Unconventional Auteur: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Research and write about how Casablanca is an example of a product produced by an auteur institution

Warner Brothers made Casablanca an example of an auteur studios approach to filmmaking. They developed a house style that was formed by in part by Michael Curtiz, director of Casablanca, who was very versatile and made sure that the human characteristics of the story were full represented. Curtiz introduced a visual style to Hollywood which saw the use of ‘artistic lighting, extensive and fluid camera movement, and unusual camera angles’ while working within the boundaries of the studio style. Due to this, there is a distinct auteur approach when looking at scenes that show off a large amount of people. When Rick’s café is first being introduced, the camera crabs from right to left, spending time concentrating on the actions of guests at the busy café. There is also representation of this style when focusing on the major stars in the film. Rembrandt lighting creates a small triangle light on the cheekbone of the actor which gives them contrast and is often used on Ilsa so as to make her look more appealing to the male gaze. Fluid camera shots track both Rick and Ilsa when they move around the set and its movement is often based on their movement. During Rick’s introductory sequence, the camera tracks the movement of the chess piece on the board and the cigarette he holds to his mouth, tilting up to reveal Rick and and dollying backwards, blocking him centrally framed to show the importance and the power that he has.

Warner’s also became known for their ‘big screen realism’ and the crime dramas and gangster films that became popular after the Great Depression as it resonated with audiences who had hit troubled times. These films, under the influence of Producer, Hal B. Wallis, aided the development of the house style that Warner’s were creating in the early 1930’s and gave their films ‘urban settings, snappy dialogue and a brisk pace’, most notably demonstrated during the pickpocket sequence in Casablanca. Exposition is efficiently delivered in a short space of time by the pickpocket so as to distract the man he is robbing and give context of the situation in Casablanca to the audience. The presentation of the exterior busy street set is made up of massive buildings, filled with furniture, mounds of shrubbery and a great deal of extras that show the lavish production values the films were provided with by the studios.

Typically films today in Hollywood might open with a small title sequence or choose to leave it until the end of the film. Should they decide to put the title sequence at the beginning then the directors name often shows up as one of the first names on screen because of the control the director has on the output of the film, allowing for more auteur directors. In the Golden Age of Hollywood however, it was the studios that were considered to be the auteurs due the creative control they had over a film which can be seen in the opening of Casablanca. The Executive Producers name, Jack L. Warner, appears on the Warner Brothers logo as the producer is more important than the director in terms of influence, with A-list actors following on from that to promote their stars. The director acted as an artist hired to produce the vision of an auteur studio rather than proposing the ideas themselves.