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus
Grace H. Rodríguez Cruz
843 09 6818
April 1st 2013
Notes from Casablanca:
March 13th: The movie is directed by Michael Curtiz.
1942.
The title of the movie is explained in the first minutes of
it; Casablanca is a city in Morocco where the French go as refugees from the
Nazi German Regime who has invaded their homeland. The French resistant
movement cares to play a big role on the plot.
We are introduced to Rick, owner of a café and a cold
hearted man full of mysteries.
The chess game in the movie is a metaphor.
The police of Casablanca make an approach to Rick about
arresting Ugarte, a man who had trusted Rick with some valuable visa for a few
moments in the night.
It is known of Rick’s past as a rebel man who always helped
the underdogs.
March 15th:
Victor Lazlo enter the saloon with a woman and the tension builds up casually
in the scene with the pianist’s face expressions and his lack of concentration
on what he’s playing as they walk by.
“The boy”- racism can be noticed when Ilsa Lund refers to
the black man playing piano as a boy instead of a man.
The tension in the room fills when the authority and the
rebel sit for a talk at the bar. The viewer expects some violence at any
moment. Instead, this doesn’t happen.
“As time goes by”- song that was banned from Rick’s life and
will become the representation of a ghost of the past.
The looks and the unusualness of Rick’s attitude towards
Ilsa is used to assume a romance between them.
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world,
she walks into mine.” Famous quote of the movie.
Retrospective technique: a fade to the past and the happy
memories of Rick and Ilsa.
-What makes the love
affairs that take place in political times with trouble interesting?-
The whole dilemma of the wanting to have a happy ending with
the love affairs and the crashed emotions between the character’s moral duty
and the temptation to escape reality and live in happiness creates the doubt of
the possibility for the relationship to work in the end. It builds a curiosity
with the audience to wonder if the star-crossed lovers will ever end up
together.
March 18th:
The audience is caught off guard by the confession of Ilsa
about Victor Lazlo being her husband even by the time she had the affair with
Victor. Ilsa’s character goes another step back in the public eye’s likeness.
A Bulgarian girl and Rick talk about the Ugarte’s letters
because she is sent to ask him by Louis. To avoid the girl from getting to
dishonor herself by Louis common traded favors, Rick helps Jay, her husband,
win enough money in his casino by telling him the winning numbers. The soft
side of Rick is shown.
“Ask your wife.”- The tension of Victor and Rick’s
conversation leads to the suspicion of Ilsa getting exposed.
A scene in which the German soldiers take over the piano and
the entertainment of the bar shows how the Nazis have gathered control of the
land. Victor Lazlo’s opposition by making the musicians play the hymn of France
makes a standing of rebellion against the oppressors. The rest of the French people
follow Lazlo, leaving the Germans to see the thread he opposes to their power.
Louis closes the bar for illegal gambling, showing the
obvious move of winning in the casino. This shows the Germans power.
The meeting between Ilsa and Rick that same night goes
raging when Rick denies her access to the letters and she grabs a gun to
intimidate him to do so. The lighting and shadows of the scene compliment the
suspense of the music at the moment.
March 20th:
The breaking point-Ilsa admits to still love Rick.
Ilsa’s character is explored by her side of the story. She
believed her husband had died when she was with Rick but discovered he was
alive later on and couldn’t leave Paris with him. In some way, she betrayed
Rick instead of Victor.
The use of a mirror in the movie with Ilsa shows her double
life, her two sides that love both men.
Victor Lazlo has a talk with Rick that states his knowledge
of his wife having the affair and yet keeping himself logical and
understanding. Victor’s character gains more points with the viewers.
Rick is arrested and makes an agreement with Louis about
plotting the capture of Lazlo so he could run away with Ilsa. At the same time,
he makes her believe this escape plan of them.
When freed and seen with Lazlo, Louis interferes as part of
the plan just to find out the real plan was to help Lazlo escape and keeping
him as captive.
Ilsa finds out she was deceived by Rick about escaping
together. He gets his revenge for her never showing up to leave with him
before.
Rick makes Victor believe his wife never intended anything
with him and that she was faithful to him ever since they saw each other again
in Casablanca.
Ilsa and Victor leave on the plane thanks to Rick making
sure of it. Herr Strasser is shot for trying to keep the plane for leaving.
Louis switches his ways by not telling about Rick shooting
the German and shows a real change in where his loyalty lies.
“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”-famous
final lines
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