" I came to Casablanca for the waters. "

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 1999)

This is one of the best movies ever. And strangely enough i don´t think it´s because of the story. To me its because of the incredible atmosphere in it. In this movie it seems that all was in the right place at the right time.
One thing that people don´t talk much about, is that Casablanca is filled of special effects, and the best thing about it is that nobody notices them, which in my book is the best thing anyone can say about such a good work. From the fake Casablanca town, to the fake airport scenes (which were filmed indoors) this movie is a true special effects masterpiece. They were used not to impress the audience, but to create a believable world instead. Many modern movies could have learned a lot from Casablanca.
And then there is that out of this world photography in black and white, which created some of the most beautiful lit closeups i ever saw in a movie so far, and made Bergman into one of the most beautiful women that ever appeared in a movie screen. Another masterpiece.
All this combined with a magnificent screenplay filled with memorable lines, a perfect soundtrack to each scene and a great cast. This movie will never go out of date, because of the magnificent atmosphere it has. And the characters are great, everyone in this story has some human weakness, something that we don´t see much this days. It´s this imperfections that end up creating the suspanse in the movie, because when we see it for the first time we know that anything can happen.
This is a fantastic movie for every reason, but at the same time for no reason at all.
Maybe it´s because no matter how many times we see it, this film still makes us feel something diferent.
This really is a masterpiece, and the best part is that it wasn´t intented to be. It was just another 40´s popcorn movie.
So watch it, and watch it again, watch it forever because 100 years from now people will still be talking about it. Just stay away from that awful computer colored version ! That almost destroyed all the excelent photographic work.
If you don´t like Black and White, make an effort and watch it anyway, because i bet in the end you´ll end up loving B&W. It worked for me. Do yourselves a favor and forget about the color version. It just isn´t the real Casablanca.