Warren Beatty made his acting debut in Splendor in the Grass (1961) followed by Bonnie and Clyde (1967), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and Shampoo (1975). He also directed and starred in Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981), Dick Tracy (1990), Bugsy (1991), Bulworth (1998), and Rules Don’t Apply (2016), all of which he also produced. 

Faye Dunaway’s career began in the early 1960s on Broadway. She made her screen debut in the 1967 film The Happening, the same year she made Hurry Sundown with an all-star cast, and rose to fame with her portrayal of outlaw Bonnie Parker in Arthur Penn‘s Bonnie and Clyde, for which she received her first Academy Award nomination.

Norman Jewison hired Dunaway after he saw scenes from Bonnie and Clyde before its release. As Arthur Penn had needed to persuade Warren Beatty to cast Dunaway, Jewison had to convince McQueen that she was right for the part.

Michael J. Pollard was an American actor. He is best known for his role as C.W. Moss in the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which earned him critical acclaim along with nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

After The French Connection, Gene Hackman starred in ten films (not including his cameo in Young Frankenstein) over the next three years, making him the most prolific actor in Hollywood during that time frame. Buck Barrow in 1967‘s Bonnie and Clyde,^[12] earned him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor.

After studying law, Estelle Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961. During the 1960s, Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

score: 8.5/10

Most memorable shot:

Most memorable scene:

1. New Hollywood- The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of filmmakers came to prominence.

the biggest killer of the Golden Age of Hollywood was the beginning of the Golden Age of Television which was around 1947 through the 1960s. Generally speaking, the mid-1960s is often considered the end of both Golden Ages.

2.In addition to Coppola and Bogdanovich, New Hollywood (1970s) would help to launch the directorial careers of Dennis Hopper, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, and Jonathan Demme, as well as actors such as Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern and Robert De Niro.

The following is a chronological list of notable films that are generally considered to be “New Hollywood” productions.

• A Child Is Waiting (1963)^[1]
• The Cool World (1963)^[1] ≈
• What’s a Nice Girl like You Doing in a Place like This? (1963)^[210]
• Dr. Strangelove (1964)^[210] ≈
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)^{[235][236][223][1]} ≈
• Planet of the Apes (1968)^[237] ≈
• Petulia (1968)^[235][205]
• Rosemary’s Baby (1968)^[210] ≈
• The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)^[238]
• Bullitt (1968)^[239][240] ≈
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)^[241]≈
• Rocky (1976)^[224]≈
• Taxi Driver (1976)^{[285][205][268][222]}≈
• Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)^[301][302]
• Bound for Glory (1976)^[113][114]
• Futureworld (1976)^[150]
• The Last Tycoon (1976)^[113][114]
• Annie Hall (1977)^{[303][205][223]}≈

Big stars of The New Hollywood era:

John Wayne, Glenn Ford, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin.

3. What happened in America 1960-1990?

• John Kennedy Elected President. U-2 Spy Plane Shot Down Over Russia.
• Berlin Wall Erected.
• James Meredith Registers at University of Mississippi.
• Kennedy Assassinated – Lyndon Johnson President.
• Civil Rights Act.
• First Spacewalks.

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.

Diegetic sound

Diegetic sound in Casablanca is evident when Ilsa asks Sam to play the song ‘As Time Goes By’. The fact that the characters themselves can hear the music is important to understand how Rick cant bear to listen to the song that reminds him of Ilsa, and just hearing it causes him to dart across the room to stop the music and halt the pain he feels in remembering his past.

Diegetic sound also is significant in ensuring the verisimilitude of the film, in the midst of war and occupations elsewhere, residents of Casablanca come to Ricks bar to listen to music and forget the troubles of the world around them.

Non-Diegetic sound

The use of underscoring in Casablanca is also non-diegetic, in the first scene between rick and Ilsa they recall the last day they met. The score starts as a soft romantic violin, to represent how Ilsa is first ignorant to the torment that happened that day, and only remembers the love she felt for Rick. Synchronising with Ilsa’s change of expression, she then recalls how the Nazis occupied France that day, the underscoring then turns dramatic and violent.

This is used to share the heartbreak that Ilsa feels with the spectator, to immerse them in the movie and to feel as though they themselves experienced the same things.

Sound Motif

The use of sound motif in Casablanca holds a highly emotional response in the spectator. The first time the audience hears the song ‘As Time Goes By’, Ilsa doesn’t even need to say the name of the song as it is so ‘forbidden’ that Sam isn’t allowed to play it. This foreshadows an importance regarding the song, thus leaving the spectator to imagine the meaning behind the pain this song causes Rick, and the connection Rick has to Ilsa.

