Casablanca - Cult Movie by Luiz Roberto Da Costa Jr.

Casablanca: Cult Movie

Casablanca: Cult Movie (by Luiz Roberto Da Costa Junior) Master Degree in Political Science, University of Campinas, Brazil

Summary

The diverse and unique interpretations of the author on this classic in the history of cinema join the famous semiotic analysis of Umberto Eco to show the complexity of this masterpiece that has become a Cult Movie. The importance of the film exceeds the field of cinema to politics, history and semiotics. Various meanings are revealed by an interpretive look that seeks to understand the soul of the film and the reasons for their stay in people's memory.

The various interpretations of the film:

1) Umberto Eco and semiotics in Casablanca 2) The Anti-Nazi Propaganda 3) The French Defense on the chessboard 4) Place your bets: ... Black 22 5) Love, Rejection, Passion and Sacrifice in Casablanca Conclusion

1) Umberto Eco and semiotics in Casablanca

Umberto Eco wrote an important semiotic analysis [1] on Casablanca and believes that the film works with archetypes [2] which often reappear in narratives with a vague sense of deja vu: situations where one has the impression of having witnessed or experienced them.

The film remains in our memory as a whole, not only because it presents a central idea, but many and this makes it a Cult Movie. The part of the semiotic analysis: a common frame that a situation is a stereotyped sequence of actions coded as day to day, for example, dinner in the restaurant or going to the train station; an intertextual frame that is the state based on prior knowledge stereotyped as the duel between the sheriff and the bandit or a narrative where the hero confronts the villain and wins, or as the suspect who escapes from a checkpoint and was shot by police. Moreover, there is the stereotypical iconography as the Evil Nazi who can develop an intertextual archetype.

The film Casablanca [3] begins with an African music (adventure movie) and then switches to the Marseillaise (patriotic movie). Then, on the image of the globe, a voice suggests a story (sort of newsreel) describing the odyssey of Refugees and Casablanca-Lisbon route (international intrigue).

Casablanca is a city that represents The Last Outpost on the Edge of the Desert. Rick's Café Américain embodies the vision of the Foreign Legion near the Grand Hotel where people come and go and nothing happens. This café is the Inferno of Gambling in Macao or Singapore (with Chinese women) and the Smugglers' Paradise. At the café, anything can happen: love, death, persecution, spying, gambling, seduction, music and patriotism. There is the escape attempt and the arrest of Ugarte (action movie) then the norwegian agent (Berger) appears on the café (spy movie). Pétain (Vichy) versus the Cross of Lorena 7

represent the opposition between collaboration and resistance (movie war propaganda). Victor Laszlo and Ilsa Lund – The Uncontaminated Hero and the Femme Fatale (both in white) in contrast to the Germans who are usually in black and the couple is presented to Major Strasser that appears in white to reduce the visual opposition. Ilsa and Strasser represent the Beauty and the Beast. After the café closes at night, Rick and Sam are alone, just before the flashback: they are the Faithful Servant and his Beloved Master (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza).

Early in the film, Rick Blaine appears as synecdoche (his hand) and metonymy (your check). His complex personality emerges as The Adventurer, The SelfMade Businessman (money is money), Tough Guy from a gangster movie, Our Man in Casablanca (international intrigue), the Cynic Seducer (despises Yvonne) and Hemingway Hero (because he helped both Ethiopian and Spanish Resistence movements against fascism). The fact that he doesn’t drink is a problem, but the flashback helps to introduce the Disillusioned Lover that turns on Desperate Lover (Drinking to Forget) in order to be the Redeemed Drunkard. Flashback represents the power of memory to recall the Brief Encounter (with Ilsa Lund) The Last Time I Saw Paris.

Rick Blaine is the Rough Diamond: he allows the Bulgarian couple to obtain the money needed for the exit visa after he was cruel with Annina Brandel; he allows the execution of the Marseillaise after being harsh with Victor Laszlo and denies the sale of the letters of transit; he discovers that Love is Forever after saying that Ilsa would shoot him. There is the quintessence of Drama in the figure of Climax after each anti-climax.

