Of all the classics and all the love
stories in all of world cinema, I had somehow never walked into…
CASABLANCA
DIRECTOR-
Michael Curtiz
CAST-Humphrey freaking Bogart, Ingrid freaking Bergman and others
Yeah yeah…go ahead and shoot me, I had
never watched Casablanca before. How can I not have watched what has been
termed perhaps the greatest movie of all time in many lists over the years?
Well…I wish I had the Bogart charm of shrugging my shoulders and looking classy
while denying what would seem like the most common thing to a layman. Blame it
on English movie channels which would rather play Fast and Furious Part: who
gives a shit, than cinematic classics like they used to play when they
initially started in India. AXN, TNT, Star movies actually played movies like
Psycho, Casablanca, Vertigo etc. Guess they don’t give a shit these days.
You can also blame this fear of classic
movies and books which I have…in that they are either very lengthy sometimes for
no reason (yes Mr. Kubrick we get it…satellites rotating in space are cool…can
we stop seeing 20 mins of them rotating to classical music?)…or are sometimes a
tad bit outdated with melodramatic acting and effects. Although I had gotten
around to watching what is considered in those aforementioned many lists as the
other greatest movie ever – Citizen Kane- I was not enough impressed by it for
it to be considered ‘greatest’. Great certainly…but just not greatest in my
opinion. However, Casablanca…is a whole different story.
I mean the movie and its legendary lines
(Play it once, Sam....here’s to looking at you, kid…of all the gin-joints…Round
up the usual suspects…yes Casablanca’s dialogues have inspired other movie
titles) have been parodied, paid tribute to and referenced in so so many
movies, TV serials etc. that it just carries this aura of greatness with it.
It’s a bit like Sholay in India. If you haven’t watched it and liked it, there
is immense pressure upon you to like it when you actually do get around to
watching it. (But seriously if you haven’t watched Sholay yet, why are you even
reading this?!) So, when I finally got a weekend free and decided to make full
use of my monthly Netflix subscription to finally get around to watching movies
I had only heard about, I saw Casablanca and immediately started watching it.
And as you might have guessed, it does stand the test of time for me.
Test of time is intentional choice of words
(pun alert!) because the movie doesn’t clock more than a 1 hour 45 mins. My
second choice was Laurence of Arabia which is like 18 days long. I mean Bhagwat
saptaha are shorter than that. (ok jokes apart its’ like 4 hours). I agree that
length of a movie isn’t that important if the story justifies it. I mean one of
my favourite movies – The Dark Knight Rises- is almost 3 hours…but as a matter
of personal preference it does matter to me. A revered classic starring my
beloved Bogey that’s less than 2 hours? I had to watch it. 1 hour 46 mins
later, I had to write about it.
Casablanca falls into my favourite kind of
genre- Film Noir. An antihero protagonist with a troubled past, a femme fatale
who has broken his heart…sleek snappy lines…a sense of resigned cynicism and
renewed hope running throughout the film…twists and turns and all this shot in
glorious black and white…that’s Film Noir for you. (Noir is pronounced as
NO-AR…that’s French for you). But
instead of being the usual detective thriller, Casablanca is a love story.
Based originally on an unproduced play
called ‘Everybody comes to Rick’s’, it is set in French occupied Moroccan Town
of Casablanca. It’s the early days of the world war and Paris has been overrun
by the Nazis. Refugees wanting to escape to the US can only go through Lisbon
in Portugal. But the direct way to Portugal is not safe and the best way is to
go to North Africa i.e. through Casablanca then to Lisbon. Casablanca
technically is a French territory and still unoccupied by Nazis. Hitler is yet
to set his sights towards North Africa and hence the town is a bit of neutral
territory. Which of course means that it’s full of refugees looking for escape,
smugglers looking to make a buck, corrupt French police officials trying to
take advantage of the entire situation, German Commanders trying to exert
influence and patriotic French-man trying to run a underground revolution from
there. All these creatures meet at one watering-hole – Ricks Café. Richard
played by the cigarette toting, drinking and pure embodiment of black and white
class- Humphrey Bogart- is a cynical but practical man who doesn’t take sides
in all the conspiracy games that go on in his bar. He doesn’t drink with
customers and offers not even the VIP’s any credit in the bar. But as his friend and local Police Chief
Louis often tells him, that he can bet that inside he is a very sentimental
man. One fine evening, in walks Ilsa with her French Rebel husband Victor
Laszlo…She sees Rick and it seems they share a past connection.
The best part about the story is that the
emotional parts are treated with depth and weight without making them sappy. To
say that Bergman and Bogart share chemistry on screen is to say that Sachin is
very good with a cricket bat…. They literally define cinematic chemistry in all
its glory. In one flashback, you get to see the intense connection they have
and how it now affects their present. Both of them perform really well without
ever letting it look melodramatic or forced. As it neared the climax at the
airport, for the first time in many years, I actually teared up a bit in a romantic
scene.
All the cast performs well, and well…sorry
to hammer this for the umpteenth time but I think I have always had a man-crush
on Bogey. The way he speaks with a cigarette in his mouth, the way he infuses
the weakness of love in a hardened man, the way he toasts when he says ‘here’s
to looking at you, kid…’ he is as the cliché goes the man that every man would
want to become and the man every woman would want. Ingrid Bergman is gorgeous
in all her Nordic glory and acts equally well. All the supporting cast do
really well too.
It’s a movie set during the Second World
War, with conspiracy and escape plans and Jazz music…and it’s also a love
triangle consisting of betrayal and sacrifice and a climax at the airport…in
short it’s for every man and every woman out there. If you haven’t still seen
Casablanca, please do so.
My rating for this movie can’t be anything
else, as this movie is the very definition of the word – Classic
PS- Sorry I am stuck in Mahad and there
won’t be an IT movie review yet.
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