How might we recognise ‘Casablanca’ as the work of an auteur?
The film ‘Casablanca’ directed by Michael Curtiz can largely be described as the work of an auteur despite being a studio assignment film because Curtiz’s signature style can be seen very clearly while watching the film; specifically, the cinematography due to his manipulation of shadows, camera and lighting which was influenced by German expressionism, and you can tell that he had an overview over the film due to everything such as the editing being very precise. As well as this, auteur’s are also known for collaborating with the same people on multiple occasions, for this film, Curtiz again worked with Humphrey Bogart who acted in many of his films as well as the producer Hal Wallis who Curtiz frequently worked with.
In the Rick’s Café sequence, Curtiz’s signature tracking shot is used to go from outside the cafe to inside the café. This is part of Curtiz’s signature style because he often starts from outside a building and then goes in, often uses tracking shots and pioneered putting cameras on wheels. Following this tracking shot there is another tracking shot inside the café that shows the audience everyone inside, allowing everyone to see that Rick’s café is almost utopian as there is a music and lots of people are welcome (many languages are spoken in the film and on set), it’s a place of escapism from the characters away from the troubles of world war two. The same tracking shot is also manipulated again and drops down to introduce us to Sam who is playing the piano. The piano is a motif throughout the film as it appears everywhere, both in Rick’s current life and his flashbacks.
Also, during the Rick’s Café sequence, Curtiz’s signature ability to manipulate lighting is seen through the motif of the search light that travels across the front of Rick’s café. This motif adds to the theme of constant surveillance and how the war has led no one to be safe. The film is in many ways a propaganda film. For example, it empathises the idea that American isolation was a bad idea through the character of Rick who represents America and isolates himself. He doesn’t drink with customers and says ‘I stick my neck out for no one’ on multiple occasions which Renault replies, ‘A wise foreign policy’, explicitly saying to the audience that America have isolated themselves due to the events of the first world war, but Rick does help others by the end of the film, emphasising the importance of not isolating themselves to the audience. In WW1, America lost many soldiers and so decided to only financially support England and to give them materials instead of military involvement. However, the extreme close up of the cheque that Rick writes allows us to know that the film was set right before pearl harbour which changed America’s involvement, it was set on December 2nd in 1941, which means that when the film came out Pearl Harbour had already happened and America now needed to be involved in the war and so the film was used to encourage this message as well as boost morale which is another reason why Hollywood were encouraged to create more films during the war, they were even allowed to still use silver nitrate despite nitrate being needed as a resource for bombs because Hollywood cinema had necessary influence.
Because the film is largely a propaganda film as well as it being a studio assignment, some people question where the line between auteur film and classical Hollywood film is drawn. Throughout the film, many classical Hollywood film form elements are used such as in the opening when we are shown the people of Casablanca looking at the plane, it obeys the 180 degree rule like the majority of the film. However, this is also paired with Curtiz’s signature tracking shot again, as well as Curtiz’s excellent shifts in genre, even in just the opening it goes from a war time film with actual documentary footage of refugees (European refugee crisis), to a spy thriller with suspects being rounded up, to a comedy when the man steals the older man’s wallet and there is a non-diegetic trumpet noise to empathise the comedy of the moment. Curtiz worked on many films and in these films who developed a perfect understanding of each genres and so learnt to combine genres in his films which became another one of his signatures, making ‘Casablanca’ and auteur film.
During Sam’s scene he is a playing a song called ‘Knock on wood’, this song was already owned by the studio and was re-used in order to save money due to budgeting. The song ‘As Time Goes By’ which is often used as a motif such as in the flashback sequence was the only original song for the movie. ‘Knock on Wood’ is an optimistic song that was used as its meaning applied to not only the characters but the audience in the cinema at the time, it was a way of boosting morale as the song is saying don’t worry about your problems, but the war is going on for the audience as well as the characters. During this scene, Rick puts the letters of transit, another motif, under Sam’s piano when the lights go out, it adds to the theme of secretiveness as well as it being another example of Curtiz’s control of the lighting. The theme of secretiveness continues in the arrest scene. When Rick has to get money out of his safe, instead of seeing him do so we get a long shot the shadow of him doing so making it more secretive as well as being another example of Curtiz’s ability to manipulate light and shadows which he frequently does in is films; this is because of the influence that German expressionism (approximately 1905-1920) had on his films.
Strong shadows are often seen in the film, the mise en scene often includes having large shadows of random objects on set like a plant up on the wall. There is also a close-up of a shadow of a window on the floor during one scene. As well as this, the string shadows and use of functional lighting help give depth to the studio such as in Rick’s café and help it appear to be an actual room instead of just a studio where the entire film was filmed due to budgeting. Plus, during the blue parrot scene, there is a shot of Laszlo in the foreground and in the background on the wall there is a shadow of a women dancing which is an unusual but beautiful shot and therefore a part of Curtiz’s signature film form making it an auteur film. The blue parrot links to the motif of the colour blue, there is multiple occasions where the blue parrot is mentioned as well as a close-up of the blue parrot sign. Plus, Rick says that Ilsa was wearing blue in Paris and as blue has the connotation of isolation, the audience could again link it back to American isolation and America should be involved in the war, Ilsa goes on to say that she ‘put that dress away’ and that ‘when the German’s march out the world’ she will ‘wear it again’. This scene includes the motif of the song ‘As Time Goes By’, it goes from being diegetic and Sam playing it on the piano to being non-diegetic and orchestral when Rick and Ilsa are talking. This scene also includes a long duration close-up shot of Ilsa’s face which is also a signature of Curtiz and very unusual for film, it’s a shot that separates the film from being an auteur film to a classical Hollywood studio assignment film.
Georgia Newman Film Studies 