Labbe-Casablanca

The script for Casablanca arrived at Warner Brothers’ studios the day after the December 7, 1941 Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. France had been invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, and other parts of Europe were also under German control. Roosevelt’s government was diplomatic with the Vichy regime from the time it rose to power in 1940 to November 1942.

Casablanca’s general release was on January 23, 1943. There was general public approval of the film’s timing and political message. The Casablanca Conference was happening at the same time from January 14 to 24, which saw the planning of the Allies European Strategy.

The film was set in North Africa during the early days of World War II, and focused on European resistance to Fascism. People trying to escape Nazi persecution plan to leave Europe through Casablanca to go to America.

At the end of the film, Captain Renault (Claude Rains) the Vichy leader and Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) the American club owner, watch as a plane flies off into the fog. The plane carries Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) a Czech resistance leader and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) his wife and Rick’s former love. Lazlo and Lund went through Casablanca to try to escape to America. German Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) would have stopped the couple if Renault and Blaine did not work together.

The dominant of this scene is Blaine’s face because he’s placed at the top right corner in the foreground. His eyes look out of the frame to the airplane Lazlo and Ilsa are on. He witnesses their safe escape, the product of his heroic efforts. The camera proxemics are close, there’s a tight frame and there is low density so that the audience focuses on Blaine’s facial expression and proximity to Renault.

Indeed, the background is blurred out in low lighting so that Blaine and Renault are the main focus. Their personal character proximity not only tells of their allied stance against the Vichy regime, but also gives more detail to their relationship and roles in the film.

The character proxemics are almost intimate as Blaine is closer to the camera, standing in front of Renault, overlapping his figure. This tells the audience that even though Renault and Blaine worked together, the American, is the main hero of the story. He sacrificed his personal happiness to preserve American liberty and ensure it spreads throughout Europe.

The film tries to convince the audience to drop the country’s general isolationist attitude and embrace a more active role in World War II.