This is a thread about CASABLANCA because it is utterly awesome and the best black and white film ever.

X^n post:
And the extremely sympathetic villian/rival played by Claude Rains in Notorious (after all, his mother is the real villian) is a much more interesting character than that goody-two-shoes Victor Laszlo.

Citizen Kane is a technical tour de force, but I don't get the same emotional hit that from it that I do Casablanca. I always end up with a tear or two at the end of the Curtiz movie, and Bogart's Rick is a more complex character than Welles' Kane. He's a guy broken in half through loss, something that touches virtually everyone and makes for a strong emotional core. The characters in Casablanca are really what makes it a classic. Finding a script, acting or characterisation like that is hard - whether today or whether almost sixty five years ago.

if you had time to write that then why you couldn't you have done so at the beginning? this board suffers from yours and others usual 'X is Y cos i say so' route, as does your reputation as a critic. i can't believe you get any satisfaction out of that. be surprised if anyone else does either. just some friendly advice from the amateur critics critic...

I have a love of classic Hollywood too though.

CC, perhaps you would prefer the feel-good remake starring Michael Richards, Citizen Kramer.

Actually my favorite output of those bald Epstein twins are the Hollywood novels of son and nephew Leslie.

P.S. Best avante garde? Any movie with the legend, "directed by Jack Hill".

*made in the 1980s.

A movie that was advertised on our schools' religious notices board, back in 1969...

NB to CC72: csblnca WAS a faceless blockbuster when it came out; it was precisely that. i'm surprised you haven't read the stories of its creation.. it barely got made; other people were going to play the lead roles until the last moments; no one expected it to do more than the other junk the studios cranked out by the bucketload; it was just one of those movies where everything clicked and the years added to people's appreciation of it (its politics have held up, for one thing, as someone mentioned above). so don't get too snotty about "faceless hollywood"!

avant-garde: Of, relating to, or being part of an innovative group, especially one in the arts.

Best film with innovative techniques used then, yes?

Star Wars then, surely?

Jack Hill is a legend. Check out "Switchblade Sisters", "Spider Baby", "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown".

Dario Argento from 1969 to 1987 is a pretty good bet. Mario Bava as well. Dellamorte Dellamore is worth seeing too.

A Boy and His Dog is an apocalyptic classic. I did a thread on that before.

B-cinema is always pretty interesting when done well. William Castle, Tod Browning, Val Lewton...

um

Dario Argento from 1969 to 1987 is a pretty good bet.
why

Mario Bava as well.
why

Dellamorte Dellamore is worth seeing too.
why

B-cinema is always pretty interesting when done well.
give reasons

Really dude, learn to tell Rains from Conrad Veidt. You guys talk about analog recordings the way you do b&w?

"Casablanca" is arguably a great MOVIE -- iconic, beloved, still works its magic (I've likely seen it 11 or 12 times myself) -- but to claim it as some great work of cinema borders on laughable. For all the smart punchy lines the Epstein brothers wrote, there's howlers like "Victor, please don't go to the underground meeting tonight."

It was a happy accident, as described above, and just look at the scenes before Rick's entrance to see what a hoary, jerrybuilt melodrama it might've been.

Isabella Rossellini says her mom often wondered aloud why fans always wanted to talk about "that Bogart picture."

i do like conrad vedit that said. but why this film, not 'the spy in black' or whatever. there are lots of films like 'casablanca' really. (like 'pepe le moko', mofo).

CafePress does better turnaround than that, dude.

You know, I'm still gonna say it's a masterpiece of cinema because of how it all blends, the set, the atmosphere, the romance, the tension...

If cinema is entertainment then Casablanca remains one its masterpieces. Sit and beat your meat over Godard all you want.

P.S. Ned, quite possibly. It's about how long it's gonna take me to get it completed. The first one should be out sooner.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...) (webmail), January 5th, 2005 3:11 PM. (link)

Pshh. I'm saying NOWT!

just like the chanel ads with the girl that walks around in golden water! you know those? way superior to casablanca, and well worth seeing.

ps: yum ;)

BZZZZZT!!!!

A couple of Curtiz films around '50 are similarly generous to characters played by the Afro-Puerto Rican actor Juano Hernandez: The Breaking Point and Young Man with a Horn.

Claude Rains's last-minute transformation from opportunistic jerk to hero is such a classic bit of old-school acting and charisma

sweetnessheart, what watch?

ten watch.

such much?

Huh, always thought it was "such watch?"

that's how i recall it

Rains drops
such watch

I believe it's such much watch

Super Borges just made an appearance on another thread.