Casablanca Close-Up (Opening Sequence)

Overview:

This sequence introduced the audience to the film. It begins with the Warner Bros. Logo and Jack Warner is immediately accredited. A map of Africa and exotic music lays the tone of the films location, and the French Anthem introduces the theme of patriotism. A narrator explains the nature of the situation in Europe, and why/how people are travelling to Casablanca. We then cut to a French officer e positioning and explaining why people need to rounded up and questioned. The film then cuts to this, and shows the busy streets and corrupt policing of the city. This is further shown by a man who is shot down by the police.

Key Elements:

Cinematography –

The scene begins with a map of Africa to set the film in reality and establish its location. We then cut to a spinning globe to visualise further where the story is taking place, and an animated line displays where/how the migrants are travelling to contextualise the story for the audience.

The lavish, expansive set is shown off through a rooftop shot which then tilts drops to become a street view, which is wide and shows of the environment. As the police cars drive though the streets, the camera pans to track their movement and show off even more of the set, making it seem even more real.

Editing –

As the map shows the journey and destination of the refugees, actual war-time footage is overlayed to root the film further in reality. Cross fades throughout the sequence made the transitions seamless, typical of the classical Hollywood style popularised at the time, and put one transition into another, giving the sequence a grand and overarching feel. The sequence of the usual suspects being rounded up is rapidly edited to show the chaos/urgency of the moment and the brutality of the police. As is typical of the classical Hollywood style, the whole sequence is done through continuity editing, and everything shown is in service to the story, even the pickpocket scene, showing how lawless the city is. This efficiency of storytelling is also seen in the instance where a man is asked for his papers by the police. This singular moment is representative of all the suspects being rounded up. This man is not a character, merely a plot device used to represent the police brutality against the struggling refugees trying, desperately, to get out of Casablanca.

As the police officers search the man, a sudden rise in the composed score and a focus in on his papers show that he was for French freedom from Germany. This then cross fades to a shot of the French national motto displayed above the palace of justice, the juxtaposition of shots acting as symbolism of the injustice displayed by the police in Casablanca, and the tragedy of the situation.

Mise-En-Scene –

The city of Casablanca is bustling and filled to the brim with activity. Different styles of outfits and exotic animals and architecture cement the location and immerse the audience in the films setting.

Sound –

The music played in the title sequence by Max Steiner has an African/Eastern, exotic tone to it, bringing the audience into the location. The rousing French National Anthem then plays to establish the theme of patriotism and freedom.

In the city, the sound mix is dominated by the diegetic sounds of the shouting and moving people of the city. The sound of the police officer raises in the mix so that the audience can hear the exposition, and the sound mix after is filled with loud sirens, shouting and running to show the chaotic and fast-paced sequence in which the usual suspects are rounded up and harassed by the police.

Performance –

The police officer receiving a telegram sets up the plot in 3 sentences through exposition. The classical Hollywood style was about efficiency of storytelling, showing the plot through as few cuts or lines of dialogue as possible. This is evident in the editing, writing and cinematography here.

Context:

Casablanca, in the film, is not the real place, rather made as an expansive prop set in the Warner Bros. studio in Hollywood. The film shows off this location through wide shots of the streets, where large numbers of extras and extreme attention to detail are used to create this exotic and foreign environment, the studio essentially boasting its lavish set design. In one shot the film shows everything needed to contextualise the film in the heaving, crowded and busy streets of the city, with a mix of Europeans, Africans, Americans, etc.

The narrators language is biased and manipulative, describing how “torturous” the journey was, and how eyes turned “hopefully, or desperately” to the west. This is because the Warner Bros. Head/executive producer Jack Warner was an interventionist who wanted for the film to persuade the American people of the threat posed by the Nazis and the reasons to become involved in the war in Europe. The general feeling of Americans towards France at the time were that they were noble struggling victims, bullied by a stronger, more aggressive power. The French are not at fault, and are trying to defend themselves. This is reflected in the patriotic score and the depictions of Europeans being pickpocketed or harassed by police in the opening sequence, or the narrators manipulative language which describes the refugees as hopeful, struggling victims. This is because of how Americans viewed the French at the time, but also because of Jack Warner’s desire to make a film in favour of joining the war in Europe, to defend the victimised French and defeat the ruthless Germans.

The film boasts its lavish set design, impressive extra count and cast as Warner Bros. Was rivalling the other 4 big film studios in Hollywood at the time the film was made, so made efforts to increase the exoticism, scale, grandeur and glamorous image of their films.

As the man is show down by the police, there is no sign at all of the gun shot wound, as the studio was regulated by the Hays code, further making the film a product of the time in which it was made.

Representation and Aesthetic:

The characters in the film are relative stereotypes of the ethnicities they belong to. For example, the poor accents are a result of the fact that this film was not shot on location, rather in a studio back in Hollywood. Their cartoon-like personality’s are done to show the cultural mixing pot that is Casablanca, contextualising the film.

Autership:

Jack Warner is immediately credited in the opening title sequence, showing that he had a large hand in the production of the film. He green-lit the idea and had it wheeled into production as he wanted to create a film to persuade the American people of the country’s responsibility to become involved in the war in Europe. The actors and the composer and the director are also credited in a large font, showing that the film was a collaboration of different talents, further emphasised by the non-diegetic composed score rising in tone and pitch as the composer is credited.

The camera dolly’s in to focus the audiences attention on the journey the refugees have travelled, and the location the film is set in, thereby contextualising the story of the film.