The Golden Age Of Hollywood: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Research and write about how Casablanca is a product of the contexts in which it was produced: Cultural, historical, institutional, political, social, technological.

Casablanca incorporates a classic Hollywood style of filmmaking under the influence of Warner Brothers, utilizing key technological aspects such as cinematography and mise-en-scene while focusing on the political standpoint of its producer.

Casablanca is very much a film that reflects the contexts in which it was produced in terms of the cultural, political and technological. The opening sequence of the film strongly reflects the nature of the film as a piece of propaganda for encouraging American involvement in the war. At the film starts, the executive producers name, Jack L. Warner appears on the Warner Brothers logo due to his influence on the films production. Warner was a firm believer in American involvement in the war and a keen promoter of the Democratic Party and their President F.D. In order to show that the film is taking place in reality, the map behind the title cards shows Africa, rooting the story in reality while the movement of the globe turning as the camera pushes in, focusing on Europe shows the audience that the war is global and focuses on specific regions, emphasizing that the outcome of the war will have repercussions globally. News footage from real life where refugees struggle across Europe creates a feeling of empathy from American audiences with the intended effect of encouraging the public to be in support of being militarily involved in the war.

Extravagant sets were used to show the enlarge production budget of a studio due to the competitive nature of the film industry. These sets worked in cohesion with the cinematography used to show this off. The streets of Casablanca are filled with furniture and buildings with a large cast of extras. Due to cost, it was common that a lot of screen time was spent on these sets and this is helped by the cinematography. As was typical of the time, the camera movement and depth of field was used to show off the sets. In terms of composition, there’s a sense of scope created by the depth in the foreground and background and a balance between the top and bottom half of the frame, evident in the pickpocket scene where the camera is positioned behind the three characters talking, allowing the audience to see them while observing the streets, providing a world feel and brings the conversation to life.

There is a large emphasis on the stars of the film, with studios making use of the stables they possessed to their advantage. Camera and lighting is often motivated by the stars, using a shallow depth of field to glamourise them and Rembrandt lighting on Ilsa when in Ricks cafe which gives contrast therefore placing both in the foreground of the film. Ricks character is easily definable and takes on a more tough, no nonsense approach at the end of the film as the Hollywood hero, representative of all America.