82. Love of my Life &...

Lyrics

Love of my life, you've hurt me
You've broken my heart
And now you leave me
Love of my life, can't you see?

Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know
What it means to me

Love of my life, don't leave me
You've taken my love
And now desert me
Love of my life, can't you see?

Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know
What it means to me

You will remember
When this is blown over
And everything's all by the way
When I grow older
I will be there at your side
To remind you how I still love you
I still love you

Hurry back, hurry back
Please, bring it back home to me
Because you don't know
What it means to me
Love of my life
Love of my life
Yeah

Queen proves here that they do not need to write epic rock operas to make great songs. This is a very sober, even simple song, that's nonetheless a really great romantic song. It is also interesting to note that even though Freddy Mercury is often considered a homosexual, he wrote this song about a woman. It is not hard to link this song to a movie. There have probably been even more movies about a man losing the love of his life, than there have been songs about it. The movie I chose may just be the most popular romantic movie of all time. 

The Movie: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Casablanca is indeed a great romance. But to only call it a romance, is to sell it short. This is also a great war drama; one of the best World War 2 movies I have seen. It could also be argued, I believe, that this is the greatest propaganda movie of all time. I do not mean that as a slight at all. The elements that turn this into propaganda only heighten the movie's strengths for me. I have been fascinated by propaganda objects since I first really studied them in history classes. Take, for example, the war propaganda of the First and Second World War. Much of it is revolting, especially of course the Nazi propaganda, Still, it is easy to understand why it was effective. While the content of these propagandist objects was deeply retrograde, their form was quite intelligent. National caricatures (as I've often written I love analyzing the representation of nations and nationalism) are a great example of this. The way these caricatures are used in propaganda objects reveals, in the 'best' propaganda, that the creators of these objects have a great understanding of how textual and visual signfiers can be used effectively to create meaning. And it is fascinating to see how easily one can reassign meaning to familiar symbol. The same American eagle for example can mean different things when put in a different context. In some propagandist objects, this re-contextualizing is done in such revolutionary and interesting ways, that many of these objects, no matter how horrible they are, can in some way be seen as experimental, progressive art. And much of the techniques used in propaganda, are now being used in television news, narrative films and advertising. The influence of propaganda on movies is probably most visible in the editing of movies. One of the most influential editing techniques of the twentieth century was used by Soviet filmmakers in the 1920's when they made propaganda movies about the very new, communist, Soviet Union. It is not surprising that this technique is now called Soviet-montage. 

This was a rather long digression, but I found it necessary. I have read some reviews lauding this movie, but criticizing it, because it has some propagandist elements. I think that these propagandist elements are exactly what makes this movie great (besides that I do not have much of a problem anyway with anti-Nazi propaganda such as it is here). Moreover the propagandist elements are not very understated here. The movie's main aim is not to make you swoon over the romance between Rick and Ilsa. I mean, it is a great romance, and Bogart and  Bergman, act it out so great that the flashback to their Paris days isn't even all that necessary to make understand that they really love each other. It is so well written though that it doesn't matter and, like anything else in the movie, it is a joy to watch. But the romance here serves a higher purpose. It wants to sell the idea that the war effort of the (French) resistance is more important than anything else. Serving the resistance is worth losing the love of your life over. This is basically liberalized by Rick's famous speech at the end when he claims that the problems of three little people don't amount to much in this crazy world. That the movie is more interested in making a point about the war, than in Rick and Ilsa's romance is perhaps also exemplified by the change Rick, the hero of the story undergoes. If this was the usual romance he would be at first a man who does not love Ilsa, and then turn into a man who does love her. Here it is immediately clear he loves Ilsa. Rick is presented as a hero here because he turns from a cynical realist who is willing to do business with anyone, even Nazi's, if it befits him, into an (sort of) idealist who realizes that there are some things greater than himself, and who is willing to resist the Nazi's. The same can perhaps be said about Captain Louis Renault. He is played by Claude Rains, who is as great as Bergman and Bogart. In fact every actor in the movie is perfectly cast and gives a wonderful performance. They are all, of course helped by great dialogue that seems explicitly written for the actor saying it. One of the reasons the movie is such a joy to watch is the fact that all the actors are seemingly enjoying themselves so much. That's even more remarkable, because it is probably not true. There were apparently many tensions during filming, especially between Bogart and Bergman.

Now, this and Inglourious Basterds are my favorite World War 2 movies. But the first 30-40 minutes of the movie are even greater. I loved the way Rick's cafe was portrayed, full of scheming realists and characters who are seamlessly introduced and than just as seamlessly forgotten. The cafe is sort of a micro cosmos of European society in world war 2. It's filled with people who try to get a transit visa to America in order to escape the war, and they sit at tables next to Nazi officials who are there ostensibly to keep an eye out for potential 'dangers', but mostly to gamble, drink, and have fun. Nowhere in Casablanca is the war more alive than at Rick's, but there is also no place in Casablanca where it is easier to forget and escape the war for a while. And at the center of all this is Rick himself, who is a friend to all. He may hate himself for this, but it is an arrangement with which he is perfectly content. The characters we meet at Rick's are all perfectly written, but these scenes are even more interesting for the way the portray World War 2 in a way that's quite unusual to us modern audiences. Now we are aware of the true horrors of Nazi Germany. We know about the Holocaust and the concentration camps. The concentration camps are mentioned in Casablanca too, but their scope and their horrors were still relatively unknown in 1942. This means that while most modern movies focus (rightfully) on the immorality of the war and focus heavily on the memory of the (Jewish) victims and the effects the war had on their descendants, Casablanca  focuses much more on the geopolitical conflict in the Second World War. The war is a very bureaucratic affair here, whose battles can be won by thinking logically and being smarter than your enemy. Thus Casablanca is filled with wonderful scenes of characters thinking and inventing strategic schemes. And the audience is invited to think with them, and to see how and why the characters reach their decisions, and what consequences these decisions may have. The greatest example of this may be the final night that Rick and Ilsa have together. The scene has so much subtext it is astonishing. Still my favorite scene in the movie is not surprising considering, I spent so much time lauding the propagandist elements of the movie. It is of course the singing of La Marsellaise over the German folk song. And my favorite shot in the movie comes near the end when the bottle of wine from the Vichy region breaks. As for my favorite line? Well, that I cannot choose. There are few movies whose dialogue is as sharp as Casablanca. Also, it is often ridiculously funny. I will watch this film many more times.