Tag Archives: refugees

Welcome to Rick’s

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In this clip from Casablanca, the viewer is introduced to Rick’s Cafe Americain, which is where the majority of the film takes place. The scene begins with a tracking shot that first shows what the cafe is called, and then moves through the door and into the Cafe. By using a tracking shot in this manner, it makes the viewer feel as if they are going into Rick’s themselves and allows them to be in the shoes of all the people that find themselves stuck in Casablanca. It then cuts to a tracking shot moving through Rick’s that lands on Sam in a medium close up as he sings. From this, the viewer can see the vast amount of people who find themselves at Rick’s. After these two tracking shots, the camera cuts to a man lamenting about never being able to leave Casablanca, then to a two shot of a woman trying to sell her diamonds to another man, and then to another two shot of men speaking who seem frightened by someone talking in a different language. It then cuts to another two shot with two men speaking about buying a ticket out of Casablanca. The camera then follows a waiter in the middle ground, tracking past two men speaking in a different language, and then stopping on the bartender serving a man a drink. The bartender seems almost offended as the customer thanks him by saying “Cheerio.” All of these shots represent the many different types of people who find themselves seeking a better life.

This introduction to Rick’s is vastly important to contextualize the rest of the film. From this clip alone, the viewer understands exactly what Casablanca is: a place of transit that no one can seem to get out of. There is a mix of people from all over the world with the same goal, yet they are still distanced from one another through language and cultural barriers. Showing this disconnect makes moments later in the film have much more of an impact, such as when everyone in Rick’s joins together to sing the French national anthem to spite the Nazis in the bar. Despite all of the refugee’s differences, they are all fleeing from the same regime and can band together against the Nazis. From this short clip, the viewer is able to understand the mindset of those trapped in Casablanca, fully understand the actions that take place for the rest of the film, as well as recognize the vast amount of people who are trapped in this place of transit.

Promise of a New World

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The scene that I chose is the opening scene from Casablanca. In the section of the opening scene that I chose the audience is shown the route in which the refugees take to get to Casablanca. Starting from France and finally ending in Casablanca. Then we learn that the refugees with money and status are able to use this in order to get Visas into Lisbon or the New World, and the clip goes onto to say that the other people just wait and wait in Casablanca. This particular scene gives the audience a perspective into the movement that the refugees take in order to escape the situation in their country. Because through the movement of the lines on the screen, we see that the refugees start in Paris then go to Marseille and then across the Mediterranean Sea into Africa. Meanwhile, there are images of the refugees leaving so that we can fully see the struggle that goes into leaving for a new country. Finally, once they arrive in Casablanca we learn that the ones with more power and money than the others are more likely to be able to leave to Lisbon or the New World before the other people who have to wait and wait in Casablanca. This scene shows the movement and the struggles that the refugees face when escaping to a new country.

Deadly Optimism

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In this clip, we see the final interaction between Georg and the woman who was watching the dogs before she kills herself. When watching this clip I thought back to Hannah Arendt’s We Refugees and her discussion about the suicides of the Jewish people. Arendt discusses the optimism and hope that many of the Jewish people had in the hopes of returning home, and how ultimately that optimism and hope faded for many and eventually led them to suicide. The Jewish refugees were left in a state of limbo not knowing if or when they would be able to return home, so the only thing that they had that they could cling to after losing their homes and livelihoods was hope and optimism. However, one hope and optimism is gone, they are left with nothing and death can be seen as a better option. This is similar to the woman with the dogs. The dogs she is tasked with watching symbolize her hope for escape. However, these dogs ultimately die, symbolizing how her hope and optimism of leaving France has died. Mirroring may Jewish and refugees from other countries, the woman ultimately decides to kill herself and simply falls from the ledge where she and Georg are smoking. She kills herself quietly with no explanation just like how Arendt described the suicides of Jewish refugees.