Rohan

Casablanca: La Marseillaise

Casablanca Clip

Casablanca (1943)

Even though it was written almost 70 years ago, Casablanca remains one of the most highly regarded American films of all time. Originally a play written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, it is the epitome of the classic wartime drama/romance.

Directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis, Casablanca is set in guess where: Casablanca, Morocco during the second world war, shortly after the Nazi invasion of Paris. Humphrey Bogart perfectly depicts Rick Blaine as a terribly despondent American expatriate. Blaine operates a night club in Casablanca, where refugees come to escape Nazi occupation on their way to America. The love affair of the story comes to his club one night with her wanted activist husband, Victor Laszlo. Played by Ingrid Bergman, Ilsa Lund met Rick in Paris shortly before the Nazis invaded the city. At the time she was married to Victor Laszlo, but he had been reported as killed in a concentration camp, so in her loneliness, she fell in love with Rick. They had plans to leave Paris and marry, but Ilsa never showed up for the train to leave with Rick—instead, all he got was a note explaining that for some reason she couldn’t go with him. Later in the film we find out that she had just learned a day earlier that Victor was still alive. It was by chance that they ended up in Rick’s club as they stayed in Casablanca looking for the papers that would set them free. In the end, Victor and Ilsa fly to America together safely, while Rick stays behind, resolved to return to his old ways and help in the fight against the Nazis.

Casablanca is a masterpiece of writing. Originally inspired by a trip to Europe in 1938 by Murray Burnett, it was a play based on Burnett’s experience of seeing the uneasy coexistence between Nazis and refugees in the south coast of France. The first main writers of the film, Julius and Philip Epstein, made a few changes to character backgrounds, including Rick’s occupation as a club-owner where he was a lawyer in the play. Howard Koch and Casey Robinson also made contributions to the script, though Robinson is not credited. There was some tension between Koch and Curtiz on questions of emphasis (Koch highlighted politics and melodramatics while Curtiz preferred romance) but Koch credits this as the reason the script turned out so well.

The writing of Casablanca I believe is what makes it so great, but cinematographer Arthur Edeson made a valuable contribution as well. An interesting fact I found involved the careful photography of Ingrid Bergman. She was shot mostly from her left, which was her preferred side, and Edeson used a softening gauze filter and catch lights that made her eyes sparkle. These were designed to make her seem “ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic.” To set the nearly constant dark mood, low-key lighting is used almost exclusively. However, in my opinion, the most memorable affect of cinematography was the “duel of the songs” in Rick’s club. It starts with a group of German soldiers with Major Strasser singing their national anthem, while the rest of the club is relatively quiet. Victor Laszlo then tells the band to play the Marseilles, to which he sings along and conducts for the rest of the club who join him singing the French anthem as loud and proud as they can. Close-up shots go back and forth between Laszlo and the other triumphant French singers and the dispirited Germans, particularly Major Strasser.