Casablanca-Lisbon means the Passage to the Promised Land. Casablanca is the Magic Door. Nonetheless, to make the transition one must undergo a test. There is a long wait in Purgatory. The Magic Key is the letter of transit. Captain 8

Renault is the Guardian of the Door that must be conquered by the Magical Gift (money or sex). The Magic Key is not bought by money, it is given as a gift (reward for Purity). The Donor is Rick who is giving the visa for free to the Bulgarian couple and he also gives the letters of transit (for free) to Victor Laszlo. Roulette as the game of Life and Death (Russian Roulette that devours fortunes and can destroy the happiness of the Bulgarian Couple - Epiphany of Innocence).

By sacrifying himself Rick gets redemption. The impure will not go to the Promised Land (America), but to the Resistance (Rick and Renault) seeking the Holy War which is a glorious Purgatory. Victor Laszlo goes to Heaven because he has undergone the Ordeal of clandestinity. The plane is the Magic Horse (in the final scene there is even a horse Pegasus emblem on the plane).

The idea of sacrifice runs through the whole movie: the sacrifice of Ilse Lund in Paris when she abandons the man who loves to return to the Wounded Hero; the young Bulgarian decided to sacrifice herself to help her husband; the sacrifice of Victor Laszlo who is resigned to see Ilse Lund and Rick Blaine together to ensure her safety.

Unhappy Love is arranged in a triangle [4]. Usually there is the Husband and the Lover Betrayed Victorious. In this case both men are betrayed and suffer a loss. In this defeat, however, there is a subliminal element (Platonic Love) who escapes the level of consciousness, because Rick admires Victor, Victor is ambiguously attracted by the personality of Rick: both come to an end of a duel of self-sacrifice for the sake of another. Like the book Rousseau's Confessions, the woman is the intermediary between the men, a set of virility and seduction dance around the Beautiful. The resolution is with the Supreme Sacrifice (allowing Victor and Ilsa depart together) and thus is the redemption of Rick Blaine. 9

2) The Anti-Nazi Propaganda

There is clear evidence of anti-Nazi propaganda in the film, for example, the very opening of the film narrated by Lou Marcelle (1909-1994), who did the narration in two dozen films in the 1940s, based on the idea of creating on the spectator the verisimilitude with reality, like the newsreel at that time. When taking the reality into the realm of fiction, it seeks to work the necessary elements in building a comprehensive framework that allows an analysis of reality based on fictional characters. By creating the identification of the viewer with reality, the film allows the construction of the active consent (the level of ideas) and a pro-active position (plan of action), thus reaching the object of the Anti-Nazi Propaganda.

Early in the film, an innocent attempts to escape and is shot dead near a wall where there is the image of Marshal Philippe Pétain (1856-1951), with the phrase: Je tiens mes promeses, meme celles des austres [5]. The camera rises and shows a tricolor flag and the motto of the French Revolution (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity). So there is a clear criticism of the collaborationist Vichy government of Occupied France (1940-1944). The leaflet removed from a shot man's hand shows the Cross of Lorena, symbol of Free France movement (Free French). This same symbol appears after the arrest of Ugarte at Rick's Café Américain, when Berger shows the ring to Victor Laszlo: there is again the identification favorable to Resistance which is opposed to the Nazi regime. When the French official and the German official fight for Yvonne, Rick Blaine still trying to temporize, but then, after refusing to sell the two letters of transit, makes Victor Laszlo ask the orchestra to play the Marseillaise to oppose the German patriotic anthem Die Wacht am Rhein, played on the piano, and thus it is impossible to prevent a pro-active position with the duel of the hymns.

