Who was creatively responsible for Casablanca?

Casablanca' was directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Hal B. Wallis and was based on Murray Bennett and Joan Alison's play Everybody Comes To Rick's. Casablanca stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, as well as featuring Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Paul Henraid.

In one way, the film's story editor, Irene Diamond, could be considered largely responsible for the creation of Casablanca. Diamond discovered the unproduced play Everybody Comes To Rick's whilst on a trip to New York in 1941. She convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to buy the play's rights in 1942 for $20k, which was the most anybody in Hollywood had ever paid for an unproduced play. Due to this, Diamond could be regarded as the main creative responsibility for Casablanca, as without her discovery of the play, Casablanca may not have ever been made or even thought of.

In another way, producer Hal B. Wallis could be considered predominantly responsible for Casablanca. Multiple film critics, including notable critic Roger Ebert, have named Wallis the 'key creative force' of Casablanca because of his massive attention to detail of production - down to insisting on using a real parrot for the Blue Parrot bar.

Finally, the last person that I believe can be regarded as widely creatively responsible for Casablanca is director Michael Curtiz. Curtiz knew close to nothing about the plot as he saw it through images, and this is what he wanted his audience to see. Critic Roger Ebert commented that in Casablanca "very few shots... are memorable as shots" as Curtiz wanted images to express the story rather than to stand alone.

Overall, despite there being multiple people creatively responsible for Casablanca, including cinematographer Arthur Edeson who contributed largely to the underlying film noir style of the film and composer Max Steiner who managed to interlace the most important song of the film ('As Time Goes By') into almost every scene, I believe that Casablanca's auteur is Michael Curtiz. Curtiz was notable in Hollywood for introducing a new and unique visual style; this is obvious in Casablanca which helped it stand out amongst most of the films in its era and become a Hollywood classic.

Film Noir, Classical Hollywood & the Studio System

What is Film Noir?

Film noir (French for 'black film' or 'dark film') is a cinematic term used to describe stylised black and white Hollywood movies within the Crime genre, particularly ones that emphasise sexual motivations and cynical attitudes. A lot of the typical stories in Film noir derive from the 'hardboiled' or 'pulp fiction' school of crime fiction that emerged in the US during the Great Depression.

The term film noir was first applied to Hollywood by french critic Nino Frank in 1946 despite this term being largely unrecognised by most American film professionals during the time. Before the term was widely recognised and adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films that fit the film noir style were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir can be seen as a distinct genre is still an ongoing debate.

Generally, films of the film noir style include a lot of stylised visuals, including carefully cast shadows, distinct silhouettes and sometimes hard, bright lighting to contrast the low lighting that dominates most of film noir. Film noir is often associated with a low key visual style that has roots within German expressionism cinematography. 

What is Classical Hollywood?

Classical Hollywood is term used by film critics that designates both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which was developed in and characterised in American cinema between 1917 and the early 1960s.

Classical Hollywood is split up into two eras: Silent and Sound.

Notable films within the silent era include 'The Mothering Heart', 'A Woman of Paris' and '7th Heaven'. Notable films within the sound era include 'Citizen Kane', 'Casablanca' and 'Psycho'.

The visual-narrative style of classical Hollywood was heavily influenced by the Renaissance and its resurgence of mankind as the focal point. This style is split up into three general levels; devices, systems and the relation of systems.

The devices most inherent to classical Hollywood are those of continuity or 'invisible' editing. The systems within classical Hollywood are narrative logic, cinematic time and cinematic space. The relation of systems in classical Hollywood is that the aspects of time and space are subordinated to the narrative element of the film.

What is the Studio System?

The studio system, which was used during a period known as the 'Golden Age of Hollywood', was a method of film production and distribution dominated by a small cluster of 'major' studios within Hollywood at the time. These were split into two categorical groups; 'The Big Five', which included MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, RKO and Fox, and 'The Little Three', which included Universal, Colombia and United Artists.

An important part of the studio system was a practice known as ‘block booking’.  A studio would sell multiple films to theaters as a unit. This would typically include only one attractive, A-budget movie that the theaters really wanted and the rest would be a mix of A-budget pictures of dubious quality and lower budgeted B-movies. Because of block booking studios could make a lot of movies, most of them with a low budget and of low quality, and still be sure that they would be seen in theaters.

