Popular Cinema Seminar Summaries

Week 3: Casablanca (1942)

Casablanca is a dramatic romantic love story set amid the era during WWII just after the United States entered the war. The film itself represents the structure of traditional Hollywood cinema with the classic Hollywood psychology solving a clear problem and attaining a specific goal with the story ending with a decisive victory or defeat. In this structure there is an emphasis on orienting the viewer clearly in relation to time and space (where a specific action takes place, the when, how and why), a clear story arc which transitions from a stable situation which is disrupted and then resolved in the end of the narrative. The background of the film is anti-Nazi sentiment and this is reflected through the film’s creators from the owners of the studios to the directors, crew and the cast all affected in some capacity by the Nazis, these elements pervade the film and is referenced in the script. The film finishes when there is a resolution whereby the character has learnt a lesson and developed. The character is the casual agency of the resolution. This film has such a cult following because of the classical story structure and the ability to create a world which is open ended and characters which exemplify a kind of idealism which the audience feel nostalgic about, the story about moral ambiguity is converted effectively through the film noir elements and well written dialogue full of wit and famous one-liners which would be quoted for years to come.

‘Play it again Sam’

Michael Serpell