it's definitely a great movie tho
― gabbneb, Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link
im sorry. i just hate ingrid bergman.
― ryan, Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:53 (sixteen years ago) link
i've always imagined a great rick & louis witty action sequel, fucking shit up in algiers before operation torch.
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:04 (sixteen years ago) link
How long do you think their beautiful friendship lasted?
― Aimless, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
as soon as Rick realized that vaseline was involved.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:08 (sixteen years ago) link
they stay best friends for the rest of the war, and then agree to take a boat to Marseille together. Rick is waiting on the docks as the boat is just about to leave and he's handed a note from Louis that says he won't be coming with him after all and gives no explanation.
years later, Rick owns a bar on Fire Island. out of the blue one day Louis walks in and their passionate affair is commenced anew.
FIN
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I like this, but, yeah, it's overrated.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Curtiz seems to have been an odd character. I don't really know that much about him except for the bit in "Hollywood" where they describe him filming the flood scene in "Noah's Ark", and in his frantic desire to make the scene real or memorable or w/e, he put a load of extras into a giant water tank, with a load of animals and poured gallons of water into it. IIRC he killed a couple of extras making the film. Pretty fucked up, eh? His filmography:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002031/
Has a few striking films (Casablanca, Noah's Ark, angels w/Dirty Faces, Female) including 2 of my top "I wish it was on DVD" titles - "Noah's Ark" itself and "The Egyptian". I don't recall seeing most of the titles. Was he a hack who struck lucky a few times, or are there a bunch of films there I shd look out for?
I've watched "Casablanca" a couple of times since C-man kicked this off and I must say I enjoyed it loads both times it's grown on me even more. I think it is one of the best films, and one I'd always want on hand so I can watch it when the fancy takes me.
The list I made upthread would probably now go:
"Ninochka" "Andrei Rubylev" "Broken Blossoms" "Way Down East" "Pandora's Box""Beggars of Life" "Orphans of the Storm" "Victim" "Sunset Blvd" "Sabrina" "Valley of Song" "Kind Hearts and Coronets" "Passport to Piml1co" "Night of the Demon" "42nd Street"
...tho obv the "black and white" thing is a bit facile. And IIRC bits of "Way Down East" were colour when it came out.
― Pashmina, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:21 (sixteen years ago) link
"Sabrina" "Hotel Imperial"
― Pashmina, Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:22 (sixteen years ago) link
There was a big public screening of this two days ago in a big outdoor square in the heart of what is probably the most commercial part of Toronto, complete with outright hideous sound quality and a stack of lights blocking my view. Seeing it again for the first time since was like 12, these conditions probably are a good way to ruin a filmgoing experience (My friend brought me along with him), and while yes it is very good, I don't see what about it puts it so clearly ahead of the other handful of canonical Classic Hollywood 'best film evers'. Also, best black and white film ever seems like a not so good best-ever category.
― mehlt, Thursday, 28 August 2008 21:49 (sixteen years ago) link
As I discovered in class a few years ago, much of its reputation with the young (one of the few "old movies" you'll find in their DVD collections) rests on its enshrinement as a proto-Pulp Fiction: lotsa hip patter with actors good enough to deliver it.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:14 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah when ice craem was ragging on old movies on that one thread this was one that really stood out as an exeption to the rule - i think it can really be enjoyed by people who dont 'get' old movies without much distance at all
― deeznuts, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:16 (sixteen years ago) link
why are you talking about "ice cream" and this "rule" as if it's anything close to "right"
― omar little, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:27 (sixteen years ago) link
anyway i think its rep with young people comes from being saturated in the culture for 65+ years and being actually very good.
― omar little, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:28 (sixteen years ago) link
i dont mean its 'right' but its...honest? like how many dramas pre casablanca would you recommend to people who dont watch black & white movies?
― deeznuts, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:28 (sixteen years ago) link
it's honestly stupid imo
― omar little, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:29 (sixteen years ago) link
to someone who refused to watch (if that's what is meant by "don't watch") b&w movies i'd just tell them to rent sin city or some bullshit because that's probably the only b&w movie they'd like anyway, if they have that attitude
― omar little, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link
only if you dont take it at face value!
xp thats not what i meant by 'dont watch' - i mean, most people dont watch old movies
― deeznuts, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:32 (sixteen years ago) link
and that casablanca has an appeal, like alfred was saying, that the vast majority of movies of its era lack
― deeznuts, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link
anyway i think ice cream's "argument" was that old movie acting is theatrical and not natural so therefore it's lame. maybe those two points are true but it doesn't make those movies lame.
