Cast

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Dooley Wilson, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet

awards

Oscar 1944 – best film, best director, best screenplay

Film description

It seems we know everything about Casablanca. It was to be a third-rate melodrama and became a legend. The script was unfinished when shooting began. The famous line, Play it again, Sam is never actually uttered in the film. The last scene employs midget extras to obtain the correct proportions… Does anyone know, however, what is the source of the film’s magic?

Rationally, Casablanca is pure nonsense and the embodiment of American ignorance. The leading enemy of the III Reich after his break from a concentration camp, Victor Laszlo, a Czechoslovak national (as if Laszlo was a Czech name…) enters Rick’s bar (Humphrey Bogart plays Rick) and, in a perfectly tailored suit, loudly announces his name and parades in front of the present Gestapo officers. The film includes numerous other such nonsensical tidbits.

Nevertheless, this artificiality somehow begets truth, while the inane situations deliver emotions. When Rick, the broken-hearted cynic, accuses Ingrid Bergman, she cries glycerin tears, and we cry with her. Why? Truth be told, I don’t know. I do know that I’d like to be at Rick’s listening to Sam play As Time Goes By once again.

Bartosz Żurawiecki