Westerns

I agree that the Western is "too tough to die." However far removed we become from the times of our expansion through the open frontier, Westerns will remain the most inherently American films. Even though some say they're not up to speed with our expectations for a typical action movie, I think the right director could fix that.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars is without a doubt one of the greatest films of all time. In my opinion, the most amazing thing about it is the fact that unlike Star Trek, even though it’s a science fiction movie about living in outer space, it’s not so weird that you want to smash your TV with a baseball bat five minutes in. Writer, director, and producer George Lucas made it as human as possible, which allows us to relate to the characters and be involved in the screenplay.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1977. As I said, it was written, produced, and directed by George Lucas. John Williams wrote the music, Gilbert Taylor was in charge of Cinematography, and it starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher. Mark Hamill plays Luke Skywalker, a farmer who dreams of fighting in the rebellion against the evil empire of his galaxy. After imperial soldiers destroy his home and kill his aunt and uncle, he makes his way into the fray with an old Jedi warrior, Obi-wan Kenobi. With the help of smuggler/pilot Han Solo (Harrison Ford), they end up rescuing a very important figure in the rebellion, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who had stolen blueprints of the Empire’s space station, the Death Star, to use in an attack. Before the Death Star is able to destroy the planet holding the rebels’ base, the rebels launch an attack on the station, and Skywalker ends up delivering the fatal blow that destroys the entire moon-sized station.
At the very beginning, Taylor uses an extreme long shot to show the setting of open space, and the distance from the two planets visible in the screen. He uses these shots many times throughout the film to show the setting. The next time it is used is in the desert with deep focus to see the distant rocks and the barrenness of the land. When Luke, Han, Leia, and Obi-wan near the Death Star in Han’s ship, we see an extreme long shot to show the hugeness of the station and the tiny size of Han’s ship in comparison. This lends to the feeling of helplessness they have against such a huge adversary.
One of Star Wars’ most famous aspects of cinematography is the music. Composer John Williams won an Oscar in 1977 for the music he wrote for the film. The use of his nondiagetic music creates a mood for every possible scene, from intense battles to suspenseful missions to sad or morose moments.
Taylor also uses low-key lighting to his advantage often. It is used a lot to show hopelessness or to add suspense or a sense of fear in the characters. When the droid R2-D2 is roaming alone in the canyon, the dark lighting and shadows help us feel the fear in him and make us anxious for what is coming up. Then, when he is put into the vehicle with the other stolen droids, it is very dark again to show the hopelessness of the situation. However, shortly after he meets up with partner C3PO we see high key lighting again to bring us back out of that hopeless feeling. Low-key lighting is used again in the bar when Luke is attacked, and in the cockpit of Han’s ship when they are trying to outrun the empire’s ships.

The Birds

Film Journal 1: Critique The Critic

The Bourne Ultimatum

When I read Matthew Turner's (ViewLondon) review of The Bourne Ultimatum, I couldn't have agreed more. He say's it all in the title: a satisfying conclusion to an excellent trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum is an exciting, intelligent and impeccably directed thriller.

The movie is the final in a trilogy in which CIA intelligence agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), aka David Webb, searches for his identity after suffering amnesia caused by bullet wounds to the head. In the final film Bourne finally closes in on the answer after going from London to Madrid to Tangier, evading various hitmen along the way.

The first thing Turner commends about the film is the acting. Matt Damon has "an intensity to his performance that marks him out from the usual wise-cracking action heroes, even if he does seem more indestructible than three John McClanes." Turner also remarks on the supporting cast, he says "...particularly Stiles, whose character is finally expanded beyond the glorified cameos of the previous films. Allen is excellent as always and there's good work from Strathairn and Glenn, as well as a and a cameo by Albert Finney. It's just a shame Considine disappears so soon."

Turner also acclaims director Paul Greengrass's work, impressed by his "breath-taking action sequences." Greengrass's camera work was perfect for the film as well with his extensive use of "handheld cameras and rapid editing," creating "chaotic but effective sequences that would seem incoherent if directed by anyone else."

In his conclusion, Turner said "...The Bourne Ultimatum is an exciting, suspenseful and intelligent action thriller that's easily the best of the summer blockbusters. Highly recommended."

This clip from The Departed uses a couple different aspects of cinematography. First of all, the lighting in each place is different. With Billy Costigan at the airport, the director uses high key lighting to show the entire background in the distance. With Sargent Dignam in the office the director uses low-key lighting to emphasize Dignam's attitude toward Costigan. Another thing that shows this is the close up of Dignam in the shadowy room. At the airport they used mostly a medium shot so we could see the entire distant background.

Zoolander

Zoolander is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's a parody of the fashion world about a male model, Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller), who is set up in a plot to kill the prime minister of Malaysia by designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell). It's a classic "stupid-funny" movie, but however stupid it seems, film critic Eric D. Snider got it right when he said "...the humor is carefully and smartly concocted to seem dumber than it is."

Anchorman

This is legendary anchorman Ron Burgundy from the movie Anchorman. Photo courtesy of Cincinnati.com.