― omar little, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link
that the vast majority of movies in this era lack too xpost
hat casablanca has an appeal, like alfred was saying, that the vast majority of movies of its era lack
Well, no, that's not true. Its sheer ubiquity has contributed to its popularity too. The collected works of Howard Hawks and lots of film noir play well to the younger crowd.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:35 (sixteen years ago) link
i do too, & i think his -point- was that creates a distance b/w the film & the contemporary viewer which isnt so quite much present in casablanca - im not saying that a lot of this isnt because we've been 'told' its good, but i think a lot more people would be down for casablanca than say citizen kane, for the reasons alfred says - bogart + bergmann, etc, are kind of timeless in that movie
xps
― deeznuts, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:36 (sixteen years ago) link
because the vast majority of movies from any era are not that great, welcome to the world.
i love this movie. but cmon, its prominent place in the cultural firmament is due to a lot of management, not just its qualities. lots of movies have what casablanca has.
what a lot of them don't have is speed and economy, it's a very fast and breezy watch
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:37 (sixteen years ago) link
this. it's also not a genre movie.
― gabbneb, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:37 (sixteen years ago) link
My Mam is totally obsessed with France and French in general and loves the French National Anthem, and one Christmas we were all watching this on tv, Mam fast asleep as she usually is from about fifteen minutes into any movie, and when it gets to the Marseillaise bit, she kind of sleepwalk sings along, and not just lying there, sitting upright, eyes closed fist swaying top of her lungs. The second the song is over she's slumped right back as though nothing ever happened. It was pretty surreal.
― I know, right?, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:38 (sixteen years ago) link
it's also sentimental as fuck, which always sells.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:39 (sixteen years ago) link
ok so i guess my point is, in terms of prominent exceptions to a prominent idea (that old movies suck), casablancas one of the first places id point as an exception
yeah there are tons of more obscure film noir type movies that are 'cool' but not in the traditional your-dad-likes-it sense that casablanca is
― deeznuts, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link
I love that line about throwing beautiful women away, what is it?
― I know, right?, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link
i love this movie. i think it's great because it has pretty much everything you want to see in a movie and it packages it really really really well.
― s1ocki, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:44 (sixteen years ago) link
'You shouldn't throw away women like that, Rick; some day they may be scarce.'
xpost
― Michael White, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link
SO FUNNY
― I know, right?, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:46 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, the writing in this is way way up there
― gabbneb, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:48 (sixteen years ago) link
i hate to gush but there is something kind of magical about this movie, on the level of trying a handful of different things in one story and succeeding at all of them, the 'witty' characters are witty, the 'exciting' plot is exciting, the 'romance' really is romantic, the 'politics' are very politically real, etc.
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Michael Curtiz on ILF
― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
"If he gets a word in, it will be a major Italian victory."
― Michael White, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:51 (sixteen years ago) link
I love how Paul Henreid looks and acts like a Ronald Colman smoothie yet is supposed to be a concentration camp (and torture!) survivor.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Dude. Its Victor fucking Laszlo. He is The Man.
http://badattitudes.com/MT/paul_henreid.jpg
― B.L.A.M., Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:20 (sixteen years ago) link
i get a quasi pre-echo of the manchurian candidate from him, like war and torture have hollowed him out and he's just a vessel for a set of ideas that he may not completely understand. the fact that he's a handsome eurosmoothie just makes him seem even more insane and unloveable.
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:23 (sixteen years ago) link
and the terry lennox character from the long goodbye, too, someone very damaged. i always imagine lots of scars under the white suits.
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:24 (sixteen years ago) link
wow
― I know, right?, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:27 (sixteen years ago) link
This sounds so convincing that I want to believe it, but, unfortunately, Henreid's performance doesn't carry this weight (as Lawrence Harvey and Sinatra did in TMC). I always found it hard to believe that the audience is supposed to sympathize with Ingrid Bergman for foregoing a life with Reeee-ck for early burial alongside this mummy with a noble cause.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:27 (sixteen years ago) link
"Production Code requirements," blah blah blah.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:28 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd have to watch it again but that actually shifted my whole idea of that character about six feet to the left
― I know, right?, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:29 (sixteen years ago) link
I always found him a bit unfathomable, and vaguely unlikable.
― I know, right?, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:30 (sixteen years ago) link
xps fighting nazis, it's important.
...ha well we're REALLY supposed to believe the guy is the lynchpin in the entire global antifascist effort! still, not many movies sell 'sacrifice' convincingly.
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:31 (sixteen years ago) link
It's enough that Curtiz and Henreid suggest that Lazlo (can one imagine calling him Victor even after knowing him for years?) is fully aware his wife is fooling around.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:32 (sixteen years ago) link
NOBODY gets what they WANT in the movie but the AUDIENCE gets to be FREE do you SEE
― goole, Thursday, 28 August 2008 23:33 (sixteen years ago) link
nice, brief analysis of play-to-script here:
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2013/02/understanding-screenwriting-105-django-unchained-amour-banjo-on-my-knee-and-more/
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
The 1980 Charles Bronson/J. Lee Thompson remake Caboblanco is coming to blu. ILX only mentions it once, and only then because of a copy/paste of Jerry Goldsmith's IMDb resume. Anyone seen it? Bad, or hilari-bad?
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Monday, 27 June 2016 17:02 (eight years ago) link