Casablanca

Few films have been called "legendary" as much as Casablanca. Who cares that it's lemonade full of pathos, that Humphrey Bogart's harshness may be teetering on the brink of bearable, that the year of its creation may make it seem naive... What I have always seen in Casablanca, what I see and hope to see in the next few years, is above all a strong story that dares to put ordinary friendship on the same level as love (or is it even higher?), which won me over, plain and simple. (26/08/2014)

So now I've got this cult masterpiece under my belt as well. Nice. Really. A very well done romantic film that seemed to catch a lot of tears from romantic souls in the middle of the last century :-) Well, it didn't get mine because it didn’t end up the way I wanted it to. I did think that Ingrid Bergman overacted here and there and I had to chuckle at it, which probably spoiled the overall impression a bit. But why not? For film geeks, this should be required reading. (17/03/2009)

The film features the Swede Ingrid Bergman, Englishmen Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet, Germans Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Italian Paul Henreid (playing a Czechoslovakian with a Hungarian name), Madeleine Lebeau and Marcel Dalio from France... and many others under the direction of Hungarian director Manó Kertész Kaminer. What could be a more Hollywood classic? It’s a paper-rustling romance that, due to fate, became something much more. Perhaps it is because of the paradox of the way in which the exiles mixed themselves into the story of exile. (04/02/2009)

After watching the movie I had a persistent feeling that I checked off one of the classics, but it left no mark on my soul. It left nothing in me at all. And I don’t getwhy a Czech nationalist would appreciate one of the characters who has a Czech passport, but also a hell of a Hungarian name. But mostly, I appreciate the fact that during the war local bohemians managed to film such a distinct spy movie which they immediately combined with romance and love so that the Gestapo wouldn’t look for some secret meaning. However, not counting the awesomeness of the movie, I feel a great deal of naivety typical for the time period. The naivety which characterizes this cinematography is, truthfully, alien to me. (09/01/2017)

The naive political background and lack of chemistry between the central duo bothered me. Although I really like Bergman, she isn’t convincing at all here and it is probably impossible to believe that Rick and Elsa were ever bonded by fateful, undying love. In my opinion Bogart always belonged, belongs and will belong to Bacall or Grahame. This is a quality picture, but one of the more standard Bogart movies. (21/01/2005)