The Use Of Editing Techniques In Casablanca

972 Words2 Pages

The way that a movie is pieced together by the director/producers has a huge impact on the viewer’s experience. Stylistic elements are used to help engage the viewer; however, without these techniques the viewer will most likely loose interest. In this essay I will be taking a look at a scene within the movie Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942. Casablanca is a classic film that is reviewed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. This could be due to the notable quotes used throughout the movie, or its ability to follow a historic, comical, and romantic storyline throughout the course of the film. It caters to several different viewers, making this movie favorable to many. This scene in Casablanca uses specific editing techniques …show more content…

Casablanca has several important stylistic elements which I will further look into.
The way you edit a clip can drastically change the way one perceives it. If you edit it one way, you may be able to bring about feelings of love and affection. Yet, if you edit it slightly different, you could bring about feelings of fear or suspicion. The quick cuts in the movie Casablanca are able to help the audience observe the tension that exist between Ilsa and Rick. “Close-ups are much more dramatic than long or medium shots. They are preferred when emphasizing someone’s emotion (Moura, 2014).” Casablanca often used close up shots in order to highlight intense/emotional moments between characters. …show more content…

Music is played almost constantly throughout the movie, as it helped to guide the narration as well. Casablanca was part of the sound era, which occurred from the 1930’s- present day. There are a few different elements of sound throughout the film, but I will be focusing on the occurrence of leitmotif. The leitmotif technique is a short, constantly recurring sound that is often associated with a specific person, or place. An example of a leitmotif can be found in the movie Casablanca. We constantly hear the song ‘As Time Goes By’ being played throughout the movie. The first time we hear the song is in the given scene chosen for us. In shot 7, Ilsa asks Sam to play ‘As Time Goes By’ for her on the piano. Later Rick hears the song, and as he goes to stop Sam from playing it, he realizes that Ilsa is there. From then on, the song is played almost every time that Rick and Ilsa are together. The only time that the song is not played is when Rick and Ilsa are arguing. When it comes to the overall music throughout the scene we see that the beginning has calm and relaxed music. Yet, this changes when Rick and Ilsa see each other for the first time. There is a lot of built up tension, and so the music picks up. In shot 17 we begin to hear the sound of violins rapidly playing. The music played in this moment is used to help highlight this intense moment between Rick and Ilsa. The scenes music changes from calm and

Show More
Related

  • Masculinity And Nationalism In Casablanca Analysis

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the essay “Beautiful Friendship: Masculinity & Nationalism in Casablanca”, Peter Kunze lavishly explains the magnificence of Michael Curtiz’s 1942 film Casablanca. Kunze focuses on how the movie not only highlights an exchange of relationships, but how the film has an underlying meaning between these relationships. He also implies that there is a more complex meaning behind every character in regards to their gender, economic, and social roles. The overall thesis of his reading is “the patriarchal ideology underlying the narrative commodifies Ilsa, leading Rick to exchange her with other men in an act of friendship and solidarity as well as to dissuade any perception of queerness between the strong male friendships in the narrative” (Kunze

    Read More

  • The 1942 Movie Casablanca: Humphrey Bogart

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...o survive and flee the inevitable evil. With World War II raging, viewers in the United States could feel the fear and anxieties as well as compassion for the characters. Although some movies can be rewritten to obtain a better effect over the viewers, Casablanca cannot be redone. The mere fact that the evil of the day was a reality of the time prevents this movie from ever having the same effect on the audience.

    Read More

  • Musical Analysis Of Casablanca

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing Marlow of Heart of Darkness and Willard of Apocalypse Now

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.

    Read More

  • What Makes Casablanca a Classic Movie?

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Casablanca

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    Casablanca is a great American film whose movie stories continuous to inspire us. It is the ultimate classic movie, which is created prior to its time. This film is wartime movie, which is shot during World War Two. Casablanca is French occupied land in Morocco, North Africa, which is also called the city of hope to many European refugees in order to escape to the free land of America. However, during that time, there was a strong political tension between the Nazi and the Anti-Nazi allies, which was the source for prejudice, crime, and bribe that hold the refugees back from escaping to the secure land of the United States. The political conflict, the scene of refugees, the story of everlasting love, the smoky environment, and the small