Another vital part of the studio system was the fact that ‘The Big Five’ had controlling stakes in their own theater chains, which were exempt from block booking. In some cases, one studio would even control all the theaters in a city. This ensured that their films would be distributed, no matter the quality. ‘The Little Three’ would never own more than small theater circuits. By 1945, the studios owned either partially or outright 17% of the theaters in America, accounting for 45% of the film-rental revenue.

BFI Film Festival Trip

On the 5th October 2017, my film class and I (and the media class) went on an educational visit to the BFI Film Festival in London to see the film Breathe, which tells the true story of Robin Cavendish and his battle with polio.

After the film finished, there was a Q&A session with producer Jonathan Cavendish, who is Robin's actual son.

Overall, I thought the film was great, but I would have enjoyed it more if I personally favoured emotional dramas. 

Here is the link to the official trailer for Breathe, which will be officially released on the 17th October 2017: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JycCFypvgmI

Casablanca: End Scene

Casablanca was released in 1942; it was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis under Warner Brother’s Studios. Casablanca was, and still is, considered one of the best movies ever made.                                                                                                  The last scene in Casablanca where Rick and Ilsa were saying their final goodbyes remains to be considered one of the most memorable scenes in cinema.
 

The cinematography towards become more noticeable and prominent due to the gap among special parts of the shots. The Chiaroscuro (light and dark) effect also helped in raising levels of worry and suspicion; this was done by contrasting the clear bright lights on the airplane runway to the darker shades of the fog and night sky. This light and dark effect also relates to film noir, a prominent genre in classical Hollywood. The fog in this final scene is in my opinion the most prominent part of the ending’s cinematography as it had cast an almost grey filter over the whole final scene, which further exaggerated the feelings of suspicion and mystery. This results in leaving the audience clueless about how the fight is going to finish/how the war is going to end. Throughout the final sequence the lighting technique was sharp and differs from the mostly softer lighting found throughout the parts of the film leading up to the finale. The cinematography of the finale also features many different camera movement techniques. After Captain Renault and Laszlo exit the scene, the camera begins to follow Rick and Ilsa, where it was not focusing on either of their own view points. After the most memorable speech/conversation in the film, Rick sends Ilsa to get on the plane with Victor. After a cut away to Captain Renault, the camera movements start to builds up again to further highlight the speech that Rick had just given.

Michael Curtiz used sound in this scene very effectively; while filming the movie, he found that the sound stage was way too small to be suitable for a real airplane. So he decided to shoot the final sequence on a soundstage at Warner Brothers where there was no real airplane and used models of the planes instead. Whilst the scene is mostly dominated by music, some key points of sound in the scene stand out amongst the general sound used in the majority of the scene; for instance, when the shot of Rick and Ilsa cuts away to the Nazi general driving to the airfield, the music immediately rises in volume and gets more dramatic to connote perhaps anger or even danger. Another instance of music demonstrating a switch of emotion in the scene is when Captain Renault drops the Viche water into the bin and kicks it away. Also, when Rick is finished with his speech and is talking to both Laszlo and Ilsa, the scene stays mostly quiet apart from their voices, when suddenly the sound of the airplane’s engine and propellers cuts in; this almost acts as a catalyst to move the scene along as it prompts Laszlo to ask Ilsa if she’s ready. The other most prominent sound in the scene is Rick’s gunshot, which breaks the tense argument in the scene and marks a permanent turnaround in Rick’s life.

The editing in the final scene differs from the majority of the film’s continual or ‘invisible’ editing as there involves a lot more cuts in the finale; when the scene’s tension rises, the cuts get quicker and shorter. Also, when the scene wants to switch emotion or switch the audience’s attention, it uses a sudden cut – like the one where it switches from Rick and Ilsa to the Nazi general – to do this effectively.
 

The performance in this scene is definitely dominated by Humphrey Bogart; Bogart’s depiction of Rick’s development from a cold hearted, emotionless man into a ‘sentimentalist’ is both effective and smoothly done, making his performance impressive and convincing. Ingrid Bergman’s performance also makes up a large portion of this scene, as she has to demonstrate Ilsa’s split feelings between Rick and Laszlow; although this is demonstrated throughout the film, it is most prominent in this scene as she is forced to make her final decision (whether the decision was voluntary or not).

The mise-en-scene in the final sequence is subtle when compared to the majority of the film as there are far less characters, building and props in the shots. This means that when something important is in the scene, it is immediately recognised and acknowledged by the audience. An example of this would be the Viche water that Captain Renault throws away to connote a political change of heart.