When Rick Blaine refuses to sell the letters of transit, he is remembered by Victor Laszlo who was on the right side of the fight by supporting Ethiopia against the Italian occupation and the International Brigades against fascism in Spain. There was already active consent in favor of the Resistance and, ultimately, to allow Victor Laszlo and Ilsa Lund board the plane [6], there is the revealing phrase of Victor Laszlo for Rick Blaine in favor of the Allies: "And welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win". At the end of the film, Captain Renault throws the bottle of Vichy water in the waste basket and kicks it clearly engaging in the fight alongside Rick Blaine (FrancoAmerican alliance). Coincidentally there was the U.S. support and recognition of the leadership of the Free French Forces that took place in Casablanca Conference in January 1943, when the movie Casablanca was released in theatres in the United States.

Probably the element of Anti-Nazi Propaganda more hidden in the film is to have the desire to see dead the Colonel Strasser [7] since the beginning of the film and view this event with great pleasure at the end of the movie. Early in the film, there is the image of a plane with the prefix D-AGDF approaching to land at the airport. Would the phrase Death to Acting Great Dictator FĂźhrer be a subliminal message? The prefix of the plane D-AGDF seems an epitaph for a coffin landed on the airport runway. After the airplane and taxi stop, with the frozen image of the film, you can clearly see a small flag with a Nazi swastika next to the door of the plane and another banner at the helm of the much larger plane. Moreover, when Colonel Strasser gets off the plane, there is the Nazi salute to his aide, Captain Heinze, well below the letters that are in GDF wing aircraft. Remember that two years before the movie Casablanca, it had been produced the wonderful film The Great Dictator (1940) by Charles Chaplin (1889-1977). Therefore, the letters GD were already glued to the imaginary figure of Hitler. The film Casablanca includes the F (of FĂźhrer) in this scene, and thus unconsciously the viewer already wants the death of the Nazi who is 12

acting in place of Hitler, in that distant place in the fictional city of Casablanca, but close to examine the reality . Filming of Casablanca began on May 25, 1942. Coincidentally the Nazi commander Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) suffered an attack carried out by the Czech resistance in Prague on May 27, 1942, and a week later, he died on June 4, 1942. In 1943, the story was told in the film Hangmen Also Die! (a film directed by Fritz Lang). The Anti-Nazi Propaganda was very present in dozens of films in the United States during World War II (1939-1945) and it is a very interesting material for analysis and understanding of the time regarding the construction of a consent in favor of active resistance to the Nazi regime as well as the pro-active positioning of engagement alongside the troops of the Allies. You can place the movie Casablanca as a kind of precursor of microhistory (a branch of study of history developed in Italy in 1970s) because reduce the scale of observation, focusing on ordinary people, trying to listen their voices, in order to assess human actions and their meanings and extract from the facts of everyday life a relevant dimension for analysis, appealing to the use of historical narrative, with elements of fiction (in the case of film). Therefore, Casablanca retains its actuality.

The French Defense on the chessboard

Chess is related to one of the most iconic films in cinema history: Casablanca [8]. Humphrey Bogart, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains played chess during film breaks. Early in the film, the owner of Rick's Café Américain is sitting next to the chessboard, putting an open position and then analysing it before deciding the move to be made. The inclusion of the chess board was by suggestion of Humphrey Bogart for the scene where Ugarte (Peter Lorre) talks with the owner of Rick's Café Américain. Chess meets semiotic function in this film, a true masterpiece where every detail is potentially significant. The situation in the film can be compared to the situation of the pieces on a chessboard. Rick Blaine is alone in front of the board and analyzing a difficult position in terms of black, while the convention in chess publications always considers analysing the diagram from the white position. Within the board, according to the frames of the film (despite the glass covering the corner of the board), we can reconstruct the position when he places the white knight on b5 and then to analyze then decides to make the castling as the black move:

This position arises from an opening called the French Defence. Black is responsible for its appearance on board, because white can not force it. The fact that a position derived from the French Defence (and not any other opening) appears in this scene from Casablanca has a semiotics reason: Rick Blaine is a character apparently ambiguous or neutral - I stick my neck out for nobody. - but it's the chessboard that begins to outline his complex personality. The fact that Rick Blaine appears analyzing the position (not playing), and seated on the defender's side (Black), are key elements for deciphering the true and hidden intentions of Rick Blaine.

