Page 327 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Unit 29: Umberto Eco’s ‘Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage’ (History and War-Background)

same means that is has been declared central to the narrative, Renault and Strasser re-appear to Notes
change the subject and the couple spend the rest of the conversation exchanging looks (via more
close-ups) and reminiscences of their last meeting (“The Germans wore grey, you wore blue”)’.
Then, once Ilsa and Laszlo have left the club, when he asks about Rick she is non-committal and
at this point passes through a shadow (34.12), implying that something is being concealed. The
audience is drawn into a process of revelation without yet fully understanding what is to be
revealed.
Ilsa’s re-appearance propels Rick into a heavy drinking session during which his face is shown in
half-shadow in the darkened café, illuminated only by the swooping beacon from outside,
complementing his depressive mood. He makes an obvious reference to Pearl Harbour: ‘It’s
December 1941 in Casablanca. What time is it in New York? I bet they’re asleep in New York. I bet
they’re asleep all over America.’ This retrospective warning appears to be designed to confirm in
the (US) audience’s mind that joining the war was right and possibly overdue. The drinking binge
leads to a flashback sequence of happier times in a whirlwind romance with Ilsa in Paris immediately
before the German occupation in 1940; the full lighting of the initial scene immediately lifting the
mood. The flashback includes dramatic documentary newsfilm of the Nazi blitzkrieg leading to
scenes involving Rick and Ilsa where historic details are communicated via newspaper headlines
and tannoy announcements including ‘Paris is an Open City’, ‘The population is advised to
evacuate’, and ‘Italy declares war on us’.
It is pertinent to note that these events took place only two years before the film was made. When
Ilsa fails to join him on the Marseilles train to freedom, the encroachment of war is linked to the
split in their personal relationship. These scenes would have resonated strongly with the wartime
audience, many of whom would have relationships disrupted or ended because of the war. The
flashback is positioned at this point in the narrative to provide a partial exposé of events from
Rick’s point of view, to explain his mood and to switch attention to his relationship with Ilsa. At
the end of his reminiscing, the camera pans from left to right to Rick dozing drunkenly in right
foreground and knocking over his whisky glass – a parallel to Ilsa knocking over her glass in the
Paris flashback after she asks ‘Kiss me as if it were the last time.’
Rick is repositioned to the left when suddenly the café door opens and Ilsa is seen in the distance
in the middle of the screen, strikingly spotlighted in a shaft of light – almost as if in Rick’s dream.
To support the narrative structure, each scene in Casablanca advances the plot by confirming
what could be derived from previous scenes, and adding further information. This provides
continuity and information about characters’ motivations. Rick’s drunken condition exposes his
inner sentiments behind the hard cynical exterior when he dismisses Ilsa’s roundabout explanation
of why she abandoned him in Paris, and his continued feelings for her are confirmed when he
directly asks again the next day in the market (54.30), and Ilsa reveals Laszlo is, and was then, her
husband.
The transformation of the character of Rick from determined neutrality and self-preserving interest
(embodied in the repeated ‘I stick my neck out for nobody’) to full engagement (killing the Gestapo
commandant in the process of assisting Laszlo and Ilsa to escape) can be interpreted as an analogy
for the historical process of evolving US policy towards involvement in the war (It is easy to
overlook the widespread support for Fascism among political and business leaders in the US
during the period 1938-40. For example, Roosevelt openly approved of the 1938 dismemberment
of Czechoslovakia by Germany and in 1939 was quoted as regarding Mussolini’s regime in Italy
as ‘of great importance to the world - though still in the experimental stage.’ (see Chomsky p68)).
The dialogue reveals that Rick has a background of idealistic support for lost causes in opposition
to the Axis powers: he was involved in running guns to the Ethiopians when they were invaded
by Italy (which would have made him liable to prosecution in the US), and fighting on the Loyalist
side in the Spanish Civil War. But his idealism clearly needs re-kindling, and the narrative offers
several potential turning points, each of which might also be seen as a metaphor for a real historical
event. These include his intervention at the roulette wheel on behalf of the Bulgarian couple, his
agreement to the Marseillaise being played in his café in opposition to the German patriotic song,
and the frank discussion with Laszlo after he has been injured.

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