Casablanca Film Form 

Before we have even seen Rick we know what type of person he is, we know this because of the characters and the setting of his bar, he is even mentioned by high ranking German and french people . Rick is an american as we can tell by the sign of his bar. IT takes along time to get into ricks bar, making the audience be eager to get in. When we get in the bar we see people pawning their objects without question, showing how wealthy people dwell in Casablanca. The conversations stops when their is a spotlight on them showing that people are always looking and listing to show no one is safe even in ricks bar. All conversations and moods are depressing showing how unhappy everyone is there. Again before we meet rick customers want to drink with him, but rick doesn't drink with customers showing that rick is a lonely person.  The use of mise-en-scene, there is a big spotlight to show unsafely of the area and no one can hide as there are always people watching and listing. Rick at his entrance has two large double doors showing that he is powerful and wealthy and that his bar is high end. The clothing of the customers is always formal once again showing that ricks bar is the place to be, but only if you got "money". Everyone in the bar is drinking and smoking, these are stress revilers as the horrors of Casablanca can be too much at times. People struggle for money so there is a lot of gambling to try get money to escape the terrible location they are in. The bar has large low hanging lights to show expressions on the peoples face and too see how much they dread living there. Finally we see rick alone playing chess, this shows that he is an alone person and without any words said shows that he is always plotting his moves and is a smart person who always thinks ahead of time. There is a lot of invisible editing, it has nice smooth flow and is only noticeable when you point it out, the cuts work well because  they are not done all the time, they do this so you do not pick up on it and is a great use of invisible editing. There is a good relationship with shots because they all show the meaninglessness of Casablanca. the sound used is a mixture, we have the upbeat music when we are in the bar showing that it is a good time, we music is a live and played in front of the people, there are no sound effects but the music is diegetic. The dialogue in the scene is depressing no one is having a fun and enjoyable time, everyone who is there is upset and just wants to get out, this is shown with their performance as everyone looks desperate and in need to leave. The only people who are happy is the instrument players as they enjoy their good and it is their god to be happy and be lively.The use of cinematography is good as the camera movement is smooth and free flowing. The director did an establishing  in 1942 showing that they really wanted to move it to make the camera shot work well.  shot on ricks bar to show the new place, there is a lot of two person shots witch are almost upper body shots, rick is the only person who has a close up showing how important he is. It took a lot to move a camera

The Paris scene is very important as it shows who rick was before he be became a nasty person who sticks his head out for no one, in the scene we saw how much llsa meant to him and how she was the love of his life, Rick in this scene is shows to be a gentle lover who would do anything for his lady, a stereotypical man. The use of the performance in this scene is happy and enjoyable as it is a fresh air from the hell like Casablanca showing that when the war is over all will be happy and is a wake up call for america to join to everything can go back to normal. The sound in this scene is upbeat and makes the viewer feel happy the reason the music is upbeat is because they want to show how madly they were in love and would do anything for them. the dialogue is also useful as it shows that they love each other a lot and don't care about their past showing how they are living in the moment without any cares.They editing use is a fade in rick as it is a cliche for a flashback, but Casablanca did it first. There are a lot of cuts showing their enjoyable moments and to show what they did, they had edited a background of a car scene as they could not have a camera moving with a car. the use of mise en scene is  a white car witch represents happiness and wealth, they always dress formal to show that rick has a lot of money, they have scenes out in the public to show that they are not affront to show their love, there are car moving scenes to show how fast their love is moving that they cannot focus on anything else in their life. The use of cinematography has a good flow as is a two person shot to show that they are the main focus on everything as they are all that you can see in the shot as everything else is blurred out, there is a high angle show to show the scene but rick and llsa are still the main people in the shot. It is always upper body to show that they are the main focus and the background doesn't matter. 

- Robert Gilbert