Cinematography In Casablanca

Based on Rick’s Café Americain in the city of Casablanca, Morocco in Northern Africa during the 1940’s, Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Blain, owner of the café. An American expatriate owner of a black market nightclub watches his old flame, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) from Paris walk into his café with her Czech fugitive alongside. The stirring up of emotions between the two was instant when the love story then began to unfold. Bogart’s brisk and suave character completely emotionally resonated viewers as the plot climaxed when the secret police force of the Nazis, the Gestapo, were after the Czech communist, fugitive, Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid). Rick, a neutral bystander in the midst of the chaos during this era finds himself caught in the crossfire because of his profound love for this girl. As Rick holds the only two passports to guarantee his and his lover’s escape, the thrilling circumstances …show more content…
In The Twenty Ten Theme’s 2012 blog post, Arthur Edeson, the cinematographer for the film, was said to alongside Curitz use lighting and angles to depict different perspectives of the central character. I could not agree more that the distorting of the shots definitely revealed a psychological depth of Rick Blaine simply because he was made out to be mysterious and large. The non-diegetic music score as I previously mentioned was the most moving factor of the film because it compelled viewers to feel a certain way towards simple scenes such as when the film began and the cultural perspective of Casablanca was being shown. The theatric sound provoked the reader to welcome the film in a certain mood that one probably would not have felt had there been no non-diegetic sound. The diegetic musical choices were equally as moving such as the tune of ‘As Time Goes By’ that not only served as a symbol of Rick and Ilsa’s love, but wrapped the viewers with emotion towards their flame as