Both the Historical Dictionary of Film Noir (Spicer, '10), and the Film Noir Guide (Keaney, '03), list Casablanca as film noir. Decide for yourself when this revered classic, previously reviewed below, travels to TCM Sunday, November 12 at 12:45pm PST.
Arthur, Just wanted to say I enjoyed your essay on this film, and I agree with your assessment of it. It is not a great piece of filmmaking. A few years ago I showed it in my film class and they agreed. But for me, the film rises above the script and production because of the performances and the chemistry between Bogart and Bergman.
Arthur, Just wanted to say I enjoyed your essay on this film, and I agree with your assessment of it. It is not a great piece of filmmaking. A few years ago I showed it in my film class and they agreed. But for me, the film rises above the script and production because of the performances and the chemistry between Bogart and Bergman.
Thanks so much for reading that and commenting! I always enjoy the film immensely. It still gets a rise out of me too!
Casablanca is an endlessly watchable masterpiece, script/dialogue, star-power & brilliant direction from the master, Michael Curtiz. Some years back there was this big Hollywood scriptwriting guru giving lectures & all the big film-makers were going (I just can't remember his bloody name), anyway, he made a TV doc about film-making, & the film he said got a lot of things wrong (camera angles ect) was Citizen Zane & he compared that to the perfect film...Casablance, it just works.
