Mise-en-scene in Casablanca – George Blake

Locations (Exterior):

Rick’s Café is arranged through the Mise-en-scene as a wealthy and popular area to locals. This is exampled by fancy cars pulling up outside do drop of wealthy dressed patrons as well as busy doors of people entering, furthermore the bright neon sign pulls in the viewers attention as from the years 1920- 1960 Neon was used commonly for areas with a busy purpose, such as Vegas or time square for example.

Another example of location in the mise-en-scene can be with the footage recovered from the Nazis advancements into Europe and by association to the capture of France, French Morocco. In addition filming in Morocco was impossible as Nazis had generally inhabited the country and closed of its borders to foreign travellers, especially the US who from December 7th 1941, were now at war with Germany and Japan.

Sets (Interior):

Through the sets interior, the busy and crowded Mise-en-scene of Ricks Café is shown with people in seats being almost shoulder to shoulder to with each other. This connotes Rick’s Café is highly popular.

With the use of projection of Paris within a set, it creates the illusion that the actors are generally driving and additionally allows for filming and sound recording to be done easier. By having it set in Paris it provides to the storyline where these characters originally met and fell in love, the decision for it to be set in Paris is cleverly used for a love basis being the ‘city of love’ but also acts as propaganda for the war as the love from Paris is brought to a halt under the Nazis, as shown with Rick and Ilsa.

Costumes:

As seen here, the use of costumes add to the storyline to create context of the time period. Filmed and set during the war, French Morocco was taken under German control in 1940 when France had fell to the Nazi’s. This is shown with the characters in a French police uniform and a German Majors uniform.

Reminiscent to the ideas of wealth, a white tux symbolises confidence and sophistication, something we can see with the way Rick acts when confronted with problems such as the Nazis or dealing with his very popular business.

Props:

Props such as alcohol connote how, in proportion, Ricks emotions are in the storyline. When in love Rick is less reliant on alcohol as he is intoxicated on love with Ilsa, however when she leaves him, the viewer can see how he becomes more reliant on it to make him happier.

The pistol is a prop that creates the drama elements of the storyline as up until this point, Ricks character hasn’t resorted to a weapon to solve his issues, when it comes to a matter of love however he is willing to do anything to ensure Ilsa’s safety.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *