Notes for Viewing Cacablanca
  Film Studies

ONE: EXPOSITION.

Refugees from the German occupation in World War II have streamed into Casablanca, Morocco, still part of unoccupied France.  After Paris fell to the Nazis in June, 1940, refugees sought to escape by making their way to Casablanca.  From there they could get a visa to get to Lisbon, Portugal, and from there passage to America.

1) The phrase “Round up all suspicious characters” becomes “Round up the usual suspects,” one of the great lines in cinema history  listen for it later in the film.

2) Notice the young couple who observe the man being shot down.  They will play an important role in the film later.

TWO: Rick’s Cafe Americain

We are introduced to Major Strasser, the Nazi commander, and the police inspector, Renault, who works for the Nazi installed Vichy Government.  Renault’s job is to walk a tightrope between his patriotic feelings for Occupied France and his need to perform a nasty job for the Nazis.  The time is December, 1941.

3) Note how the director, Michael Curtiz, introduces Humphrey Bogart.  CU of a check he okays, then camera up to show Rick.  There he is, portraying the jaded, embittered, lonely, cynical tough guy who never gives away his feelings.  Larger than life  that’s Bogart’s character.  The anti hero as hero.

We see Rick in the scene with Ugarte (Peter Lorre).  Is Rick cynical, unmoved by human conflicts?  Or is he a rank sentimentalist?  NOTE: He does hide the letters from Ugarte.

More exposition as Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet) comes in and offers to buy Rick’s club.  Ferrari is involved in the human trade  that is, getting people out of Casablanca.  He wants Rick to join him so that both can make lots of money.  Rick isn’t interested.

Rick’s interaction with the woman who is angry that he has “dropped her” suggests that he is NOT interested in a permanent love relationship with a woman.  Because she violates his “ethic” of relationships, she has to be escorted out.

4) The scene between Renault and Rick outside the cafe provides visual information that Rick is NOT exactly as cold and detached as he comes across.  Shot selection helps you see that he has given some thought about getting out of Casablanca and that there is some mystery about his past.

Back inside the club, Renault keeps up the pressure on Rick is Rick perhaps more committed to the cause of freedom than he lets on?  We can’t be sure.

Ugarte is trapped.  He appeals to Rick for help  but there is no way out.  Ugarte is carried off.  The Nazis have made their point.  Rick concludes, “I stick my neck out for nobody.”

THREE.  THE ENCOUNTER.

5) Into the cafe walks Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman).  Who is she?  Victor Laszlo’s wife.  [But Rick doesn’t know this yet.] Laszlo is the great hero of the underground, leader of the Free French.  Note the reaction shot of Sam, the pianist.  We know there is more here than meets the eye.

6) Note the thunderstruck look on Ilsa’s face when she finds out that she is in Rick’s bar she MUST know Rick.  After her husband goes to confer with a confederate, notice the looks on her face (editing).

7) When Sam comes over to see Ilsa, we start with Sam’s point of view, but when he delivers the key line   “Leave him alone, you’re bad luck to him,” we get it from her point of view.  We see the pain on his face.  Then we get the reverse angle CU of Ilsa she can’t let up.  Watch her face.  What is she thinking as this scene progresses?

8) Rick comes in, angry, and notice the CUT when Sam nods toward Ilsa, then we see Ilsa in a CU what a LOOK!  then cut to Rick what a look of pain and introspection.  What’s going on here?

9) Rick formally meets Victor Laszlo and Ilsa note the comparison of medium shots of the two men the TWO MEN IN ILSA’S LIFE  Then as they engage in dialogue, notice how they are again SEPARATED through the editing so that their words BITE.  Watch the reaction shots of these two characters in this scene.

FOUR.  RICK HITS BOTTOM.

10) Powerful transition to next scene  Rick alone at a table in the bar.  Dark Night of the Soul time.  Watch the frustration mount in his face.  Something is really bothering him.

