EMC/JOUR 3000 Casablanca Study Guide

Study Guide
EMC / JOUR 3000
Edward Bowen

Casablanca (1942)

Warner Brothers (Jack L Warner, Executive Producer)

Produced by Hal B. Wallis

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Screenplay by Julius and Philip Epstein, Howard Koch

From a play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison

Music Score by Max Steiner

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul
Henreid , Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Dooley
Wilson, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z.
Sakall, Marcel Dalio

Est. Cost - $1,039,000; Est. Initial Gross - $3,700,000

Casablanca (1942)

Thus Casablanca is not just one film. It is many films, an anthology.
[...] When all the archetypes burst in shamelessly, we reach Homeric
depths. Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred clichés move us. For
we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and
celebrating a reunion.
Umberto Eco
http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_casablanca.html

The Technical Dimension
Produced by Warner Bros. at the height of the Hollywood studio
system, Casablanca embraced what is now known as "invisible style." Rather
than dazzling the eye with eye-catching visuals and histrionic acting, it
seduces the viewer by creating a seamless, lush universe that gradually
envelops the audience. Hardly an effortless accomplishment, "invisible style"
required an absolute mastery of the various cinematic elements by its
collaborators, including Hungarian director Michael Curtiz (Mildred
Pierce, 1945), director of photography Arthur Edeson (The Maltese
Falcon, 1941), Art Director Carl Jules Weyl (The Big Sleep, 1946), composer
Max Steiner (Gone With the Wind) and soon-to-be-director Don Siegel (Dirty
Harry, 1972), whose dynamic opening montage invests the film with a sense
of political urgency.
Turner Classic Movies Website
 

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/316%7C0/Casablanca.html
http://www.film-daily.com/2011/05/warner-brothers.html

“Casablanca” is a prime example of the “Invisible Technique” of the
Hollywood Studio System, in which camerawork and lighting and editing are
meant to subtly support the story rather than being abrasive or even
noticed. So unlike Soviet Montage (“The Battleship Potemkin”), the edits and
transitions are meant to be smooth and seamless. Unlike German
Expressionism (“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, “ “Sunrise”), the design and
lighting are meant to reflect reality, be it a stylized reality, rather than be an
expression of an artist’s view of the world.

http://youtu.be/3bNlSYc-ZJU

“Casablanca” is a prime example of the “Invisible Technique” of the
Hollywood Studio System, in which camerawork and lighting and editing are
meant to subtly support the story rather than being abrasive or even
noticed. So unlike Soviet Montage (“The Battleship Potemkin”), the edits and
transitions are meant to be smooth and seamless. Unlike German
Expressionism (“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, “ “Sunrise”), the design and
lighting are meant to reflect reality, be it a stylized reality, rather than be an
expression of an artist’s view of the world.

http://youtu.be/KDxLyS9H47U

The Studio System - Stock Actors and Contract Players

The production design of Casablanca has come to represent the aesthetics of
romantic longing. Its smoky casino, fog-shrouded runway, trench
coats, potted palms and gruff-voiced pianist repeatedly surface in
contemporary films, commercials, television programs and even restaurant
decor as respects are paid to this quintessential Hollywood classic.
Turner Classic Movies Website

Colorized

The Hollywood Montage as Exposition
 

http://youtu.be/CiWnFqW5akw

Exposition – Setting the Stage
 

http://youtu.be/ActId7BvIcw

Miniatures and Forced Perspective
 

http://youtu.be/70NVg_neYSM

Miniatures and Forced Perspective – “Sunrise” (1927) F.W. Murnau
 

http://youtu.be/G_zhCx7C4qs

Miniatures and Forced Perspective – “Sunrise” (1927) F.W. Murnau
 

http://youtu.be/LGPnUPE-mfY

Miniatures and Forced Perspective – “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory” (1971) Mel Stuart
 

http://youtu.be/bkPBCKPqC5A (7:40 in)

The Dramatic Dimension
Melodrama – A dramatic work that exaggerates plot, crises, and
characters in order to appeal to or manipulate the emotions, and
often depends on stock characters or stereotypes for effect, as
opposed to “realistic” conflict and emotions.

