St. Olaf Classic American Film Festival
Monday, Feb. 25 7 pm Casablanca, dir. Michael Curtiz (1942)
It’s World War II. It’s Morocco. It’s Rick’s Café Americain. And Ilsa walks into Rick’s. And Sam plays “You Must Remember This” . . . .
E
The Classic American Film Festival begins a six-week tribute to the Golden Age of the Hollywood Movie with the film the American Film Institute placed at #2 (right after “Citizen Kane”) on its list of the greatest American movies of all time. Whether this is your first time or your tenth, there’s nothing like seeing “Casablana” on the big screen.
“Seeing the film over and over again, year after year, I find it never grows over-familiar. It plays like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it. The black-and-white cinematography has not aged as color would. The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned. Much of the emotional effect of ``Casablanca'' is achieved by indirection; as we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do after all amount to more than a hill of beans.”
--Roger Ebert
Watch a famous scene from Casablanca:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-dGYjSq5k
Some unforgettable lines from “Casablanca”:
Rick Blaine: Here's looking at you, kid.
Ilsa Lund: Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.
Rick Blaine: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Rick Blaine: I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but 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. Someday you'll understand that.