11) Transition to flashback.  Note that flashbacks usually begin with camera on the character (in the present) who experiences the flashback and end when the camera returns to the character in the present.  Notice that when she comes into the cafe on the day the Germans enter Paris, something is wrong with her expression.  Something is on her mind.  Why is she being so evasive?

12) When they kiss in the scene, note the cut to her accidentally knocking over the wine glass.  This is a visual metaphor for the “accident of fate” that will separate them.

13) Of course, bad things happen in the rain.  So Rick is stuck in the rain at the train station and the shot of him standing on the train and looking out symbolizes the pain and sense of betrayal he is feeling.

14) Return to the present.  Note how Ilsa’s entrance is set up with the door in the background of the frame--when she enters she is bathed in light.  She wears white.  Visual metaphor: purity, innocence.  When Ilsa walks in, note the cuts to two CU’s of them.  Now comes the confrontation.  NOTE: She is in the light, he is in the dark.  This reinforces her purity and honesty.  Meanwhile, he is shrouded in a darkness of suspicion, anger, etc.  He SHOULD listen to her.  But of course he can’t.  The deeper they go into their feelings, they begin to appear in CU’s.  When Rick begins to accuse her, note the shadow on her face.  Can we trust her?  The scene ends with Rick, his head down, filled with self pity.

FIVE.  THE MISSING LETTERS OF TRANSIT

Major Strasser plans to have Rick’s club searched so that he can find the missing letters of transit.  Of course, if Laszlo gets one of the letters, he can escape Casablanca.  He interviews Laszlo and asks him to identify all of the Underground leaders.  Laszlo refuses, of course.

So Laszlo and Ilsa plan to visit Mr. Ferrari at the Blue Parrot club to see if he can help them get visas to get out of Casablanca.  Before they arrive, we see Rick talk to Ferrari.  Ferrari wants Rick to work with him and make money by selling visas on the black market.  Rick isn’t interested in simply making lots of money.  He sees Ilsa outside and stops to talk to her.  Now that he is sober, he expects her to tell him why she walked out on him back in Paris.  But she has seen a dark side of the man she did not see back in Paris in 1940. 

15) Note how the two shot of Rick and Ilsa emphasizes Ilsa (either on the right of the frame or from Rick’s point of view).  She recalls the look of hatred he gave her the night before.  She tells him the old Rick she knew in Paris no longer exists.  We see Rick alone in the frame only when he says that he expects she will “walk up a flight” and see him because she won’t be able to stay away from him.

Laszlo and Ilsa talk to Ferrari, but he can only promise one visa not two.  Laszlo refuses to be separated from Ilsa.  Then Ferrari tells Victor to ask Rick about the missing letters of transit.

SIX.  SENTIMENTALIST RICK

Back at the Cafe Americain, Renault asks Rick if he has the letters of transit.  Obviously, the search by the police didn’t turn them up. Remember: they were hidden in the piano.  A former lover, the one Rick sent home in a cab, comes into the club on the arm of a German officer.  He gets into a fight at the bar with a French soldier.  Rick breaks up the fight.  Major Strasser, who watches this, is concerned that things are not sufficiently under control.

Then the young woman who we have seen with her husband trying to get visas to get out of Casablanca talks to Rick and asks for help.  Apparently she has been bribed by Renault if she has sex with Renault he will get her the necessary visas.

As she tells her story, Rick looks at her as if she is just another person trying to achieve an impossible dream.  Then she begins talking about her desire to help her husband, even if it means that she will have to do something morally repugnant.  When the woman says, “If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the world, and she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her? “ Rick says, “Nobody ever loved me that much.” We know that isn’t true.  Ilsa loved him that much.

16) At this point, watch Bogart’s reaction shots.  He is clearly in pain and shows it.  He gets rid of the woman, but we know she has gotten through to him.

