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Numerous films from this semester demonstrate characters that desire to overcome their past but it is especially evident in Casablanca, Citizen Kane and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Whether it is Rick, who spurns all emotions as a defense mechanism, Kane, who unknowingly tries to compensate for his lost childhood, or Joel who wishes to erase the memories of his painful relationship, all films demonstrate the tragic effects of lost love and how these memories affect the lives of the protagonists. In Casablanca, the viewer sees how Isla and Rick originally met in Paris and it was love at first sight. They were full of adventures and did not have a care in the world. Isla and Rick where so in love they planned to flee Paris together …show more content…
Ilsa asks Sam, the piano man, to play she and Rick’s song from Paris and utters “play it once, Sam, for old time’s sake.” Rick comes marching down from his office angrily telling Sam “I thought I told you never to play…” and his eyes meet Ilsa’s for the first time in years. Seeing Ilsa and hearing their song being played causes Rick to relive the memories of their joy and they briefly reconnect. However, Rick is once again thwarted and relives the painful memories of their past. Rick is seen sitting in his empty nightclub after hours, depressed, smoking and downing bourbon. He tells Sam, "She's coming back, I know she's coming back." Distressed over the heartbreaking memories being reactivated, Rick beat his fist on the table, reexperiencing the rejection of Ilsa abandoning …show more content…
Joel and Clementine were very much in love, but their diverse lifestyles drove them apart. Clementine is very adventurous, impulsive while Joel is very mechanical and prefers his routine. Nevertheless, Clementine’s presence in Joel’s life gives him purpose. However, since Clementine and Joel are opposites, their relationship comes to an end. They are both devastated and cannot handle the pain of a broken heart. Clementine decides to go under a procedure to physically erase all memories of their past and upon hearning the news, Joel also decides to undergo the process. This film epitomizes Emerson’s belief, "We house with the insane, and must humor them; then conversation dies out” (Emerson 292). The “humoring” refers to the impulse and lust Clementine and Joel had for one another. “The conversation” dies when Clementine decides to remove Joel from her memory; when can no longer “house the
Casablanca was directed in an era almost entirely dedicated to propaganda, as far as the film industry is concerned. The movie promoted America and the Allies similar to most films of the time, but it did so in a much different manner. The story told in Casablanca follows the main character, Rick, through his personal affairs and love tango with another lead character, Ilsa Lund. The film begins with Rick alone running his saloon based in Casablanca, in which he seems very indifferent to other people’s affairs, and comes off as very exclusive. He is delivered letters of transit by a man named Ugarte, which are nearly priceless to any refugee desiring to flee to the United States or another unoccupied country. Rick continues to act disinterested, reluctantly agreeing to hide the documents. He holds onto them even after Ugarte is killed for having stolen the letters, although there did not seem to be an...
[2] Missing is a rather confusing film to follow at first. Admittedly, I had to view it a few times to understand what was happening. Perhaps the initial feeling after seeing this film is confusion. However, after having watched it a second, fourth, eighth time, what I really felt was anger. Each time I watched the film, the anger and disgust would grow, so much so that it pained me to watch it again. However, in identifying the cause of my anger, I began to realize many things.
Audience members, when seeing Casablanca, would associate it as a war film, and I agree with that, but to be more precise, it is a pro-Allie war film. The literary elements in the film are the reasons why it can be viewed this way, with the emphasis on the plot and characters. The timing of when the film was released also supports the idea of it being an anti Axis film. Although it was set in 1940, it was made a year after Pearl Harbor and America entering the war, but it was released right before the Allies had a meeting in Casablanca, so the filmmakers seemed to have wanted the audience to empathize with the Allies. The whole plot seems to be focused around how Rick is neutral at the beginning of the film, but because of an old flame coming into his life once again, he slowly becomes in favor of the Allie side.
