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Themes in Casablanca analysis
Themes in Casablanca analysis
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Casablanca is the most romantic movie all the time. Casablanca movie was set in Casablanca during World War II and directed by Michael Curtiz. The movie has three main characters are Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Casablanca is a romantic movie in which because of love, Rick helps Ilsa and Laszlo escape Casablanca. It is a love story between Rick and Ilsa. Well, love is defined in many ways. “Love is usually explained as an intense feeling or emotion of deep affection, attachment, and devotion.” “Love is a passionate feeling, emanating from heart and soul, which ennobles men and glorifies women.” In fact, love is hard to define accurately. Everybody has their own explanation about love through their experiences. In this movie, the story of Rick and Ilsa illustrates how a true love is. Love is not about caring each other but also about sacrifice. In this movie, love is illustrated as the scene of spending time together, the promise and wait, and sacrifice.
First of all, based on the romance scenes of spending time together of Rick and Ilsa, Casablanca is considered as a
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In fact, love is all about sacrifice. As Umberto Eco singled out sacrifice as one of the film’s key themes: “the myth of sacrifice runs through the film.” The statement is totally true. Because of loving Laszlo and helping her husband, Ilsa came to Rick’s apartment seeking for help. She pulled out the gun to force Rick giving her the transit letter. She knew that Rick would never give it to her. She pretended that she were still in loved with him. Because of loving Ilsa, Rick tricked Renault to help Ilsa and Laszlo escape Casablanca. Based on the action of Rick and Ilsa, we could see that sacrifice absolutely presents in love. In general, sacrifice is an important thing and indispensable. It is also key themes of the movie and runs through the
The body of Kunze’s essay is broke down by the “three triangulations of desire” and these relationships are dissected to support Kunze’s argument. He elaborates on the importance of Rick, Ilsa, and Sam; Rick, Ilsa, and Victor; and what he believes is most important Rick, Ilsa, and Renault. He uses resources such as Kosofsky Sedgwick’s work on homosocial male desire to support his own argument that Casablanca “accurately depicts the emotional complexity of male friendships and the reductive role of women in these fraternal bonds not only to fulfill the film’s admittedly propagandistic goals, but as an inadvertent testament to gender dynamics in a power structure organized around male power and interactions” (Kunze pg.20). Using Sedgwick’s work as a model, Kunze constructs this erotic triangle between each group of characters mentioned above. Kunze examines each relationship and believes it serves as a sensitive register. Kunze explains that there is more power and meaning that the general content. Utilizing Sedgwick 's model, Kunze suggest that the viewer can see the “complexity of Rick 's interactions with Sam, with Victor, and with Captain Renault—each of whom represents different levels of homosocial desire, all trumping Rick 's love and respect for Ilsa” (Kunze pg.21). Throughout the body of the
In the film Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, a clear juxtaposition exists between Rick and America. Despite Rick’s numerous similarities to America and his deep longing to be part of the country, a physical and psychological barrier separates the two. With America practically being on the opposite end of the world, Rick understands that he cannot abandon his responsibility to aid and influence others in Casablanca. Rick is willing to sacrifice his personal comfort and well-being for the greater good of society. This juxtaposition between America and Rick foreshadows that the United States would soon become involved in the war by overtly displaying Rick’s transformation when he confronts his troubled past.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao focuses on gender and the role gender has on the characters lives. The characters of this book are also one way or another impacted by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. The major themes of this book were topics we have focused in class. The themes of machismo and the effects of Rafael Trujillo affected the latino population even in the United States.
Throughout the book Watership Down there are many themes spanning the entire book, but three main themes stand out. These themes are home, leadership, and nature. The idea of home comes up again and again as the rabbits are trying to find a new home going place to place running from danger as well as finding what appeared to be a home only to find out its true horrors. Leadership is also another big theme as it shifts between the rabbits in the group as well as being stressed in the different warren they come across with varying levels of how it's enforced. Finally, there is a theme of nature. Throughout the book there is a constant battle of natural verses unnatural, the battle of prey and predator, and how rabbits should be in the
The city of Casablanca is a bleak place full of hardship and full of people that are tied down. These people look for an escape that can set their mind on a different path. Rick’s Cafe Americain reflects that place to visit that can set the people’s minds free. Specifically, there rests a piano that can turn the minds of the people away so that they can feel free and have an enjoyable time at the cafe. With this, the cafe and piano give the people a sense of living a normal life. In the movie, Casablanca, Sam’s piano resembles a symbol that not only resembles a sense of enjoyment and freedom, but helps establish a connection to the past of Rick and Ilsa.
Popular music’s affect on a film’s narrative is demonstrated in the film Casablanca released in 1942. The film uses a song called “As Time Goes By” to create a transportation affect for the characters and audience. The song was written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931 and gained modest popularity through its inclusion in the Broadway musical Everybody’s Welcome. In Casablanca, there is a scene inside a restaurant where a woman, Ilsa, runs into an old friend of hers named Sam who is a pianist at the restaurant. She asks him about a mutual friend of theirs, Rick, and then asks Sam to play the song “As Time Goes By.” By the expression on Ilsa’s face and the tears in her eyes it is clear that the song makes her see something, however, the audience does not know what she is seeing. In his chapter on “Transport and Transportation in Audiovisual Memory,” Berthold Hoeckner describes how the audience knows “the song is a carrier, but we don’t know the cargo.” But as the audience listens to the lyrics of the song, they begin to understand the scene as they realize that the lyrics are about an old romance. While Sam is singing Rick enters the room and both Rick and Ilsa meet eyes and both freeze. At this point the audience assumes that the song was about Rick and Isla’s history.