Laszlo and Ilsa come in, and Rick seats them.  Then he sets up a surprise for the young woman who talked to him.  Rick goes into the casino and “arranges” for the husband of the young Bulgarian woman to win money at the roulette wheel--enough money to buy two exit visas.

17) As the scene unfolds, note the reaction shots of the woman, the old waiter, Renault, all juxtaposed with CU’s of the roulette wheel.  The reward for Rick  she embraces him, the old waiter looks at him lovingly, and the bartender Sasha kisses Rick.  Note that Renault comes up at the end and announces, “As I suspected, you’re a rank sentimentalist.” Renault is not too happy with Rick, since he had expected to have had sexual intercourse with the Bulgarian woman (his bribe for giving her two exit visas)--but he forgives Rick for this indiscretion.

SEVEN: PATRIOTISM WINS OUT.

Laszlo talks to Rick alone about getting the two letters of transit.  He even offers a big bribe.  Finally, Rick says, “I suggest you ask your wife.” Before Laszlo can respond, the two hear the Germans downstairs singing their national anthem.  Rick and Laszlo go down, and Victor asks the band to play the French National Anthem, “La Marseillaise.” NOTE: One look from Rick to the bandleader, and they begin to play it.  Now both parties sing their respective anthems.  Finally, the Germans are drowned out.

18) In the scenes of the singing, notice the long shots that show the many patriotic people, Victor in context with them, then Victor alone in the frame, then his wife watching him adoringly (impressed by his leadership), and even the ex-lover of Rick, who commits herself to the Free French cause by singing loudly.  We could call this scene the “dueling anthems scene” (after the “dueling banjos scene in Deliverance).

Of course, Major Strasser is enraged after being humiliated.  So he orders Renault to shut down the club.  Major Strasser even extends an offer to Ilsa.  He tells her he will guarantee their safe passage to Occupied France.  She scoffs at the offer.

EIGHT.  RICK AND ILSA

In their hotel room later, Victor tells Ilsa he must leave for a meeting of the Underground leaders.  He tells her Rick said, “Ask your wife” about the missing letters of transit.  She is devastated.  Victor sits next to her.  He suspects, of course, that she had a love affair with Rick.  He also tells her that he has forgiven her.  He tells her he will understand if she goes away with Rick--he would rather have her safe with another man she loves rather than living a life of terror running from the Germans with Victor--and perhaps ending up dead.

Back at the club, Rick is talking with Carl, the waiter, who is a member of the Underground.  Carl leaves for the meeting, and Rick is closing up.  Back in his room he finds Ilsa waiting for him.  She pleads with him to give her the letters.  He says no.  She pulls a gun on him.  He says go ahead and shoot.

19.  Note the medium shots and CU’s that fuel this scene.  Parallel editing is used to compare their reactions, to provide insight into their feelings.  Of course, when she makes the decision not to shoot, she is in CU.  Then we break away to a medium shot of Rick, but when he goes over to her, they embrace, and suddenly we are in CU range again.

Later, after a scene that was not filmed because of the rigors of the Production Code (which censored motion pictures)--a scene which we have to imagine--that of Rick and Ilsa having sexual intercourse, the two sit on the sofa next to each other.  She tells him her story.  We realize that on the last day they were together in Paris, she knew her husband Victor was still alive.

20) Again, each shot is a closeup of either Rick or Ilsa as they share this intimate story.  After we establish a medium shot of the two on the sofa, and she turns to him and says, “I can’t fight it anymore,” we get a CU of both in the frame at once as she delivers the key line: “Oh, I don’t know what’s right any longer.” Her head is on his shoulder.  We can see him react to that line.  What is he thinking?  Then she says, “You’ll have to think for both of us, for all of us.” As the shot continues, watch his face for the key expression.  He concludes, “Yes, I will.”

NINE.  RICK DECIDES.

Later in the club, Victor, who has been slightly wounded, returns with Carl.  Rick asks Carl to take Ilsa back to her hotel.  Rick and Victor talk alone for the second time.

