Please read Casablanca (1942) as an excellent model of effective film writing.
Film context: while the film takes place in December, 1941 (the same month the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, encouraging America to enter WWII, the film was distributed in November, 1942. The setting of the film is no accident. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) represents America. He's from one of the most identifiable U.S. States: New York. Seen as a neutral, by the end of the film Rick has made his loyalties clear. His actions (like those of the U.S.A.) will help determine the outcome of the war. The film is influenced by film noir (and has various similarities with that movement), but it is really a romantic drama. This is boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy has a chance to get girl back, but sacrifices his own happiness for her. The film in black and white suggests the dichotomy between good and evil, Axis vs. Allies, love and war, etc. With low-key lighting it suggests a more pessimistic or dangerous tone for the setting of the film. For more details about the film, take a gander at this:
Casablanca (1942)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Produced by for Warner Brothers Studios
Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch
Produced by Hal B. Wallis & Jack L. Warner (executive producer)
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography by Arthur Edeson
Film Editing by Owen Marks
You should recognize Humphrey Bogart (Sam Spade in Maltese Falcon), Sydney Greenstreet (Gutman/the Fat Man from Maltese Falcon), Peter Lorre (Joel Cairo from Maltese Falcon, and Fritz Lang's M), Conrad Veidt (from Different From Others & as Cesar the Somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and Ingrid Bergman (Hedda Gabler). Claude Rains was also popular (we mentioned him in the Universal monster movie The Invisible Man). So, as you can see...the cast was pretty familiar to the 1940's audience. They are part of the studio move star system of the time period.
If you will miss this film (showing Monday/Wednesday of next week) please read the entire script (or rent & watch the film on your own). You can find the rest of the script here: Casablanca.
HOMEWORK: None. If you didn't see or read Casablanca, please do so.
For fun: Bugs Bunny: The Origins of an American Icon
Casablanca (1942)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Produced by for Warner Brothers Studios
Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch
Produced by Hal B. Wallis & Jack L. Warner (executive producer)
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography by Arthur Edeson
Film Editing by Owen Marks
 | Humphrey Bogart | |
 | Ingrid Bergman | |
 | Paul Henreid | |
 | Claude Rains | |
 | Conrad Veidt | |
 | Sydney Greenstreet | |
 | Peter Lorre | |
 | S.Z. Sakall | |
 | Madeleine Lebeau | |
 | Dooley Wilson |
You should recognize Humphrey Bogart (Sam Spade in Maltese Falcon), Sydney Greenstreet (Gutman/the Fat Man from Maltese Falcon), Peter Lorre (Joel Cairo from Maltese Falcon, and Fritz Lang's M), Conrad Veidt (from Different From Others & as Cesar the Somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and Ingrid Bergman (Hedda Gabler). Claude Rains was also popular (we mentioned him in the Universal monster movie The Invisible Man). So, as you can see...the cast was pretty familiar to the 1940's audience. They are part of the studio move star system of the time period.
If you will miss this film (showing Monday/Wednesday of next week) please read the entire script (or rent & watch the film on your own). You can find the rest of the script here: Casablanca.
HOMEWORK: None. If you didn't see or read Casablanca, please do so.
For fun: Bugs Bunny: The Origins of an American Icon
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