ipl-logo

Casablanca Cinematography Analysis

697 Words3 Pages

Cinematography is critical to the success of any movie. Cinematography uses composition, lighting, depth of field, and camera angles to determine what the audience sees. Casablanca’s cinematography directs the audience’s attention, shapes the audiences feelings, and reveals the theme of the movie.
Cinematography directs the audience’s attention and acts as the viewer’s eyes. The cinematography highlights Casablanca as a dangerous place filled with deception. The camera angle is important when the man shot trying to escape falls before the French Vichy government head. The wide shot of the wall draws the viewer’s attention to the head of the Vichy French government, showing who is in charge in Casablanca and helping the Germans. A low camera angle draws attention to the …show more content…

The cinematography also reveals the theme of neutrality. This movie was shot as America remained neutral in WWII. The brightness of Rick’s Café Americana represents hope for freedom. The Germans are shown in darkness highlighting their abandonment of humanity. The French official and Rick are a shown half in shadows to highlight their neutrality. The French official remains neutral to do what is best for him. Rick represents neutral America. He has loyalty to no one and stays out of politics. Lazlo and Isla are not neutral and are fully committed to the fight. They are shown fully in the light, but with shadows around and following them to represent the dangers they face. In the end, in the brightness of the hanger, Rick and the French official are forced to abandon the shadows and their neutrality to pick a side. They let Isla and Lazlo leave, kill Major Strasser, and walk into the foggy darkness, neutrality abandoned, committed to freedom.
The cinematography in Casablanca is critical in directing the audience’s attention, shaping the audiences feelings, and revealing the theme of the movie. Ultimately, the movie helped America abandon its neutrality, join the Allies and defeat

Show More
Related
600 Words | 3 Pages

Casablanca (1942), movie directed by Michael Curtis, is about love, past-relationships, and sacrifice in World War II. During World War II, many people wanted to leave Casablanca to America, to escape the Germans. However, obtaining the visas was never easy. People had to ask for help from criminals and their methods to get what they wanted. Rick owned a nightclub in Casablanca called Rick’s Café Americain.

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

Similarly, the cinematography of Casablanca also strives to shape the viewer’s attention to the time and space of the story. The film employs a handheld movement of the camera in certain instances, to display the mise-en-scene in a genuine manner that emphasizes the setting and time of the movie. For example, evaluate the scene in the film when the camera sought to illustrate the workings of Rick’s establishment. The handheld movement of the camera explores the club in a manner that brings the viewer’s attention to the viewpoint camera. The point of view of the camera, at this point of the movie, demonstrating a human experience of observation, and fixates on investigating war uniforms of characters and their actions.

Read More
1617 Words | 7 Pages

Mise-en-scéne is crucial to classical Hollywood as it defined an era ‘that in its primary sense and effect, shows us something; it is a means of display. ' (Martin 2014, p.XV). Billy Wilder 's Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) will be analysed and explored with its techniques and styles of mise-en-scéne and how this aspect of filmmaking establishes together as a cohesive whole with the narrative themes as classical Hollywood storytelling. Features of the film 's sense of space and time, setting, motifs, characters, and character goals will be explored and how they affect the characterisation, structure, and three-act organisation.

Read More
749 Words | 3 Pages

Camera Movement in Casablanca (ESSAY #3) (A-) It’s important to watch Casablanca while thinking about the context in which it was released. After the United States entered World War II, it was a little over a year before audiences saw Casablanca. It doesn’t take much investigation to see how the war plays a part in the storytelling, but certain film techniques helped emphasize messages the film wanted to tell its audience. Through the use of camera movement, the finale of Casablanca puts the spotlight on Strasser and Rick’s newfound relationship, which can convey a message about the United States and its allies.

Read More
1335 Words | 6 Pages

The film 13th directed by Ava DuVernay targets an intended audience of the Media and the three branches of the United States government with an emphasis that mass incarceration is an extension of slavery. It is intended to inform viewers about the criminalization of African Americans and the United States prison boom. 13th uses rhetorical devices in its claim to persuade the viewers by using exemplum in the opening seconds of the film. President Barack Obama presents statistics, saying “the United States is home to 5% of the world’s population but is home to 25% of the world’s prisoners.” Also the film uses a hyperbole in talking about the movie Birth of a Nation produced in 1915 which portrays a black man as a violent savage who will kill white women.

