Casablanca

interlocked

Casablanca was filmed in 1941. Pearl Harbour hadn't hit, it seemed to America that it was far away.

But it wasn't.

The real bad guy in Casablanca is Major Strasser.

He was Conrad Veidt, a German actor that was married to a Jewish woman in 1930's Germany and refused to denounce her, he fled to Britain and then to the US, where he insisted that he play a Nazi, in order to show them up. He died two years later of a heart attack.

The real hero, in probably the most famous film ever, achieved his aim........

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwp7KejHOwA&ab_channel=PlainSimpleDav

Skill Magill

Didn't know that, now I want to watch it again which for me is a timeless classic.

Greyfox

Nearly 80 years old and its still by about a mile the best love story ever told.. the chemistry between the two leads has never been equalled

beachhead

Amazing to see the world globe at the opening credits showing Africa.It has changed so much.Wish I was back there.

ILoveYourVibes

He was Conrad Veidt,

One of my favorite actors.

One of the greatest actors.

gozunda

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

One of my favorite actors.

One of the greatest actors...

Master of the deadly stare. And looks like a first portrayal of a 'joker' type persona ...

ILoveYourVibes

gozunda wrote: »

Master of the deadly stare. And looks like a first portrayal of a 'joker' type persona ...

He played a huge role in German theatre and expressionist theatre before ww2.

They had a concept of subjective reality in film. Most film even today relies on objective reality and naturalistic depictions to convey emotions to people. If you want your audience to cry you show them someone sad and crying tell them a sad story. Expressionist theater and cinema went the other way. They didn't believe the audience was so saccharine. They thought it was dumb to think audiences would all feel the same way to plain fables. Or that they would feel anything. So they came up with different ideas to convey subjective emotions to people intellectually ASWELL as tugging on the heart strings.

The actors were trained to understand these strange new angles and stylized lighting. And cinematographers and lighting technicians were trained to understand actors. The camera and lighting became PART of the acting. And the actors understood it.

Some of the most AMAZING films came from this era.


M ...

Metropolis


M is a brilliant example of how German expressionism tackled how to communicate to people. The story is about a man who is a peadophile and child murderer. Its not going to be easy for an audience to understand him because they are not going to be able to emotionally empathize with that. This leaves most stories about pedophiles ultimately unsatisfying for the audience. Its also not socially responsible to get people to start empathizing blindly with pedophiles.


You have to take a different approach. You have to get the audience to understand things not simply feel them.

When we see the child murderer for the first time ...he is looking at very sharp objects in a window. They are almost beautiful and he is highly charged just from looking at them. But this is not fetishized ...the director doesn't want the AUDIENCE to feel aroused by looking at them. But he wants to understand that lang is and why that could happen but its very removed its an idea. And then lang looks in the mirror.

The scene cuts to a man who looks respectable in a home environment. A safe place.

Then it cuts to a street with a child walking down. Alone. Everything is wrong. A swirling wormhole with a sharp thrusting arrow that is not so subtle . The child keeps stopping. And somehow we just know we want her to keep walking and fast. And she does and meets her mother. And then they walk BY fritz lang.

Its much more clever than the lovely bones.

Its brilliant.


Empathy if taken to a logical conclusion is 'Sympathy for the Devil'. And that is not something most humans are really able to do without help.

Conrad Veidt understood how to enhance his acting using the tools of cinema. He could even use designs on the set.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Abduction Scene

This is just AMAZING

The way he walks by the wall at 1.12 ..its SO strange ...but you don't laugh at it..you can't take your eyes off it. ...you can rarely take your eyes off him.
brilliant film

bigar

Veidt is remarkable in The Man Who Laughs. Here is a good Youtube review of it:

Your Face

Pearl Harbour attack was 1941.

dotsman

Your Face wrote: »

Pearl Harbour attack was 1941.

Correct. And the movie was made (and released) in 1942.

In fact, it's release was rushed to try and line it up with the invasion of North Africa (including Casablanca) by Allied forces (the movie was released about 2 weeks after the Casablanca had been captured by US forces).

Here's a fun fact. It was banned in Ireland when released (as Ireland was afraid it would hurt our neutrality). Even when it was permitted after the war, certain scenes had to be cut as it was deemed to be too "immoral" to the Catholics due to the love triangle all the way up to the 80's!

rossie1977

Casablanca was filmed in the same building as arguably the worst big budget movie in history "Batman and Robin", stage 25 on Warner lot in Burbank Los Angeles.

Just a bit of trivia. Last major project to occupy stage 25 was Big Bang Theory.

Church on Tuesday

rossie1977 wrote: »

Casablanca was filmed in the same building as arguably the worst big budget movie in history "Batman and Robin", stage 25 on Warner lot in Burbank Los Angeles.

Just a bit of trivia. Last major project to occupy stage 25 was Big Bang Theory.

Not a great deal better.

rossie1977

They actually renamed stage in honour of the show https://deadline.com/2019/02/big-bang-theory-cbs-stage-dedication-final-season-1202552203/

Kylta

Never found casablanca to be a great movie, it actually bored the bolloxs out of me. I wouldn't even rate it as Bogart best movie!

Mad_maxx

Watched it last night, herself had it recorded it few night's ago

Hadn't seen it in over twenty years, it's great

Find myself humming " as time goes by " while hoovering today

" here's looking at you kid "

cj maxx

I've never watched it through.
It would bore me to death , same with Gone with the wind.
Its usually the same with 'best movie ever' tags that come with some of these films ,while a Abbot and Costello film would have me in stitches.
Might give it a rerun now though.

branie2

I have the film on Blu-ray

McGinniesta

nice bit of an aul pearl harbour

go on the pearl harbour

PsychoPete

Sh!te film, black and white nonsense is all it is

Capt'n Midnight

McGinniesta wrote: »

nice bit of an aul pearl harbour

go on the pearl harbour

Tora! Tora! Tora! was a much better film