You Must Remember This

Rating: 10/10 (1 June 2008)

It's almost unfair to lavish praise on CASABLANCA, for such universal praise comes the expectation of the masterwork of an auteur such as Welles or Hitchcock. The result could not be farther from that expectation, and indeed it is difficult to describe just how and why CASABLANCA remains such a beloved film. Here is a film that nobody wanted to make (especially the stars, who only bonded when trying to get out of the film), that was saddled with production problems from day one due to the incomplete script, and somehow has turned into the most brilliant accidental masterpiece in American cinema.
Humphrey Bogart stars as a cross between a Hemingway anti-hero and Jesus in a waiter's outfit. Richard Blaine, American, age 37 with questionably brown eyes and a sketchy past, runs a popular nightclub in Casablanca during the early days of WWII that attracts a rainbow of diverse characters from Italian thieves to bickering Frenchmen, from desperate refugees to German officers. Rick has all the right things to say (courtesy of the brilliant dialogue via the Epstein Twins, Howard Koch and Casey Robinson) but is deeply flawed, a cynical, selfish man with clearly no respect for himself or other people save the French officer Louis Renault and best friend, the piano-playing Sam. Just as the audience is wondering what made Rick such a complex character, the answer comes in the form of the beautiful Ilsa Lund (the ethereal Ingrid Bergman), who of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, walks into Rick's and turns his life upside down. As the woman he once loved and got away for unexplained reasons, it becomes clear that Rick still bears the scars of her leaving him--and that Ilsa still loves him. Now married to Czech resistance fighter Viktor Lazlo (Paul Henried), the couple try in vain to acquire exit visas and, believing that Rick has two letters of transit that would allow anyone to leave Casablanca without question, Ilsa and Viktor try to crack his outer crust, and Rick must choose between his love for Ilsa and his idealistic interior he only thinks he can hide.
When one looks objectively at CASABLANCA, there isn't a lot to rave about, and yet everything comes together so seamlessly. Michael Curtiz's fine knowledge of how the camera told a story was put to excellent use here, from the sweeping shots that pass through imaginary walls to the delicacy of Ingrid Bergman's face. The script, written by at least four different screenwriters while shooting was taking place, should've collapsed under the weight of its own multiple genres and chaotic preparation, but the actors say their lines with a conviction and believability it's difficult to realize that nobody wanted to be there in the first place.
Above all things, it's the characters and performances that make CASABLANCA what it is today. As Roger Ebert pointed out, all the characters are so good, and even the ones that are meant to be ambiguous (such as Renault) or crooks (such as Ugarte), they are so interesting and lively the audience feels compelled to follow them out of Rick's and see where fate takes them. At the center of all this is Rick and Ilsa's tortured love affair. Unlike almost all other love stories, the audience never knows how Rick and Ilsa first met. Unlike almost all other love stories, it doesn't matter; the audience doesn't need a meet-cute scene within the Paris flashback--we see it all in the way Bogart and Bergman look at each other with such love and understanding, and we feel their pain of witnessing their awkward encounter almost two years after Ilsa ran away from Rick. It is a testament to the actors yet again that makes a rather conventional love story so interesting and involving. The role of an anti-hero is one Humphrey Bogart could've sleepwalked through, but under Michael Curtiz's direction there's an understanding just beneath the surface that breaks through. And Ingrid Bergman more or less disowned the film that cemented her in film history (and objectively speaking Ilsa is a very underwritten character), but she was above all things a professional; she did her job and she did it so well she was never able to escape the praise that followed her to her death. Her most celebrated scene is perhaps when Curtiz lets the camera linger on her gorgeous face while Sam plays "it," and memories of love and pain come rushing back. Any other actress would've overplayed it, but Bergman is almost doing what another famous Swedish import had done 9 years earlier, when Greta Garbo made a blank face and let the audience interpret the final close-up of QUEEN Christina, even though the audience *does* know what Ilsa's thinking, and it's all the more poignant for Bergman's performance.
How CASABLANCA has survived for over 60 years is a miracle, and it'll continue to inspire for another 60 years, because it's still the same old story: a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die. All great literature and films are still relevant because of their universal themes; in this case, the world will always welcome a great love story, terrific acting and classic storytelling as time goes by.