When Rick is forced with the decision of what to do with the letters of transit Rick speaks with Ilsa and Ilsa asks Rick to think for both of them and make the decision. In the end, Rick sacrifices himself for the happiness of Ilsa and Victor as well as the war against Germany. He risks his own life for others even though he is quoted as saying, “I stick my neck out for nobody” and, “I’m the only cause I’m interested in.” This is an endearing quality. Women want to be Ilsa, and dream of loving a man like Rick.
...t it is clearly obvious what is about to happen using an establishing shot. Casablanca also uses camera angle specifically portraying Captain Renault and Strasser as less powerful people in the office scene. Editing allows for smooth transitions between shots and allows for us as viewers to experience the scene like we are seeing through the characters eyes. Lighting provides us a mood of the scene, specifically when Rick first sees Ilsa for the first time since Paris. The Music plays a role in how we as audiences should feel while watching the movie. And without production design movies would not flow correctly. Every setting is specifically chosen to depict the location where the scene takes place. Casablanca is a quintessential film because it ties up all the formal elements of classical Hollywood. Without this movie Hollywood may be a completely different place.
From the lavish mansions of Hollywood stars to the cigarette smoke filled offices of broke screenwriters, the 1950 noir movie Sunset Boulevard remains a timeless classic with a stunning story of an actress gone mad, and a screenwriter just trying to squeak by. This film is the first pre-1960’s flick that has left me with a feeling of awe. The first word that comes to mind after the credits begin to roll is just“wow!”. I was struck by the intriguing plotline and brilliant execution of the story. Not only is the film a classic for its gripping story, and twisted power dynamics, it also shows amazing camera work and brilliant acting.
Ingrid coming to Casablanca is the past catching up to rick as he remembers the love they used
Robert B. Ray categorizes Casablanca as "the most typical" American film. Ray uses Casablanca as a tutor text for what he calls the formal paradigm of Classical Hollywood as well as the thematic paradigm that addresses the conflict between isolationism and communitarian participation. The film is typical in its appropriation of an official hero Laszlo, who stands for the civilizing values of home and community, and an outlaw hero Rick, who stands for individu...
“ It’s crazy, all that blood and violence. I thought you were supposed to be the love generation”. Conservative mother, Estelle Collingwood says to her daughter Mari in the beginning of Wes Craven’s cult classic The Last House on the Left (1972). With the war in Vietnam in full swing and the long term effects of the Manson family murders, the peace and love counter culture was at the end of an era. American society had become more violent and corrupt, as were the films Hollywood was starting to release. And with the new generation’s style of filmmaking and recent MPAA rating system, filmmakers were pushing the boundaries of their films and shocking audiences and critics to the core. With new filmmakers kicking down the door of Hollywood every year, it’s no surprise that soon-to-be horror icon Wes Craven would fit perfectly into the new generation of Hollywood. Craven’s early films fall into the exploitation category. They were severely gruesome, repulsive, appalling, and ended up being banned in several countries. Craven would go on to make films that reflect on contemporary society by using a number of recurring themes and formal filmmaking aesthetics that included:
Even more so in 1950s Hollywood where most things are dramatized. Rick’s gender role in masculinity is the very definition of the word; acquiring strength, independence, being a risk taker, logical, and even rejecting weakness until confronted by Ilsa. While, Ilsa takes the role of being more feminine by caring for looks, focusing on her relationship, and being weak in a way where she needs to be comforted by a male counterpart. Casablanca like most Hollywood films, expresses the ideal gender roles of 1950s and give text book examples of gender roles whether it is biological or deprived from society expectations. Gender playing a part in the characters personality and
Once a criminal, not always a criminal. In the novel The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, there is a great deal of self-reflection amongst the characters. The human characters do not comprehend that their story is a pure reflection to the rats. Two characters in the book with similar stories are Roscuro the rat and the new prisoner in the dungeon. These two characters are alike in the sense that they both had a reason to look back, they were living in darkness, and they had consequences happen to others for their mistakes.
Love is a word that’s been both miss-used and over-used all at once. Romantic movies change our definition of and have a big impact on this definition greatly. There have been many movies and novels made over love, but never like this. “The Notebook” is a love story about unconditional love that two people have for each other. This emotionally, heart touching story will have your eyes blood-shot and burning from you not wanting to blink your eyes. This tremendously wonderful love story will have you not wanting to even miss a millisecond of this heart throbbing film. With many plot twists and many scenes that will have you falling off of your seat and you not having any nails by the end of the movie, this is the movie for you. This emotionally rich film is full of action, laughter, and romance, which is the perfect trio combination. This movie shows us how love can bind us together forever. This film went above and