1943: Casablanca

:Casablanca:

I watched this movie for the first time with hubby one snow day afternoon. I loved Bergman and it was cool to hear so many classic movie lines in context. And Casablanca has what I’ve realized I need in a movie before I’m going to really get into it: a compelling story. 

I thought I needed “movie magic” but in fact after my experience with Citizen Kane and being showered with movie magic I realized that I simply don’t know enough to be impressed by at least one critical point of movie magic: cinematography. It all goes over my head. I just don’t have an eye for it. Perhaps it is a lack of education.

So, Casablanca doesn’t deliver on clever camera angles. It delivers on star power, story, and the screenplay. Which should normally be enough for me.

But Casablanca didn’t sweep me off my feet. I found myself checking my phone, even during the Bogart/Bergman scenes. I enjoyed it but I wasn’t captivated and that left me a little disappointed.

I was expecting a romance on par with Gone With the Wind and it wasn’t that for me. Part of what this storyline delivers is that sense of working for a cause greater than yourself and the very personal toll of sacrifices for that cause, including love. Normally I’m completely on board for that kind of thing but this film didn’t reach me on that level. I could see it trying, and I could see it not hitting home.

I guess I really am a product of my time and my generation and need to face the fact that I’m simply not a natural when it comes to classical movies despite the fact that I’m learning so much more about them.

I’m not sorry I embarked on this quest, not at all, but I am secretly worried that I’ll start enjoying “modern” movies a lot more than classics and that will somehow say something unflattering about my tastes. Like that I’m a Generation X pedestrian heathen who never grew up to appreciate the better things in life.

Filmsite.org does not put up any flicks to compete with Casablanca for the 1943 top spot.