Casablanca
Casablanca was a movie that I had heard a lot about
but had never had the urge to watch. I believe that this was
mainly my belief that movies in black and white were not as
exciting. After watching Casablanca I found that my pre-conceived
notion was wrong. Making a movie in black and white proves to be
much more difficult which means more technical aspects have to be paid
attention to. Scenes in Rick's cafe uses many long shots with different
lighting to create shadows to give you the the feeling of how late it
is when no one is in there to fill up any of the space.
The setting of Rick's cafe when something "illegal"
is going on is much different than when "nothing" is going on.
The only time that something "illegal" was going on and the cafe was
full of people was when the letters of transit were being deposited
into the piano that Sam was playing. The more shadows and the
longer shots in the movie seem to depict more depth into what is going
on in the movie. As the cafe gets empty and the shots get longer
with more shadows there seems to be more mescivious actions going
on. The most important things seem to happen in this kind of
setting. This room, Rick's cafe, has many different ways that it
can be shot in the movie and especially when a car drives by and you
can see the shadows very well, this type of long shot works very well.
As the movie went on it became more interesting and
more complex. Rick seems to have total control and always knows
what is going on. He seems to be able to "trick" anyone into
doing exactly what he wants.