CASABLANCA

[maikuu]

[Yumi]

Hi!
This is YUMI

I really enjoyed watching this movie.
Actually I watched many times this movie, but it has always been teaching me!!
My mother likes to watch old movies so we have a lot of movies in my house.

About the love in Ilsa and bictor:
I thought that this couples are really loving each other because they completely have trusted each other. They hope for other person's happiness than theirselves.
In fact, they gave the one ticket to each other, however, they didn't accept the ticket if you don't go with me. I can't believe it there was such a kind of love.
In Japan, every women is looking for money than love because of depression. In old days, everybody believe true love even in under the difficult situation such as war.
I think we, comtempolary people, also need to believe something rather than money.
This movie taught me many things. Also ilsa has very beautiful face so I really like this movie.

Hi Yumi-- Yes, Casablanca reminds us that some things are more important than selfish desires especially the desire for material gain (money). But how quickly we seem to forget. I guess that's why we return to this beautiful story. In the end, we're even reminded of the value of friendship. All Rick has left is "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" with Captain Louis Renault. By the end of the story, I always wonder what might have happened next with these characters. Thanks for posting.

--Mike www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[khalidfs]

rick makes his final decision that illsa goes to american with lazslo because rick loves illsa

Khalid-- Why does Rick make this decision if he loves Ilsa? Are there any other reasons besides the fact that he loves Ilsa? Maybe Rick has no choice given the circumstances. What are they? . . .
--mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[cemozbek]

Hi everyone, this is Cem

Firstly I am a big liar I am also addicted to romance movies This is my first time, but I really liked the movie. Actors, actresses, their attitudes and costumes are awesome. Somethimes I think that life was more beautiful in old times. Nowadays, most movie has special effects and people are going to be unsatisfied, because technology is developing everyday. That's why we are not impressed from old movies.

Secondly, Rick has a very special personaly. Actually, he is not snobby and cynical. He is an introvert person, because his heart is broken by Ilsa. In myy opinion, Rick is not pursueing casual relationships. He is looking for the "special one". Unfortunately, he was betrayed by his big love. That's why he doesn't count on anybody. He loves helping people and also he is respectful to his friend.

Hi Cem-- I'm so glad that you appreciate Casablanca. There are always classics in life to be discovered by each new generation, classics like Shakespeare, Virgilio, Beethoven, and the Beatles. I believe Casablanca is such a classic, and you seem to have recognized some of its reasons for greatness. I hope you'll watch it again and find an even deeper understanding of its power. And, oh yes . . . perhaps this great movie will grow your English. Thanks for an insightful post.
--mike www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[xin jin]

From my personal idea, they reason why Rick choice to stay in Casablanca is that he want to left some guilty conscience to Ilsa. In my opinion, Ilsa did not really love Rick, Rick was just a tool for her which could be used to avoid loneliness and scary and hopeless. I really do not believe any falling in love at first sight, because it just a kind of burning. Using a Chinese phrase, they were just “ dried firewood met raging fire”. One person wanted men ,and the other also had not touched women for a long time, so they fell in love, but this love was fake, they even did not know each other well, and they had not sacrificed any thing for each other. For Rick, I think he know that Ilsa did not really love him, she just wanted to get the visa from him, and for him, the visa was useless, so he acted a play with his friend for Ilsa, to let Ilsa remembered that she and her husband owed him a lot, and that guilty conscience can be part of their live, so he did it.

Hey Man-- There's some pretty great logic here; you seem to have a good handle on human nature. Rick and Ilsa really didn't have the deep love that she and Victor had. But I can't help but wonder how passionate she was for Victor. It was more like a mutual admiration than a deep love. But then what is love between a man and a woman? Is it something deeper than a profound friendship? Maybe complete love is a combination of the two romances in this story--a passionate romance plus a deep friendship. So maybe Ilsa's tragedy is that love with either Rick or Victor would be incomplete. Sad . . .
Thanks for a fine post. --mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[Eunyoung]

Hi, this is Eunyoung Angela.

I really enjoyed this movie. Although it was made 70 years ago and doesn’t have vivid colours, the theme and message still have powerful meaning to us.
Is Rick really snobby and cynical? I’d say rather he is the opposite. He is just man who was betrayed by beloved woman. So he tried to be snobby and cynical at first, but after he realized that Victor needed and loved Ilsa truly, he just helped them to escape Casablanca and let them go. After seeing his sorrowful eyes staring their leaving from behind, who can say he is snobby and cynical?

Hey Angela-- People in the movie biz, especially screenwriters, often refer to the character arc. This term addresses the changes that a character goes through during the course of a story. There has been some discussion on Rick's character arc over the years. Some say he changed from cynical and snobby to sentimental and soft-hearted. Others argue that he was always sentimental and soft-hearted, but that he hid these traits behind his pain. Thanks for sharing your ideas on this topic.
--mike www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[catherinew94]

Hi, this is Catherine,

I would like to answer to the question: Describe Rick's character. Is he really snobby and cynical?

At he first sight, Rick plays the famous role (even in old movie like Casablanca) of the bad boy who looks snobby, harsh, cynical and heartless. In fact, movie have to catch the attention of the audience and surprise them at the end. How could your imagination can work if every pieces of the puzzle is given? The audience consequently thinks that nothing will happen with a man as Rick and that he is a bad boy who is going to end in jail.
However, as movie are inspired from the real life, people never fall in love with the good person. The constrast between the white, naive, innocent Ilsa and the dark, noire humored bad guy who is Rick make the spectator identify to these characters.
Gradually, the movie reveals that Rick is not so snobby as he was first sight as a vicious business man, but reveals him as a lovely person who could (and will) do anything for his love, Ilsa.

This kind of story was one of the first to illustrate the "bad boy and the good girl" type movie. the success of this story is relevant nowadays, even if the audience know the end by heart.

Hi Catherine from Coachella-- Thanks for reminding us of some cool points about Casablanca. I agree that by the end of the story we wonder how we could have ever believed that Rick was a bad guy when in fact, he was quite the opposite. Every time I watch this film I can't help but wonder what might have become his destiny. Perhaps he would have waited out the war in Brazzaville as Renault suggested, but then what? He couldn't return to America. He lost his club. He lost Ilsa. He had nothing. A sad ending indeed.
--mike www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[souzavirgilio]

Hello, everyone.

I believe Ilsa has a great respect for Laszlo. Even though she seems to love Rick in a different, more intense way, her feelings about her husband are full of gratitude and admiration. It is important to remember that Lazslo left her promising the same thing Rick would do later on: to come back and stay with her forever. And he fulfilled that promise after fighting around Europe. It is true that Ilsa regrets having hurt Rick's feelings, but she would probably regret even more to do something similar with Laszlo, the man that not only loves her but who fought and still fights for her and for the ideals they share - liberty, for instance. In this sense, it is difficult to precise the relationship between the main characters, since the picture seems to be more than simply black or white. Their personalities are dubious, and the context makes it even more difficult to understand certain motivations. Anyways, I think that in the end Ilsa decides to follow Rick's advice and take the safest road. As Rick indicates, Laszlo could offer her guarantees that she wouldn't find with anyone else.

[Abood93]

People say that ture love is when you want to spend all of your life with and can't life without. However another people say that ture love is when you love someone you just want to see them happy no mattet what even if that mean that you are not happy so it's like sacrificing your life for the one that you love, and I think they had this kind of love, and thats why he let her go !!!!