Casablanca
Most definitely not. But I haven’t watched a movie together with my parents since ages and I know that they like old Hollywood love stories, so I figured they would like Casablanca as well. I was even more surprised that they actually haven’t seen it yet, but it’s only natural, I guess. It’s a story with a sad ending and it propagates western ideals and stuff, so it obviously would not be particularily famous in China.
I hate the “Ich schau dir in die Augen, Kleines”, but aside from that, the love story itself was rather cute and understandable. Both of them, but especially Ingrid Bergman, are fabulous actors and make the ridiculousness that goes with Hollywood love stories somehow realistic and touching. My adoration for Ingrid Bergman has now nearly reached Audrey Hepburn’s. They are like two sides of a coin (blonde – dark-haired, petite – tall, cute – elegant etc.) but they share a naturally beautiful, rather smart looking face with expressive eyes and an incredible talent for acting.
Back to the politics: Despite the suspenseful and beautifully kitsch love story and La Bergman, I still believe that the (questionable!) political message is still the main reason behind its popularity is still the message. I dislike how Italians are shown in such a bad way, how all the Germans are so generically bad (the truth is much more complex of course), how the city of Casablanca itself is basically reduced to some exotic stage, how I had to read in the Wikipedia article that lots of german actors had to play roles of Nazis even though they had to flee from Germany themselves. Besides that, I rather doubt the way patriotism and western ideologies such as democracy is shown: it’s just stated that these values have to be protected, not why – of course you can’t expect more than this from such a movie. The Marseillaise is still a song of war, bloodshed and fights; the democratic values of the French Revolution still go hand in hand with “La Terreur”… maybe I should not talk about politics, I guess, it’s too outraging. Especially not in relation to a Hollywood movie.
Another thing I find interesting about the movie is the strength of its citations. Even more since the german translation is so horrible (like I mentioned before with “Ich schau dir in die Augen, Kleines”). But when I’ve re-read all the quotations on Imdb and Wikipedia, I immediately recognized them and were able to relate them to the specific scene, like “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” or “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.'” and especially “Round up the usual suspects.” (ahaha, so funny). Maybe it’s just that the most simple things in movies are also the most memorable.
Finally, the most important part of the movie is still the end. I expected Lazlo to die in fact because I could not believe a famous story like Casablanca to end without a happy end. But I figured that this aspect of forsaking love for something bigger must also have contributed to its popularity; and I think so too. Love is beautiful, but letting go of the true love for something more important, something like responsibility, is even more so. That’s why “The Bridges of Madison County” would have been a beautiful story if the book was a bit better written and the character a bit more complex (in my opinion). In the end, I could totally identify myself with Rick, but what, nowadays, is more important than love anyways?