Connoting this song to pain, the spectator is then reintroduced to ‘As Time Goes By’ when Rick is alone, drinking, and feeling sorry for himself. The Mise-en-scene paired with the diegetic sound motive that is ‘As Time Goes By’ evokes a moving response in the viewer that is then justified by Ricks flashback of the last meeting between Rick and Ilsa in Paris, the day the Nazis came. A Romantic and beautiful song is reduced to a painful, heart aching experience, likewise of the relationship between the Ilsa and Rick.

Dialogue

Rick’s famous line: ‘Here’s looking at you kid’ is an example of Dialogue in Casablanca, the way he repeats this line throughout the movie connects the plot, and gives the spectator an idea of the relationship between the two.

Synchronous sound/ atmos and foley sound

Synchronous sound, or sync sound, is audio that lines up precisely with what’s happening on screen.

An example of this is the clink of Ricks glass as he slams it on the table in this sequence, similarly Foley/atmos sound is used to accentuate the sound of a door slam when Ilsa leaves Rick once more. This is made to be louder, more prominent as the pair are once again separated and Rick is left alone like in Paris. This heightens the dramatic effect of this scene, and evokes a isolated feel in the spectator.

The style of edit for this sequence and entire film is continuity editing which produces a logical and straightforward narrative. Casablanca does not bring attention to and purposely hides its editing in unique ways that reaffirm the Hollywood film style.

The use of editing in this shot sequence has a moving and dramatic effect in the spectator, Casablanca uses straight cuts or fades when changing a scene. The first scene at Ricks Café, where the audience is subdued to how many foreigners want to leave Casablanca, we as spectators understand that the conversations are taking place at the same time.

The cut used to depict Ricks hand signing a check then informs the audience that the Café belongs to him, and that he is the most prominent character in the movie.

The numerous medium long shots also convey the popularity of Ricks Café, and the success of his business amongst the panic and desperation of war.

Casablanca editing is so seamless that is doesn’t bring attention to when the scene changes- this allows the spectator to become immersed, and engaged, in the movie.

Set Design

The use of set design in Casablanca communicates to the spectator important story-telling aspects, such as Rick’s bar being the most popular and active place in Casablanca. Because of this, the spectator is encouraged to understand Ricks presence in the Casablanca community, and subsequently his status regarding the level of standard he upkeeps in his bar.

Locations

The use of filming on Location in the ending scene of Casablanca firstly ensures the verisimilitude of the movie itself, its presence during WW2 and the weather as a vehicle of pathetic fallacy mirroring the moving and dramatic final moment between Rick and Ilsa. The fog behind them effectively represents the clouded judgment of Ilsa, and how she, at first, values her and Ricks relationship over her safety. The bad weather also suggests to the spectator how fleeing Casablanca is a rare privilege, and wont be delayed or interrupted by the fog.

Costumes

The use of costumes in Casablanca is also used to tell the story of love and devotion and heartbreak. Ilsa and her husband Victor wear similarly coloured/ shaded clothing in the penultimate sequence, foreshadowing how they leave together in the end, rather than separated like Ilsa and Rick. Rick appears to wear darker clothes, more sophisticated, aligning with his mysterious and dark persona.

Props

Casablanca also uses props in a way that tells a story. The scene where the police arrest a man in Ricks Bar causes commotion and worry amongst the people in the bar, the movie also depicts Rick picking up a glass in order to restore some normality in the war-ridden, politically dangerous time the movie was set.

Similarly, in the flashback Rick has about his old relationship with Ilsa, the night where the Nazis invade Paris, Ilsa knocks over a glass. By connecting these two shots using props the spectator is forced to think about the carnage the war has caused, and how it forcibly separated the two. The way Rick picks up the glass in his own Bar also suggest how he didn’t get the opportunity to fix the relationship between him and Ilsa in the first place.

Score: 7.5/10

Most memorable scene: this is the most memorable scene as its the last moment between Rick and ilsa, who are destined to be together but war keeps them apart. It also shows the love and dedication that Rick has for Ilsa.

Invisible style storytelling – The treatment of space in classical Hollywood strives to overcome or conceal the two-dimensionality of film and is strongly centered upon the human body. The majority of shots in a classical film focus on gestures or facial expressions (medium-long and medium shots). – Gives a sense of Verisimilitude, continuity editing.

Continuity editing – the process, in film and video creation, of combining more-or-less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence to direct the viewer’s attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across both time and physical location. – Directs audiences attention, narrative continuity.