We'll always have "Casablanca" ...

Rating: 10/10 (14 July 2011)

A few movies managed to achieve such a legendary status. Think about it, all you have to do is to hum the first notes of 'As Time Goes By'  ta-da ta-da ta-daaa  and a whole universe resurrects in your memories, forever incarnated by these two profiles staring at each other, Humphrey Bogart in the iconic trench-coat of his career-defining role, and Ingrid Bergman, as gracious as ever.
One word : "Casablanca", and a gallery of characters revives, Sam, the piano player, these unforgettable second-billed actors who graced the silver screen in these black and white days, Conrad Veidt, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, an international cast and so many immortal scenes, Rick Blaine's bourbon-driven melancholy while remembering the good old days with Ilsa, the patriotic fervor expressed during the singing of La Marseillaise and probably the most emotional farewell scene ever, followed by "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" as the ending of a beautiful movie. Of course, the list would be incomplete without the mention of Michael Curtiz' masterful direction, the dazzling shadowy cinematography and the Esptein twins' perfect script that lurched the film into Pop-Culture : "Here's looking at you, kid", "We'll always have Paris" and so many unforgettable lines that became catchphrases on their own. But still, everything would all have been secondary if it wasn't for THE element that made "Casablanca" such a legendary film : it's a beautiful romance.
60 years later, the movie still divides, should have Ilsa gone with Rick or Laszlo? The consensus is that she did the right choice, but there's no doubt that the truer love was Rick. The film perfectly captured the dilemma of a real triangular love as Ilsa's husband, Viktor Lazslo is fundamentally a good man, a heroic resistant fighter who escaped from a concentration camp, and the only man who inspired Rick Blaine a bit of admiration. As an ex-freedom fighter, Rick sure understands the value of courage and visibly, something from the past has metamorphosed his idealistic nature into the cynical and detached mask of a lone wolf figure. Who else than Humphrey Bogart could have played this role with such intensity? Intense but still profoundly romantic as the wound in Rick's heart opens when Lazslo comes back with Ilsa, Rick's former love, back then in Paris.
The international atmosphere of the Rick's Café nightclub gives it a unique and absolutely endearing flavor spiced up that pivotal night, when Ilsa asks Sam to play 'As Time Goes By', we understand that this song has a poignant significance, as the last one she and Rick heard as lovers, before the War came and ruined everything. Ilsa ran out of Rick who, like most of the refugees, escaped from the German invasion leaving Paris to Marseilles, then Marseilles to Oran, and from Oran to Casablanca, in French Morocco, freed from the German control, to get visas to the neutral Portugal, the only way to America. Rick exiled himself in Casablanca, as if something was unconsciously keeping him within the War, and when he delivers the legendary : "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine" is he really lamenting? When Ilsa re-enters his life, his office, Rick's bitterness made him say the wrong words, but then he painfully realizes he still loves her, and that Lazlso took her from him.
Lazslo and Ilsa need two 'letters of transit' to go to Lisbon, and by an ironic coincidence, Rick got those two tickets from a suave criminal named Ugarte who got them by murdering two German couriers. With the death of Ugarte, the two tickets for freedom were in Rick's hand and a great moral dilemma in his heart : contributing to the War effort and lose the love or his life, or following his motto : "I stick my neck out for nobody". Rick's true nature can't fool anyone, but the romance gains in complexity when Ilsa revealing to Rick why she left him, reconciles with him and realizes she loves him more than ever and can't leave him again. The romance is in a dead-end, and compromised by the antagonistic presence of the Major Heinrich Strasser who can't allow Lazzlo to escape. Strasser counts on the collaboration of Vichy's government, incarnated by Captain Renault, another character we still don't know where his heart belongs to, as he said : "This is my least vulnerable spot"
Ultimately, and I guess this is what makes the movie so inspiring, as said Roger Ebert in his brilliant commentary, all the characters aren't bad people. Even the ambiguity of Captain Renault is a nice writing touch that allows to keep uncertain the role he's going to play, although the roulette episode proved his good heart. Even Greenstreet as the head of the criminal underworld and Rick's business rival accepts to buy him out and keep all the employees, even Yvonne, the French girl who dated a Nazi officer couldn't hide her tears when the Marseillaise was sung. Finally, the heroic nature of Rick Blaine prevailed as he decided to take care of everything, fooling Ilsa, Lazzslo, and Renault, but ultimately getting them in the plane. Renault also redeemed himself by the "Round up the usual suspects" to clear Rick of shooting Major Strasser before he could order to cancel the flight.
Rick, #4 hero in the American Film Institute, explains his decision to Ilsa : "I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world". He's twice wrong. First, Rick is excellent at being noble. Secondly, now that WW2 is over but not "Casablanca"'s legendary status, whether you love old, classic, black and white films or not, you should ask yourself if the problems of three little problems aren't finally the essence of the most beautiful acts that humanity could inspire.