Women are represented in Casablanca through the character of Ilsa. Her character is often presented stereotypically as an accessory to Rick and Laszlo. She can also be seen as innocent and harmless, as was the viewpoint of women at the time. However, she briefly breaks stereotypes by threatening Rick with a gun.

The audience see both stereotypes and countertypes of men through the character of Rick. He is shown to be confident, self-centred and ‘masculine’. However, once Ilsa is introduced, he becomes more vulnerable and emotinal.

Authority Figures are represented as powerful, antagonistic and corrupt. This can be seen with the character of Captain Renault who is after Rick for having Ilsa and Victor’s transport papers. However, this changes at the end when he allows Ilsa and Laszlo to escape and then tells the police to “round up the usual suspects” as opposed to arresting Rick.

People of Colour can be seen through the character of Sam, who challenges stereotypes by being among many white people while performing, in a time where racial segregation was a serious problem.

Americans are represented as being neutral in relation to the Second World War. This is seen with Rick, who allows people from both sides of the war into his café. However, Rick later shows his true self, assisting Laszlo and Ilsa in escaping the Nazi-occupied Casablanca.

Europeans are represented as defenceless and weak against the Nazis, as seen with the man at the beginning of the film who attempts to flee when questioned, subsequently getting shot dead.

underscoring:

in the scene where Rick and Ilse see each other in the bra. A dramatic underscore is use to show the shock of the characters as they thought they would never see each other again.

Sound mixing:

sounds of people talking as well as drinking clicking together were added into the scenes set in Ricks bar using Foley. This immerses the viewer making the set feel more realistic as if it were a real bar.

Realism

The elements of design in Casablanca, the setting is realistic during the time of 1942 and World War 1. The setting shows the emotion of the people in the film during this time, with the stress of getting off the island and to America where it was safe.

On the other hand, the well-lit, planned out feel of the movie interrupts its ‘realistic’ feel. The immaculate costume and good looking love interests are also used to weave this movie in with other films that follow Hollywood’s surrealistic ‘ideal’ look.

Visual Style

Casablanca’s style and emotional feel has its roots in the black and white, high-contrast style of the German Expressionist filmmakers. In Expressionism, the filmmaker tends to distort or bend reality for an emotional effect. This unique style might have been lost, had World War II not changed the course of events.

Tone

 The fluid camera movements and suspenseful content in Casablanca establishes the tone of the film and manipulates the audience’s mood through imagery, setting, and character emotion/action.  The tone of ‘Casablanca‘ is established in the initial scenes through suspenseful music, the heroine’s troubled expression, and the dramatic and precise mise-en-scene.

Realism: A good example of Realism in Casablanca is the setting. Since it is set in 1942 during WW2. There is stress between character wondering if the island is safe and whether or not they should move to America where it is safe

Tone: The tone of the film is a serious drama with lots of high stakes and Serious moments. A good example is the climax scene where Rick tell IIla to get on the plane and leave him behind, the scene is very emotional.

Visual Style: The film is of the style of Film Noir which is a style of filmmaking that has cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, use of flashbacks, intricate plots and and underlying existentialist philosophy.

Intro –

Throughout Casablanca, Aesthetics can shown through the elements of Realism, Tone and Visual Style. Here I will show examples of each and what fits in with them.

Realism –

Realism is shown to mixed with elements of love and and the reality of war. In Casablanca, this is used to create that dramatic storyline of a love not meant to be due to the side-lined threat of the Nazis. With the focus being heavily on Rick and Ilsa’s love narrative, the terrors of the war are side-lined yet still depicted to current with, Parises ‘city of love’ being taken by the Nazis in real news footage. It can be said this was the creative intent as to free themselves from the reality of war movie-goers would attend films such as Casablanca to immerse themselves in an artificial reality.

Tone –

Tone in Casablanca, uses suspense to create that theme of drama. With the threat of being taken away by the Nazis if they showed the slightest involvement to the tickets to Lisbon, this creates the element of suspense as it is unknown if Rick, or any other of the protagonists will be found out.

Additionally with the narrative of Lazlo being a member of the resistance, this shows suspense as through the earlier scene of a resistance member being shot in broad daylight, the audience fears the same will happen to him.

Visual Style (Film Noir) –

Visual motifs in Casablanca can be seen with the reoccurrence of German uniforms. This obvious motif signifies that danger and threat is near as in comparison to reality it is generally known they are the enemy. Sound motifs can be heard when Ilsa is revealed to Rick, with a signifying sound, different to the previous piano song, this connotes that there is something significant about this person to Rick.