A serendipitous masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2014)

Casablanca is a perfect artistic creation. It is a film which cannot be improved upon and one that, more than 70 years on, still has the power to surprise, amaze and entertain. It is not, and was never I think meant to be, realistic. By this I mean not just that it is not a true story but that it could never conceivably have been seen to be. The broad canvas of the city of Casablanca in the early years of the Second World War is authentic but the story which unfolds, the characters and the detail is of course fiction. This in no way negates the legitimacy of the movie which is far deeper than just telling a story would be. In this respect it is very akin to a painting or a sonnet. A painting is constrained by the two- dimensional static format and a sonnet by the rules of verse. But that doesn't mean that powerful messages cannot be conveyed. So it is with Casablanca.
This is a film about love, betrayal, honour, sacrifice, loyalty, friendship, man's capacity for evil as well as for goodness. It is about judgment, weakness, kindness, passion, greed, and how even the most venal power can be overcome with courage. Put like that it sounds a bit pious but, of course, it is not pious at all. It is exceptionally humorous at times. The constraint is imposed by the need to reduce complex human emotions to filmable moments. It is full of metaphors which help this along. "As time goes by" is not a theme song but a symbol of times past not time present. Rick had forbidden Sam to play the song because it stirred too strongly the memories of his and Ilsa's time together in Paris. When Ilsa turns up in Casablanca she insists that Sam plays it and so signals her wish to return in some way to Rick.
The playing of the Marseillaise in the bar to rebut the Germans is symbolic of the struggle between good and evil. It is a courageous and provocative thing to do. And it contrasts neatly with the character development of Rick and the police Chief Renault. Each of them has to be pragmatic to survive and they cheat, lie and deceive as part of this. But as we suspect from the start with Rick, and come to learn with Renault deep down these are good men. The means justifies the ends if those ends are honourable. Rick, like many great heroes (there is an intriguing parallel with Oskar Schindler here) has to be tough and do things he would prefer not to do. But when tested he comes up trumps. There is an illustrative sub plot with a young Bulgarian newly married couple who Rick helps to get exit visas to Lisbon, he doesn't need to do this and there are risks. But inspired by his inherent sense of decency he does it.
Casablanca is a love story - or actually two. The one between Humphrey Bogart's Rick and Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa and the one between Ilsa and her husband Victor Lazslo. Bergman's performance is sensational. The close-ups show her astonishing beauty and make Rick's passion for her wholly credible. There is an intriguing moral sub plot about Ilsa and Rick's brief affair in Paris (shown in flashback). We learn that Lazslo was missing presumed dead when this happened. This reduces the adulterous nature of the liaison - maybe a nod to the moral precepts of Hollywood in 1942? We also learn that Ilsa's failure to escape Paris with Rick is because Viktor has turned up - something that Rick was unaware of.
Casablanca is a highly moral film - ironically because few of the characters seem to have strong moral principles at all. But, as we have seen, this is artifice. Lazslo is a man of high moral attitudes with a track record to match. Ilsa supports him and loves him for this and when it comes to the crunch she chooses her husband over Rick. Though Rick himself makes this easy for her by insisting at the end that she fly off with Lazslo rather than stay in Casablanca with him.
The greatness of Casablanca comes from the ménage a trois and from the colourful key supporting characters. It comes from the juxtaposition of good and evil all within the claustrophobic tight world of wartime Casablanca. It comes too from the tight, pacy direction and a clever evocation of time and place. The film is iconic with dialogue that has entered the vernacular "Here's looking at you kid" "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" "round up the usual suspects." "We'll always have Paris" "Play it Sam, play 'As Time Goes By'" "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." But above all it comes from the characters and from their portrayal by a cast all at the top of their form.
Movies unlike paintings or poems are collective endeavours. Assemble the right actors. Write a filmable script. Get a good Director. And yet, and yet. It isn't enough. Casablanca works because these basics are right. If is a masterpiece because, serendipitously, what is in part a random collection of elements somehow works as a whole. The whole far exceeds the sum of the parts.