Friday, November 13, 2009

Casablanca - Michael Curtiz (1942)

I could write pages and pages about this film. It is one of my favourite movies of ALL time (second only to 'The Godfather'). I wanted this film to be the halfway mark of the list.

I have seen this film too many times to count. I have seen it on TV, DVD and luckily enough on the big screen. It stands up every single time I see it. And I don't tire of watching it. Somehow (and I have no idea how or why this is) it is fresh and exciting and engaging every time I watch it. It's almost like each time is the first time.

The story is simple and classic. Good guys/bad guys, romance, handsome leading man (Humphrey Bogart), beautiful leading lady (Ingrid Bergman). Some of the best lines ever in a movie:

'You played it for her, you can play it for me.'
'This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'
'Here's looking at you, kid.'

And my personal favourite: 'It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.'

This is the 'other' Humphrey Bogart movie that has the most mis-quoted line (the other one was 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'). It's not 'Play it again Sam.' (Admittedly, the first time I saw this film, I was a bit disappointed that isn't the actual line.)

Like I said, I could go on and on about how much I love this movie. I won't.

One word to describe 'Casablanca': Timeless

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