Read More
1024 Words | 5 Pages

Structure in narrative film can be thought of as the arrangement of scenes and sequences, however deconstructing sequences and re-ordering them can create a whole new theme and mood in a films sequence. Phillips, (2005). Casablanca’s narrative plot has a beginning, middle and an end. It has a certain symmetry about it and follows a set of norms and conventions. For a viewer, Casablanca is easy to understand and it simply tells a story that is not ambiguous.

Read More
831 Words | 4 Pages

The movie Casablanca has similarities to World War II. The movie begins by the viewer meeting Rick Blaine. He is the owner of a club that helps people from other countries receive their letters of transit. This club was a safe haven for many of the refugees. This club would allow for the refuges to obtain their letters of transit as well as earning some quick cash for traveling from gambling in the secret room.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

The ideology that is presented in the film is people create strong bonds in during difficult times. Spielberg has displayed this ideology using various aesthetic features such as symbolism, camera angles and lighting. Symbolism displayed the ideology through the use of the symbol 'brotherhood' which displayed how close the soldiers were. Camera angles showed the relationship between the characters and lighting highlighted how the relationships formed and when. Therefore in brief Spielberg successfully positioned the audience to believe in the dominant ideology by using aesthetic features to show the relationships between

Read More
1898 Words | 8 Pages

Dalton Cowan Doctor McGowan UI 100 24 October 2015 A Classic in Every Sense of the Word: The Greatness and Shortcomings of Casablanca Greatest movie of all time is a prestigious title that any director or cast would be thrilled about having attached to a film it is, in part, responsible for creating. The problem with this title, though, is that there is not a consensus on what the best movie actually is. Because of this, all kinds of people offer up many different films that they believe deserves this distinguished label.

Read More
1687 Words | 7 Pages

Those that believe Casablanca is not film noir usually perceive Film Noir as a genre. Noir is not a genre; Noir transcends genres and behaves more accurately as a style of cinema. As styles go, there can be variations of them as we see now with Post-Noir and Neo Noir, noir elements in a different time period of film technology which makes these films slightly different than the style of classic film noir. Themes of cynicism, impending doom, loss, jeopardy of life accompanied by visuals dominated by shadows, strong lines, and overall darkness to the image make up film noir’s style. Noir is not absolute, the beauty of this style is its vulnerability to variation, which is why Michael Curtiz’s Classic Casablanca is film noir.

Read More
2800 Words | 12 Pages

Over the past century, film has served as a powerful means of communication to a global audience and has become a vital part of the contemporary culture in a world that is increasingly saturated by visual content. Due to the immediacy and the all-encompassing nature of film, the process of watching a film, is widely perceived to be a passive activity by the general masses. However, quoting Smith in his article about the study of film, “nothing could be further from the truth.” The study and understanding of film as an art form enhances the way we watch and appreciate films. It requires the audience's active participation and interaction with the film in order to fully comprehend the directors' intention behind every creative decision.

Read More
1072 Words | 5 Pages

Inversely daytime lighting is used to convey a realistic environment, like the scene in the film where the police, Chuck and Marshall arrive at the institute. b. A variety of shots are used in remarkable ways in the movie, as illustrated in the film, the wide shots are used to introduce the location of the film, Shutter Island. Another example are the close up shots on Daniels, specifically when he is at the sink looking in the mirror, this is used to show his dual

Read More
1020 Words | 5 Pages

The first shows lighter, brighter shades like grass and leaves. During the war green color is presented by more “gloomy” hues like military uniform or a rocket in the night sky that Doss saw in his nightmare. The film often shows characters’ faces in close up; these frames constitute a majority of the movie. Camera focuses on characters’ faces and moves slightly following their heads’ motions. This approach makes viewers focus on people’s expressed emotions and interactions rather than their environment.

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942) is a film based in WWII around different nations involvement in the war. Casablanca is a stylistic piece of propaganda based in Casablanca, Morocco, a hotspot for Europeans escaping the war and Nazi government. Within the movie each character represents a nations stand in the war. Because of this each character is compromised in certain ways and has clear flaws. Ilsa Lund, the main female character in the film is renowned for being extremely manipulative and overly emotional because of the way women were seen in this era.

Read More
850 Words | 4 Pages

Cinematography is a combination of techniques used to describe the emotions and mood in films. Cinematography includes camera shots, angles and lighting. A Beautiful Mind and The King’s Speech are biotic films this depicts the life of an important historical person. A Beautiful Mind emphasizes the inner struggles of a man who has schizophrenia.

Read More

More about Casablanca Cinematography Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document