    Read More

  • Use Of Lighting In Casablanca

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    The classic movie Casablanca masterfully uses lighting to shape the message of the film. The Nazi controlled city of Casablanca, Monaco is holding international citizens hostage, not allowing anyone to leave. The entire city is full of temperate refugees, mostly consisting of wealthy international travelers. The film’s lighting shows a city overcast with impossibly dark and dynamic shadows. The shadows from window blinds are cast over the main characters faces in several scenes as they talk secretly in a private room. The shadows stretch like prison bars across the actors face, representing how hopelessly trapped they are, hoping for a way to escape. The character Rich was a bright idealist turned into a cynic by the brutality of reality. He chooses to stay

    Read More

  • Sacrifice In Humphrey Bogart's Casablanca

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Few movies in today's day and age display prominent themes of love and sacrifice that classic films were able to capture so flawlessly. Films such as Casablanca, by Michael Curtiz, were able to captivate their audiences with their array of magnificent actors and sublime cinematography that not only leave their viewers in awe, but also make them contemplate the world around them in a different manner. Actor Humphrey Bogart, who stars as Rick Blaine, an equivocal night club owner in the film, and actors Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, Ilsa and Victor, are key components of what made this film into a classic. Through the acting of this film, its music, and its use of lighting, Casablanca is easily amongst the most notable classics films of American

    Read More

  • Mise A Scene In The Royal Tenenbaums

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    For this assignment I have chosen to analyze a scene from the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by West Anderson, where Richie Tenembaum, portrayed by Luke Wilson, attempts to commit suicide. This scene provides a shift from the previously established editing style of the film, its mood, pace, and camera movement as the filmmaker presents the climax in this one character’s story. This is done through the use of a specific mise en scène and an editing style which conveys the emotion behind the character’s actions.

    Read More

  • Casablanca

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout history, the film industry has seen many directing styles and techniques. The early part of the 20th century saw a factory style of film production, but as the years went by, director's began to employ new and untried techniques in their pictures. One such technique which these director's implemented was a new approach to the use of the camera and camera angles. "Casablanca," an Academy Award winning film of 1942 saw director Michael Curtiz manipulate the camera in ways others had not. He uses the close-up, point-of- view, and creative shot motivation methods in his film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, to create an American cinema classic.

    Read More

  • Essay On Casablanca

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    The film Casablanca (1942) is an epitome of the Hollywood studio system, thus its depiction of memory follows the classical style. This means that memory is primarily displayed through the form of the flashback. Another feature of the Classical Hollywood style is its character centric narratives, meaning the flashback is usually focalised through an individual characters perspective. This is true in Casablanca during the flashback sequence, in which we see Rick (Humphrey Bogart) remembering his past with Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). In the scene Rick’s remembrance of the past is subjected through his perception. Which is shown cinematically through the film’s mise en scène. Yet to view this flashback sequence

    Read More

  • Outlaw Heroes in Literature

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Creative Process in Film

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    With this short but very interesting and informative class I have just scratched the surface of the what it takes to make a full fleged film. It takes much more than I had presumed to make a movie in Hollywood. The number of people that it takes to make a minute of a movie let alone the entire movie was astonishing to me. There are many things that it takes to start making a movie but without an idea of some sort there is no movie to be made.

    Read More

  • Love And War In Casablanca

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Casablanca takes place during war in a past time. The main character Rick takes on the role as the ideal American gentlemen; manly, stoic, ethical, and kind. Naturally playing the role as past war affiliated man running a joint in the most unlikely of places. The story itself is that of a classic love story filled with tragic past and sticky situations. However, it is much more than a basic love story with a complicated ending; and a subtext within that represents America’s situation in World War II. Casablanca represents classical American cinema with a lost love, a happy ending, and going as far to represent America itself.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Editing in Films

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Film editing by definition is part of the creative postproduction process of filmmaking. In today’s modern world, film has made use of advanced digital technology to help with the editing. The editor or editors are usually given a complete compilation of all the footage. These various separate shots that can be regarded as ‘ raw’ footage. Their task is to create a finished motion picture through combining and selecting shots and putting them into a coherent sequence of events. Whenever we are viewing a film it is extremely difficult to consciously perceive all the editing that has been undertaken. Every single time there is a change from one image to another, this is an edit. For editors, it could be a possible annoyance or perhaps a blessing that critics and the audience never specifically point out the editor’s contribution. However it must be noted that film editors aren’t the only ones that will contribute to a films editing.

    Read More

More about The Use Of Editing Techniques In Casablanca

Open Document