Analysis of the opening scene of Casablanca

Analysis of the opening scene of Casablanca                                                      25/10/17

The opening scene of Casablanca is used to give context about where the play is set, and to introduce the characters. The first shot is a wide shot of the outside of Rick’s Café Americain which has been purposely used to show many people entering and leaving the bar, as opposed to a close-up which would give us detail but no context. There is a spotlight that follows people walking into the bar, which is used to suggest the that this Is where the film will be set and the importance of it. Next there is an establishing close-up of the bars neon sign, once again to give context, before it pans down to the entrance and continues to pan through the whole café. For the most part it continues to pan, going from right to left, which was very common for films of this nature around this time, only cutting to show people in the café conversing. All of the conversations between the customers appear to be illegal to some extent which suggests that this bar may be a place of misconduct, and prepares the viewer for what’s to come.
After panning through the café, the camera comes to a stop and shows a close-up of a cheque that is being written out. It then changes to the torso of a man, dressed in white, playing chess, before panning up quickly to present the face of our protagonist, Rick. He was purposely dressed in white to give the impression that he is “the good guy” or “the hero”, as opposed to the Nazis who are clothed in black. The shot changes to a wide shot with Rick on the left and people entering on the right, the shot reveals that Rick is in fact playing chess by himself which could be symbolic that he is watching the war play out in front of him without interfering, or that he doesn’t take sides and only looks out for himself.
Film Noir
Casablanca is technically not a Film Noir but it does include a lot of characteristics from that of film that is, starting with the narrative, which follows the typical bad guys verses the good guys, with the German Nazis being the villains, and Rick and Laszlo being the heroes. However, this is not the main plot, instead it focuses more on Rick and Ilsa’s struggle, which is one thing that separates Casablanca from the other Classical Hollywood films. In addition, Film noirs typically have pointless endings, whereas Casablanca has a hopeful and courageous ending that leaves you with a message.

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