Casablanca Film Analysis

The Epstein brothers created Casablanca, one of America’s best classic films revolving around romance and drama. Written and set during World War 2, it encompasses the nature of people distancing themselves far away from the conflict. This film was a political statement to American citizens who are neutral about the war after Pearl Harbor being bombed as a way of getting viewers to oppose the Nazis, and have more men enlist in the army to fight for their country. The protagonist Rick Blaine owns a bar in Casablanca, Morocco where it is a melting pot for all nationalities and soldiers both Allies and Axis forces. One night, Rick sees his former lover Ilsa accompanying her husband who the Nazi’s are chasing after due to him escaping a concentration

camp. The drama that forms from this encounter displayed the eloquence of Michael Curtiz’s style of directing. Curtiz used a classic Hollywood style such as lighting, mise-en-scène, and different styles of editing to have the audience get attached to the characters and the story and enhance the feeling of the emotion and drama throughout the film.
The way that Curtiz implemented lighting in the film added more to the drama than not implementing it at all.

During the scene where Rick was reflecting on his memories of Ilda, the usage of low-key lighting displayed Rick’s emotions without having to describe it with dialogue. With having little light in the frame symbolizes to the viewer that Rick is having feelings of sadness with from the light reflecting on his forehead showing his furrowed brow, and that he is staring at his drink to forget what is bothering him. The low-key lighting is to represent sorrow and sadness, whereas high-key lighting is to represent happiness and hope which the film also displays. Another scene that used low-key lighting was the confrontation Rick and Ilda had where Rick insults her. In the scene, it is very dark and has many shadows to represent the internal sadness he still feels towards her when she left him in Paris. The flashback screen involving Rick and Ilda implements high-key lighting symbolizing to viewers to a time where Rick was his happiest because he was with the love of his life. The scene itself is the two planning out their future together, and with the lighting of the scene highlighting them both lets the viewer feel a sense of hope that their relationship will work out at the end of the movie. Not only did the director implement lighting style towards the main characters, but also implemented for minor

characters.
However, there is a difference in presentation of lighting depending of the gender of the character. Males were presented with natural lighting, and females were presented with softer lighting. With the conversation between Ilda and Sam in the club shows how the women in the film had softer lighting on them in comparison to their male counterparts, for Sam had natural lighting on him. Even though they were across from one another, there were different styles of lighting on each of them. Giving women softer lighting enhances their beauty, and gives their face a glowing aura. This is to make the women’s beauty more prevalent due to the movie being in black in white, and not being able to see the color of the makeup on Ilda.
What makes this movie a classic Hollywood film is three-point lighting that was present for the majority of the film. The lighting for each scene with dialogue had most of the light coming from the key and back, with the fill light adding the shadows to convey drama. This is apparent at the beginning in the movie when Rick meets with Captain Louis Renault. The lighting is coming from the back and key, and the fill is putting a slight shadow on them to make their interaction the focal point of the scene. As they are talking two men walk up and the lighting of the scene lightly illuminated them symbolizing that they were not important for the scene. Star lighting was another style that Curtiz utilized in the film. This style of the main characters gave them an outlet to accentuate their skills as actors, convey emotion, and enhance their appearance toward the audience. Since this film was in black and white, they used star lighting, as a way to signify importance of the scene, whereas in contemporary films they use close ups and dramatic zooms.
Lighting alone does not make a film, using different camera angles make up what makes a movie memorable and add emotion.

The film had mid-shots, closeups, and the 180-degree rule. When two or more characters were having a conversation, there would be a mid-angle shot on the characters at first, then turn into using the 180-degree rule. The significance of this style makes the dialogue flow by showing each character involved in the scene, and how they react to what was said. That style keeps the viewers engaged to what is going on in the scenes, and can see the different points of views of everyone in the scene. This is apparent in the scene where Rick was talking with insert dude’s name here up in his

office.
Casablanca is an example of the classic Hollywood style of movies, as well as propaganda to get United State citizens who were neutral about the war to start having views that opposed the Axis forces. The usage of lighting and camera angles displayed the emotions and drama present throughout the film to enhance the significance of each scene to viewers. The low-key lighting displays the sorrow and depressed thoughts of a character without having to explicitly describe it, in contrast high-key lighting does the opposite where it displays happiness, hope, and love of a character. Star lighting and three-point lighting directs the focus of the viewer to the characters in that lighting that they are the primary focus on the scene, and that viewers are paying attention to them. Though the lighting seemed to be equal to all characters, men were presented with natural lighting, and women were presented with softer lighting. Having gendered lighting styles enhances the masculinity of men, and the beauty and femininity of women.