A Mythical Classic Defined by History and Time

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2014)

It's quite a burden for a man to start writing a review for "Casablanca" (1942), the film loved and seen by everyone, and of which everything seems to be said a thousand times. The over-used statement "we must fight for this film so that the future generations can enjoy it" just doesn't work for "Casablanca" since no fighting is necessary. It doesn't need our help. Generations after generations have embraced the film and begun a beautiful friendship with it. This process has become a fundamental element in our culture which remains as time goes by.
A memorable line after another, stylistic noir-aesthetics and a bunch of amazing performances make "Casablanca" a true cult-classic in the word's most actual meaning. Everything is just right. Even the most die-hard supporter of the auteur theory must humble before this film and admit that it is a great piece of work without a distinct author. It is a sleeper whose success and popularity can only be explained by the equal input of the director, the many writers, the actors and the audience which cherishes it so.
One uniting element, a force which glues everything together can, however, be found, and that is time. "Casablanca" is so luminously a child of its own time that to neglect this aspect seems blasphemous. A big part of its timeless charm is its original fashion to deal with a historical moment, the relationship between individuals and even the mental events of a person at the same time and in the same equal eye. Thus "Casablanca" moves fluently from the general to the particular and back. Best known example is of course the beginning: the camera drills down into the globe, to Europe, to Casablanca, to Rick's Cafe Americain and finally to the privacy of Rick's mind. A conflict of reality and consciousness at the stage of the world, the café. As said innumerable times, the café is the microcosm of the world, of Europe at war.
"Casablanca" was something that could only happen at one brief moment in the history of mankind. It is a work that was born from many factors which are forever admired such as Ingrid Bergman's natural beauty, Humphrey Bogart's powerful presence, his unique way of saying "here's looking at you, kid," and an inimitable mood of solidarity. All this among many other things is veritably moving. The magical atmosphere and the mythical birth of "Casablanca" seem to capture the essence of an era, of a history. While it was being made there was no knowing who was going to win the war or how it all was going to end, but at least the many creators of this film had actual faith in a better tomorrow.
So what else can be said? Something coherent, something persuasive, something original? Nothing, I guess. All words seem to make "Casablanca" sound like a banal work of sentimentality which it only transcends. Watch it -- over and over again, and again and again. And once more.