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Casablanca movie theme
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Behind the Piano 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. All the folks that were put in the city of Casablanca wait until they …show more content…
Music is constantly playing and it lightens the crowd to dance and sing. The piano produces sounds that can only make a room full of people forget everything and just make the night one of the best. One instance occurs in the movie when the music stops due to the arrest of Ugarte. When the music ceases, the people quit their fun to focus on Strasser. Then after a bit, the music resumes and the people do as well. A second instance, occurs when the Germans sing their prideful anthem because Sam had stopped playing. Then Mr. Laslow gets the people together to return the cafe back to its normal state. Mr. Laslow gets the crowd to sing “La Marseillaise”. The Germans quit their singing due to the overwhelming strength of the crowd to take the cafe’s normal tone …show more content…
The song “As Time Goes By”, plays a specific role in connecting the past of Rick and Ilsa in Paris. The first time Ilsa walks into Rick’s cafe she asks Sam to play that very song. Sam at first seems hesitant because he knows the pain the song can put on Rick. The song brings him back to when they were happily in love, and the pain he felt when she didn’t show up at the train station. Just like the other guests, Rick tries to forget that pain by trying to never hear that song again. Sam eventually decides to play the song, and it turns out for the best. Rick even though remembering the hurtful past experiences, remembers the good ones as well. They eventually become reacquainted with each other. This allows Rick to keep his life moving because when Ilsa ditched him, he has been in halted state. Now that Rick had his life back up and running, he could setout to be the hero depicted towards the end of 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...
To Berniece, Boy Willie, and Doaker, the piano means different things. To Berniece, the piano acts as a piece of her ancestors, and whenever she uses it, she can sense her deceased family who used it in the past. To Boy Willie, it represents just a piece of property that can be sold to collect more money for the family. Lastly, to Doaker, the piano exists as a piano that is both good and bad for the family, but still has to be kept based on the history inside of it. The piano to him portrays itself as an instrument that is good and bad for the family, but they have to keep it because it is an artifact. Although they all have different thoughts on the piano, Berniece, Boy Willie, and Doaker can all agree on one thing: the piano is an artifact of family history.
The setting of the story is surprising. It is a little tavern on a Caribbean island. The Little Heidleberg is a place full of improvisations and the unexpected. In this tropical area resides a place with walls decorated with “bucolic scenes of country life in the Alps…” (Allende, 174). Mango and guava are used in strudel due to the absence of apples. The musicians are clad in “lederhosen, woolen knee socks, Tyrolean suspenders, and fel...
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
The film Casablanca, indeed, involves problems that Rick faced and he finally solved that problem, ending in a satisfying way. Risk’s equilibrium is disrupted when he is going to leave Paris with his girl friend Ilsa because Ilsa doesn’t showed up at last. Risk becomes a boss of a cafe in Casablanca but he never imagines that he would encounter Ilsa again. Ilsa walks into Risk’s life again by accident when she is planing to get a letter of transit in Casablanca in order to escape to America with her husband. At the same time, Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca and tries to stop Ilsa’s husband from leaving Casablanca. Risk’s equlibrium is disrupted again. Risk still loves and hates Ilsa, and moreover, he gets the letter of transit. Even though Risk wanted to stay with Ilsa and let her husband go to America alone, Risk finally let Ilsa and her husband go and killed the Nazi Major Strasser. That is a satisfying ending.
As an aside, I think the party music opened with the same piece played at the bar in the Battle of Algiers bombing scene. Battle of Algiers was made years later so it probably was a coincidental connection, both just played a popular dance song, but the sound of the music accompanied by a visual of young French people dancing in a colonial setting made me think immediatly that the party was going to end up no where good.
It holds such power over captives and captors alike that they cannot help but feel enamoured to the life it brings. Cesar especially feels the beauty of music “Oh, how he loved to hear the words in his mouth… It didn't matter that he didn't understand the language, he knew what it meant. The words and music fused together and became a part of him” and through music, he discovers his latent talent for singing (224). Based only on Roxanne’s previous arias, Cesar’s potential is outstandingly bright when he sings for the first time without any training whatsoever. Not only do the others learn to appreciate his gift, but Roxanne herself recognizes how promising he is or she would not have bothered to waste her time tutoring him. Beforehand, Cesar is nothing remarkable, just another one of the terrorists who detains them, but the opera transforms him into a separate person. Like the mansion enveloped in the garua, Cesar is heavily shrouded by serious self-esteem issues and fear, but after his breakthrough, his worries suddenly disappear and his life becomes a reservoir of joy. If “life, true life, was something stored in music”, then Cesar has lived a deprived life; his passion for music was just unfolding, but fate robs the world of who “was meant to be the greatest singer of his time” (5,
In Porgy, one function of music is to tie together emotional and intellectual states. At some points, music allows the intellect of the reader to be engaged with the emotions of the characters (or vice versa); at some points, music causes the intellect of characters to give in to their emotions; at some points, it encourages them to elevate their mood either by finding external reasons to be happy or simply though cohesiveness within a community. The use of music allows for a deeper understanding of the characters, what they are going through, why they act the way they do, and what it means to be part of a community.