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
During the film Casablanca, there were many occasions where each character had a connection with the other. The entire film seemed to be about a man who is going through multiple complications of reality consequences without informing and information towards his loved one. As you can see in the movie Rick is trying to solve and deal with as many unideal situations for the sake of keeping his partner LSA safe and unaware from the events at all times. The Films shows motivation between him trying to do whats best for him and Llsa who is the partner of Rick shows a high trait of curiosity and awareness. Rick is also a character who moves in and out of hard shadows, often within a frame by himself.
Director Ridley Scott's Postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot be destroyed, because it's destruction leads to silence, must be revisited. So memories and emotions are meaningless without immortality. " Like tears in the rain. " Director Scott has a chilling story to tell, and there is a complex web of allegory and meaning lurking in the background.
Casablanca remains a wonderful film no matter the time difference. Bogart and Bergman’s performance clearly portrays a love that could never be, although they will always keep the love that they had. It is made clear that once married, the spouse has an obligation and responsibility to their significant other forever. The themes of true love’s burdens and responsibilities, a hometown war resistance setting, and the nationalistic view points will ‘stand the length of time.’
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.
Despite not being considered as the traditional ‘hero’s journey’ which is outlined in Joseph Campbell’s argument of ‘separation-initiation-return’, Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine, in the 1942 film Casablanca, can be argued to follow this twelve-step journey. Campbell states “whether the hero be ridiculous or sublime…” (p.38), on this basis, Rick Blaine qualifies as a hero. These twelve steps are: Ordinary World; Call to Adventure/Disruption; Refusal of the Call; Meeting with the Mentor; Crossing the First Threshold; Tests, Allies, and Enemies; Approach to the Inmost Cave; Ordeal; Reward; The Road Back; The Resurrection; and Return with the Elixir. Although in some parts stages may overlap, this essay aims to argue that Casablanca still
The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind focuses on the interesting topic of memory. The film follows two main characters, Joel and Clementine, who have both chosen to erase part of their memory. What both characters, and other characters in the movie, find out though is that our memory is complex and very flexible to what we make of it. The film reflects the tendency that we have as humans, to think that we are in control of our memory. The truth is that our memory is not like a video tape of the events in our lives nor is it a library of the knowledge we have collected. As I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think; our memory is more like a ball of clay. Our minds can take the clay and make it into a shape and we can stare at that shape and know that shape but our minds will play with that clay and mold it into something different eventually. The idea portrayed in the movie is that no memory is safe from our meddling minds.
Perhaps an even stronger testament to the deepness of cinema is Darren Aronofsky’s stark, somber Requiem for a Dream. Centering on the drug-induced debasement of four individuals searching for the abstract concept known as happiness, Requiem for a Dream brims with verisimilitude and intensity. The picture’s harrowing depiction of the characters’ precipitous fall into the abyss has, in turn, fascinated and appalled, yet its frank, uncompromising approach leaves an indelible imprint in the minds of young and old alike.
Ingrid coming to Casablanca is the past catching up to rick as he remembers the love they used
Citizen Kane expounds how an overreaching ambition for power can corrupt previous altruistic motives to inevitably lead to an individual’s moral degradation. Welles reveals the flaws of the idealised 20th century American Dream, where the increased focus on
Essentially, memories are compositions of fiction, crafted from selected representations of experiences, both authentic and invented. Even further, they serve to provide a sort of framework for creating meaning, value and purpose in one’s life. However, in Beloved, memory is represented as a dangerous and debilitating facility of the sensitive and penetrable human consciousness. The main
A deeply complex relationship forms out of differences and similarities within both Joel and Clementine. Arising out of these differences are hidden details slowly revealed by the Gondry. Stylistically Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind contains many time distortions, where backgrounds and characters on screen are being erased. Relationships, as well as happiness start to dissipate as the film progresses. Enduring questions form debate, about whether happiness develops a healthy committed relationship or does a committed relationship develop happiness? Is an erased relationship better than remembering the past? How can one learn and move forward, if he or she removes their past from knowledge. Is Joel and Clementine meant to be together or are they actually making the same mistake