Casablanca: The Classical Hollywood Film
...identification is established. Another element of the classical Hollywood style is that the structure of these films is buried deep with the expectation that the audience will unconsciously sense the principles of economy, simplicity, symmetry, and order in the film (Belton, 1994). Casablanca uses all of these principles throughout the film. Starting with the newsreel footage, the director uses a series of establishing shots and scenes to prepare the audience for the goal of the central characters: to get out of Casablanca. The audience sees the long journey that has brought many of the refugees to Casablanca, followed quickly by our first glimpse of the city, which is noisy and crowded, and largely unfamiliar and exotic. It is filled will thieves and naïve, desperate people, willing to do almost anything to obtain a visa. One of the first scenes is of a couple, newly arrived, sitting at a cafe talking about how anxious they are to get their visas, when a man interrupts and warns them that the city is “full of vultures” and to be very cautious. They thank the man for the warning and stand up to pay their tab only to discover that the man who warned them about “vultures” has stolen their wallet. The audience also learns about the tensions between the police and the civilians of the city. The news comes over the wire that two German couriers have been killed and immediately the police set about gathering up “the usual suspects”, indicating that this is not an uncommon occurrence. The dangerous atmosphere of Tara Ruof Casablanca Casablanca is made abundantly clear when a man runs away from the police and they shoot him right in the street. All of the establishing scenes happen quickly and efficiently, while still providing the audience with a surprisingly vivid picture of life in Casablanca. Each of the establishing scenes also ties into the advancement of the narration in some way. Whether it is introducing characters that the audience will get to know later in the film, like the young couple staring hopefully as the plane lands, or establishing the persona of a character we have not even seen, like all of the references to Rick before the audience even lays eyes on him, or setting the stage for the two main characters to cross paths, like the two German couriers being killed in order for Rick to end up with the visas that are so important to Ilsa and Laszlo, each of the opening scenes will be resolved, in one way or another, by the conclusion of the film. The classical narrative will usually begin with an act that disturbs the equilibrium and which is answered at the end of the film with another act that will reestablish the balance (Belton, 1994). In Casablanca, Rick’s equilibrium is disrupted when Ilsa walks back into his life. Rick has established himself in Casablanca as cold, detached, almost unfeeling character. The audience hears from numerous sources that Rick does not drink with the customers, he is not impressed by a person’s wealth or clout, and although it is implied that he has engaged in relations with women, he has not formed any lasting attachment to them. The audience can see that this changes as soon as he lays eyes on Ilsa. When he sees her he gets this half-smile on his face as if he is trying to contain it, but loses control just for an instant, enough so that the audience can almost see behind the façade he has built. Renault also points out for us that “new precedents” are suddenly be set, such as drinking with the customers and picking up the tab (Rick is not known for his generosity). Rick established himself in Casablanca after the loss of Ilsa (in France he was Richard), so in or to reestablish himself, he must once again lose Ilsa. Thus, by forcing her to get on Tara Ruof Casablanca the plane with Laszlo, he regained the balance that was lost when she reappeared. Another element of classical Hollywood style is invisibility. The audience knows that they are watching a film and what is happening on the screen is not real, but Hollywood has perfected the art of hiding the technical aspects of creating a film, which allows the audience to lose themselves in the story unfolding on the screen before them (Corrigan, 2004). Although the style is invisible a lot of work goes into making it that way. In the classical style, the mise-en-scene must be perfectly believable from the audience’s point of view. The lighting must match in every in every shot in a scene and must be “real” in relation to the location of the actors. The set design must tell a story of it’s own but also reflect reality. Casablanca perfects both the lighting and set design elements. In “Rick’s Café Americain” the doorways are rounded and the tables are dressed simply in white tablecloths. There is a lamp on each table with a shade covered in silk with beads hanging around the bottom edge. These appear to provide the majority of the light. The really intriguing lamps are around the edges of the room against the walls. The walls are almost completely bare of any ornamentation, but the cutouts on the lampshades on and near the walls more than makes up for it. They cast the most fascinating patterns on the walls and provide the appearance of artwork painted on the walls. The lamps also cast shadows of leaves from strategically placed plants that lend an exotic quality to the patterns. The lighting and set design in the bar serves as a reminder that we are not in any old bar in any town, but we are in Casablanca. Mise-en-scene is much more than lighting and set design, it is costumes and movement an...