Before watching the film Casablanca and hearing a little history and background about the movie and where is takes place I was a little nervous to watch it thinking that it would be another one of those black and white movies that put you to sleep. Even though I still partially feel this way. The more time that I have to think about the movie the more I can relate it to real life situations and feelings today.
I feel that if I would have had a little background on the movie before watching it, I would have been able to follow along better from the beginning to figure out what the context of the movie was going to be about. In, The Art of Watching Films book page 15 talks about reading reviews before watching a movie. The book states, "Most reviews also mention the elements in the film that are significant and worthy of attention. They may help us place the film in context by relating it to similar films." I feel that if I would have had the opportunity to read a little about the film I would have been able to understand where the thoughts and feelings were coming from throughout the movie. Also stated on page 15 is, "The reviews may analyze the film, breaking it into its parts and examining the nature, proportions, functions, and interrelationship of these parts." There was a lot that was going on during the movie, you had a love triangle, people trying to escape to and from Casablanca and a war that was going on. If I would have known all of this before watching the movie I feel that I would have been able to focus my attention more on what was going on with each character and there important role in the movie rather then trying to follow along with no understanding what so ever.
Being a first time watcher of Casablanca I was able to pull out a few things about the movie right away. The fact that there was a love triangle going on between, Richard "Rick" Blaine, Illsa Lund, and Victor Laszlo that cost Rick Blaine the opportunity to escape Casablanca and flee the country. I also picked up on right away that a war was going on and that you need to watch your back and be careful of what you say and who you say it to. Then the last thing that I picked up on was a true friendship between Sam and Rick and how through all the hard times that Rick faced through his life losing someone that he loved or moving to Casablanca, Sam was always there right by his side, helping him and being there for him every step of the way.
Taking a look back at the book The Art of Watching Film it states on page 3, "Film, expands time and space, traveling back and forth freely within their wide borders." I feel that this line sums up the movie in a way, for the movie starts out in the future with Rick at his Cafe and his daily routine of running the place, with Sam his best friend playing the piano and then the movie flashes back to Paris where Rick and Illsa met and where they shared this big love connection with one another. Then the rest of the movie goes into detail and is wrapped around the fact that Illsa re-entered Rick's life and how those thoughts and feelings that they once shared in Paris came back into play. But, there was a catch because Illsa was married to Victor. Then the movie continues on and ends with Illsa and Victor leaving Casablanca and starting a new life in America. I feel that going back to the statement from the book, if the film did not travel back and forth in time then you would not be able to connect with the characters as much and fine the true meaning behind the love triangle and the situation that the world was in during that time period. All in all, I enjoyed watching the film Casablanca and I feel that if I were to watch the movie again that I would be able to pick up on more ideas and thoughts and feelings that I missed the first time.