It offers a romantic vision of dingy life(referring to the not so perfect world they live in). The mix of characters demonstrates the way that New Orleans has changed to other southern American cities. It was originally a catholic settlement while most southern cities were protestant The music of the blue piano is cleverly used in the background to portray to feel of changing life throughout the city, while seemingly also reacting to the changing moods in the play through hate and anger of Blanche’s arguments with Stanley to love and forgiveness when Blanche arrives to stay with Stella. I feel it is also used to take the sting out of the feel of poverty.
In the Piano Lesson the main symbol is the piano in Berniece’s home. The piano has a lot of meaning behind it and has been through a lot. This piano has made it all the way from the South to the North, which wasn’t easy. Berniece brought the piano miles from where it was because it meant so much to her. The carvings on this piano are magnificent they represent all of her ancestors. The blood and sweat that were put into making this piano means so much more than just something you play is amazing: “ Willie Boy carved all this. He got a picture of his mama… Mamma Esther… and his daddy, Boy Charles. He got all kinds of things that happened with our family” (1183). Instead of carving what Sutter asked he made the whole piano about the history of his family. After the carving was done, the piano became a monument to his family’s
The piano held symbolic significance in the story of the family and their struggle to move forward. The piano represents the importance and value of slaves during slavery. Slaves were traded for objects during slavery. Slaves were of no importance to their slave owners. As Doaker says in the story “now she had her piano and her niggas too”, meaning slaves were nothing more than an accessory to their slave owners (Wilson 395). Doaker sarcastically speaks of how slaves were not considered humans but property. As Sandy Alexandre states in her work, “Property and Inheritance in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson”, “Doaker sees greed where there should be something like repulsion or at least a semblance of hesitation to accept such an ill-begotten gift”(77). Alexandre argues slaves are not given the proper respect and are not considered equal. This specific event from the story shows how little to ...
The patrons of the café, though, did not always ask the musician to stop playing his music. At one point, the narrator has to speed up a piece to hear news about his brother, Henryk.
... music to set the mood. When times were depressing, there would be dark and sad music playing. One example is when Tom accidently broke one of Laura’s glass figures. Laura was astonished and disappointed which made Tom feel horrible. Another example was when Laura and Mr. O’Connor were dancing, there was waltz music playing.
When the plays begins, we are introduced to the “Blue Piano”. It represents the spirit of life (page 3) in the setting. We see the music have a great impact during Stella’s and Blanche’s conversation about Belle Reve. When the music gets louder, the conversation intensifies after Stella asks what happened to Belle Reve, causing Blanche to show her sadness to the fullest about losing Belle Reve and experiencing the deaths in the
The main song being alluded to is "Varsouviana," a polka song that sounds a bit like merry-go-round music, which is constantly playing in Blanche’s head and disturbing her thoughts (Williams 141). Blanche’s husband had previously killed himself to this song, it now playing in repeat in her head and building up guilt on her shoulders as it was theoretically her fault. The tune works to set the scene for the instability overcoming Blanche, the creepy music inside her head unable to be heard by any other ears mixed with her inability to escape the guilt and anxiety that seems to blanket her every thought. Williams is able to incorporate this disturbing music on stage to show the audience Blanche’s slow decline of health, the insanity that steadily consumes her due to her lack of living with her present existence. Another song blended into the story is “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Harold Arlen, a song that speaks on love and how it becomes an overwhelming aspect of people’s lives. It explains how love causes dependency as it morphs one's reality to fantasy: “It’s only a paper moon, just as phony as it can be— But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me!” (Williams 120-122). The song alludes to the illusory world she lives in, her desire for someone to join in on it through love as she slowly descends into madness, relying heavily on others to fuel her