A drama involves primarily a conflict of values within a man (as
expressed in action); a melodrama involves only a conflict of man with
other men.
Ayn Rand

http://tinyurl.com/7gd6pjk

The Flashback

http://youtu.be/xB_jKu6qWM8

The Flashback

http://youtu.be/iq7vZTO81Ro

The Flashback – “The Pawnbroker” (1964) Sidney Lumet

http://youtu.be/OLtnOGTdLO4

The Flashback – “Jaws” (1975) Stephen Spielberg

The Flashback – “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (1979) John Irvin

http://youtu.be/ezLTOK6dYPM

The Hollywood Montage as Exposition

http://youtu.be/CiWnFqW5akw

The Reluctant Hero

The hero may refuse the adventure or deny the ability to move beyond the status quo.
The heralded event may even be ignored – All of these constitute the ‘Refusal of the
Call.’
The use of magical intervention is then needed to plunge the hero into the unknown.
The reluctant hero requires supernatural forces to urge him on, while the willing
adventurer gathers amulets (magical items) and advice from the protector as aid for
the journey…
The reluctant hero loses all desire to abandon his bliss, he does not want to take on the
burdens of the world. Someone or thing may facilitate his miraculous return from
apparent death. An overriding reason is necessary to bring the hero back to the world
to save it.
Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces

Fortuitous Circumstance and Coincidence

Dramatic Ellipses

http://youtu.be/diGOGZ2PYNE

A May 21, 1942 letter from Joseph I. Breen, director of the Production
Code Administration, to Warner Bros. executive Jack Warner objects
to the portrayal of "Renault's" practice of seducing women in
exchange for exit visas. The PCA also objected to the "suggestion that
Ilsa was married all the time she was having her love affair with Rick in
Paris." Later, Breen warned that the script should not imply that "Ilsa"
slept with "Rick" when she comes to beg for the letters of transit.

The Socio/Historical Dimension
Sam
“Classified X” (1998) Mark Daniels, with Melvin Van Peebles

http://youtu.be/IXLKwXq6G98

The Historical Dimension
Vichy

Germany occupied France
from 1940 to 1944. The spa
and resort town of
Vichy, famous for its
water, was the de facto capital
of the collaborationist
government.

The audience of 1943 knew
the man pictured here. He
was Marshal Henri Petain, the
pro-German dictator of
France, and Capt. Renauld's
ultimate boss.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/casablanca/bmp_report_casablanca.cfm
http://www.riebel-roque.com/cas.html

Vichy

Morocco was a protectorate (colony) of France. The Nazi regime never occupied
Morocco, but rather controlled the Vichy French who did.


Propaganda

Irene Lee, Warner Brothers’ West Coast Story Editor, submitted the script to
producer Hal Wallis four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Warner Brothers ordered a hasty rewrite of "Across the Pacific" which
involved a Japanese plot to blow up Pearl Harbor, changing the setting to
the Panama Canal.

Hollywood had a history of supporting and being supported by Roosevelt
and his administration.

The Warner Brothers had bucked the other studios, hesitant to alienate
foreign markets, by releasing “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” in 1939.

In September of 1941, isolationist members of the U.S. Senate, calling
Hollywood “a raging volcano of war fever,” launched an investigation into
whether studio executives, many of whom were Jewish, were inserting
interventionist messages into popular movies.

Propaganda

How does “Casablanca” act as propaganda during the U.S. involvement
during World War II?

Is Rick Blaine, at first hesitant to get involved, eventually pushed to take
action, a metaphor for the U.S. and its hesitation at the outset of World War
!!?

Made in 1942 and released not long after the United States had seriously
committed itself to fighting in World War II, the classic film Casablanca
provides insight into popular attitudes early in the war. In addition, it lays
out some of the arguments for U.S. involvement, tracing the transformation
of U.S. policy from neutrality to non-belligerency to involvement. The
character of Richard "Rick" Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, provided a
heroic analogy for the historical process of U.S. involvement in the war


The film premiered in New York City in November 1942, in what was called a
pre-release engagement. This showing was rushed to theaters to capitalize
on the recent events in North Africa, specifically the invasion of American
troops into the real Casablanca.

It opened on Thanksgiving Day, following a parade up Fifth Avenue of Free
French leaders, when the Free French flag was unfurled for the first time in
the United States since the fall of Vichy.

Because this kind of free publicity happens only once in a blue
moon, Warner Bros. rushed Casablanca to just one theater in New York. But
it was not seen by the rest of the country until early 1943, including Los
Angeles.

As luck would have it, the national release coincided with another
Casablanca event, a summit meeting between President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.

Perhaps the greatest praise came from London, where General Charles de
Gaulle, leader of the Free French forces, requested a print of Casablanca for
a special showing to his staff.

“Barb Wire” (1996) David Hogan

http://youtu.be/eFs_YLy3Ld8

EMC/JOUR 3000 Casablanca Study Guide

EMC/JOUR 3000 Casablanca Study Guide

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EMC/JOUR 3000 Casablanca Study Guide