21) Note the technique of reverse angle shots to focus our attention on a particular character.  In the scene Victor tells Rick he knows Rick and Ilsa are in love.  When Victor asks Rick to use one of the letters to get Ilsa out of Casablanca, Rick asks, “You love her that much?” [Remember that Rick told the young Bulgarian woman, “No one has ever loved me that much."] They are interrupted when Renault comes in and arrests Victor.  Note that last reaction shot of Rick when they leave.  He has said, “It seems that destiny has taken a hand.” Is he smug, gloating, mean spirited here?

But the next morning Rick is right at Renault’s desk appealing to him to release Victor.  Rick then drops a bombshell: he’s using the two letters to get Ilsa and himself out of Casablanca.  Renault doesn’t trust him.  Then Rick says he will deliver Victor over to him tonight for a major offense  possessing the letters of transit.  This appeal to Renault’s vanity works.  Renault agrees to let Rick speak to Victor for a few minutes.

Rick then goes to Ferrari at the Blue Parrot and arranges the sale of the Cafe Americain.  He makes sure that Ferrari won’t fire any of the old hands, and he insures that Sam, his old friend from days in Paris, will get 25% of the profits.  Back at Rick’s, Renault shows up one-half hour before the last plane is to leave for Lisbon.  He hides, and then Victor and Ilsa arrive.  Ilsa thinks Rick and she are leaving on the plane.  Rick simply says, “Please trust me.” Inside, Rick puts the letters in Victor’s hands and Renault comes out and arrests Victor.  But before Renault can turn around, Rick pulls a gun on him.  “Nobody’s going to be arrested.” Rick tells him to call the airport and alert them to their arrival.  But Renault calls Major Strasser’s office instead.  Of course, Major Strasser doesn’t know what this means but he calls for a car immediately and heads for the airport.  He also orders a squad of police to meet him at the airport.

TEN.  THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP

The famous airport scene.  The entire scene was filmed in a sound stage.  The airplane was a plywood two-dimensional mockup of an American.  The government would not allow a real plane to be used--after all, we were at war and every airplane counted.  In order to provide appropriate perspective, the producer employed dwarfs to portray the mechanics.

22) Rick springs his plot: the two letters are for Victor and Ilsa.  She is shocked.  Then he faces her in a two-shot, tightly framed, that allows us to follow them evenly.  Then the director cuts to a point of view shot (from Rick) that emphasizes her disbelief and refusal to accept this action.  Then a reverse angle (her point of view) to show Rick’s face as he delivers the famous, “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.”

23) Then another reverse angle.  Then a reverse angle back to him.  Finally, as the words sink in, notice the CU of Ilsa, tears in her eyes, and a look of destiny on her face. Then her point of view to show him saying, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Reaction shot Ilsa.  Reaction shot Rick.

Then Rick completes the unfinished business, by lying to Victor about his love affair with Ilsa.  Both men know this is a lie, but it’s another example of Rick as a real man--someone with sentiment.  When it’s time to leave, NOTE first the two shot of Ilsa and Victor, then CU Of Ilsa, then CU of Rick.

Rick and Renault are alone after Rick shoots Major Strasser, who arrives too late to stop Victor.  Note the critical moment when the police arrive, and a look goes between Renault and Rick   and Renault tells them, “Round up the usual suspects.” Now Renault has to escape himself.  Renault tells him, “Well, Rick, you’re not only a sentimentalist, but you’ve become a patriot.” Rick says, “It seemed like a good time to start.” They watch the plane fly off from their point of view.  They walk off, the camera lets them walk by, then raises (crane shot) to show them walking away from the camera; both are small in the midst of the fog and runway lights as Rick says, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ryahnke/filmteach/x-casa2.htm

Summary written by Robert E. Yahnke
Copyright, Robert E. Yahnke, 2001
Professor, General College, Univ. of Minnesota
Reprinted by permission of the author for educational use only