Essay On Casablanca

Memory in Casablanca: A Scene Analysis

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

entirely as a process of Rick’s individualised memory is limiting. The film has also to be considered in its context as a propaganda film. Thus the sequence takes on a deeper political subtext. As well as exploring Rick’s nostalgic remembrance of his love for Ilsa, the film also shows a larger cultural memory of a nationalistic past. The flashback sequence then must be considered as both a representation of Rick’s memory and a larger national and cultural memory of the past.

Firstly it is important to consider Casablanca on its surface as a character driven narrative film.

Under that context the flashback seeks to portray Rick’s overly nostalgic memory of his relationship with Ilsa. The film immediately establishes Rick’s perspective formally through a slow zoom into a close up of Rick’s face centralising him as the focal point of the flashback. Before informing us that we are entering into Rick’s memory of the past with a dissolve and swell of music. Immediately the stark contrast between the mise en scène of the flashback and the present suggests we are being presented with Rick’s subjectified memory of the past. The scene loses some of the film’s more noir aesthetics: gone are the chiaroscuro lighting, and a frame dominated by darkness. Instead the aesthetic becomes far lighter and much more romantic and happy. The image now glows with lightness, that almost comes off as a bit cheesy and unrealistic. The contrast between this aesthetic and the dark and gritty aesthetic of the the present sets up that we have entered Rick’s romanticised remembrance of the past, away from the realism of the present. This informs us that Rick has fond memories of this period, as a period of genuine happiness coupled with his ardent love for Ilsa. This is strengthened throughout the sequence with a montage of idyllic shots—that mirror postcard images—of the couple being happy, and loving each other. This happiness is expressed through performance, Humphrey

Bogart's quintessential persona of a jaded, hard edged anti hero is replaced with an atypical portrayal of a very happy and romantic man, who is constantly smiling and being playful. Yet this character takes a sharp turn at the end of the flashback sequence, when Ilsa abandons him Boggart returns to his more typical character type as indicated through a change to a more Noirish costume of a trenchcoat and hat, and Boggart’s performance returns to sternness and solemnity. The mise en scène also shifts, it is no longer bright and sunny but dark, rainy and thundering. Everything becomes much more frantic inside the frame, compared to the earlier scenes of carefree happiness. This change in mise en scène represents Rick’s change in memory. The film states that Rick remembers these final moments without the romanticism of earlier. The flashback ends with foreboding music as the frame is covered with fog and steam, creating a much more uncertain and melancholy transition into the present than the bright glow and sweeping romantic music that transitioned us into the flashback. This asserts Rick’s changing relationship towards his own past and memory. Overall this not only shows that memory is focalised primarily through individual characters and their perspective of the past. But how the flashback as an agent of memory in the classical style serves a particular narrative function, in elucidating information about the characters past that are relevant to the current plot. In Casablanca this is done to show Rick’s change in character, establishing how he has developed into the persona that we see in the present.

Despite the importance of this character based analysis of memory in Casablanca, it is integral to consider on top of that the subtext of how memory operates in the sequence. As a propaganda film the memory in Casablanca serves certain political agendas. This is related to how it portrays the past, through national and cultural memory. The nostalgic view of the past seen in the flashback is a way of idealising pre occupied France’s nation and culture. The film establishes this focus through its use of music. As we enter the flashback we hear a quotation of the French National Anthem (La Marseillaise): a leitmotif used throughout the film to symbolise French nationalism and pride. This is strengthened as the camera focuses on a symbol of French culture and triumphalism, as the Arc de Triomphe occupies the centre of the frame. Throughout the flashback sequence particular focus is put on pertinent symbols of the French nation and culture, through the film’s setting and costuming. We see a short moment, in which Ilsa and Rick are taking a boat ride down the Seine, with a French flag waving behind them, and the Eiffel Tower in the background, in which a man in a stereotypically French striped shirt and beret walks past. It is images like these—that are exuding a stereotyped Frenchness—that help cultivate a particular image of French identity and frame that image as an ideal. The film’s political agenda in framing its memory of preoccupied France in this way, is that it wants to portray an ideal France that was lost and destroyed by the invading and occupying Germans. The German invasion in the sequence is portrayed through stock historical footage. This brings a sense of historical realism to an overwise romanticised remembrance of the past. This helps bring this threat of German invasion and occupation out of the film and into a real world context. The Germans as well are instantly antagonised in the sequence. This is expressed with clarity through the use of music. Exemplified when the Gestapo are introduced in Paris with a burst of ominous and villainous music. By remembering the Germans as evil and occupiers the film is setting them up in opposition with the French and enemies of the nation of France. The film also propagates a resistance narrative, in its remembrance of the German occupation. It portrays the French people as resistant and strongly opposed to German occupation. This idea of French resistance is embodied in the line “he would water his garden with champagne before he lets the Germans drink it.” this paints a very clear patriotic and propagandic image of the Germans as antagonists and opposers to the French, who need to be actively fought against and resisted by the French in order to preserve the ideal French nation. Ultimately this proves that the flashback sequence is reflective of a cultural and national memory of France’s past. That attempts to create a clear propagandic didacticism of France as a strong individualised nation, that is resistant and actively fighting against German occupation, which is portrayed as invasive and destructive to this idealised memory of France.

Conclusively it is important to consider both Casablanca’s context as a Classical Hollywood Narrative film as well as a propagandic film when considering its use of memory.

As a Classical style film it approaches memory primarily through the flashback form. Which focalises its memory to the perspective of one individual character, in order to serve the function of a character driven narrative. Thus memory is subjected through the perception of the individual character, and represents their remembrance of the past. Yet it also serves the larger narrative in revealing key plot points that inform our understanding of this character and their relationship with the past. Yet it is myopic to consider Casablanca’s treatment of memory solely through the guise of its character and narrative. The film’s portrayal of memory also serves its own ideological project. Which is an attempted to create a designed memory of the past, to influence present attitudes. The film taps into a larger cultural and political memory of the French nation. Creating an ideal of French identity that was threatened by German occupation, in order to inspire people to fight against this enemy and restore this version of France. It also taps into France’s resistance myth, as it remembers the French people as resistant and antagonistic towards the Germans. Overall this proves that memory operates on both a personal and political level in Casablanca’s flashback

sequence.

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