The position on the chessboard after black castle on kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side is the Alekhine-Chatard Attack in the French Defence after the moves: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 c5 6.h4 Nfd7 7.Bxe7 Qxe7 8.Nb5 0-0

The actor (and amateur chess player) Humphrey Bogart did not play the moves, he was simply placing the pieces by memory, but he withdrew from the board the two bishops of the king side, then there is a misplaced piece at the scene of Casablanca, as the white bishop should not be on c1 (first diagram), but on f1 (second diagram). So let us consider the right position to look up the opening.

It's not a coincidence that Humphrey Bogart chose the French Defence and analyzed the position for Black, because the inclusion of chess and the choice of this gap have semiotic reasons.

In fact, the chess board represents the battlefield: the Alekhine-Chatard Attack (with the white pawn on h4) represents the Nazi blitzkrieg, the black pawn structure (c5, d5, e6, f7, g7 and h7) represents Maginot Line [9] as the white knight on b5 is the attack from the rear, invading the territory of the black whose position is restricted. When performing the castling, black makes the sacrifice of the rook in a8, after placing the knight on c7. By contrast, black queen gets mobility to counterattack with the seizure of central pawn on d4 and the future advancement the pawn on f6. Symbolically this counterattack appears in the film with the duel of the hymns.

4) Place your bets: ... Black 22

In numerology, the number 22 represents the Spiritual Master acting in the material world. The positive features indicate the altruism, philanthropy, practicality, balance and idealism. By being focused on the collective (the number 22 has an excellent ability to understand others) and by using its inner strength, this number is able to carry out projects that turn dreams into reality.

From the religious point of view: there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, there are 22 chapters in the book of Revelation in the Bible; in Psalm 22 there is one that quotes the first verse of Christ during the crucifixion: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"; in Kabbalah there are 22 paths between the 10 emanations called sephiroth.

There are 22 Major Arcana in Tarot which can be numbered from 0-21 (The Fool card is zero) or 1-22 (The Fool card is 22). So it's a matter of interpretation whether The Fool is the card (when it is 22) or if the card is The World (card 21 when The Fool is zero) that represents the 22th letter of the Major Arcana.

The Tarot deck has 78 cards with 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The 22 Major Arcana represent the stages of human evolutions through the symbolism of its cards. The 56 Minor Arcana can give or offer additional details to the more detailed analysis and understanding of the Major Arcana.

Tarot cards represent the evolution of human beings on the earth plane and in the spiritual plane. The Major Arcana show duality (unity of body and soul), as well as the possibility of transparency in the occult, with knowledge and wisdom. The language of the cards speak of a universe of meaning with which we can establish communication. The Major Arcana show the various ways of human being (inside and outside) and is an instrument of self-knowledge as 19

much as of a possibility for philosophical, psychological and historical search of the human and universal essence.

To analyze the significance of number 22 at the roulette we should go back to the scene of the movie Casablanca: Annina Brandel asks Rick Blaine whether Captain Renault keeps the word that will "help her" to get the exit visa even though she does not have money. Rick Blaine confirms that, yes, but the harsh tone advises that the couple would return to Bulgaria. The couple has problems as everyone else in Casablanca. Ilsa Lund enters accompanied by Victor Laszlo at Rick's CafĂŠ AmĂŠricain the minute that conversation ends. Rick Blaine sees the couple entering, points them to table 30, turns to Sam to play As Time Goes By, then checks the billing of the night and then goes to the roulette table where he asks if he Jan Brandel already placed at number 22, under the gaze of Emil, the croupier. So the number 22 comes out twice in a row and the Bulgarian couple gets the money for the visas.

Starting with the card The World (card 21, but the 22nd card if the card The Fool is zero), we have a card of motion (natural changes), which normally is not good for love. Unless it is a relationship that is starting so it's good for love (Bulgarian couple). The World is a Major Arcanum which indicates that relationships have been experienced intensely, but they get stuck, do not move on, just finishing and getting a sense of frustration and sadness indicating that the mission was accomplished (Rick Blaine & Ilsa Lund). At the same time, the card the World has an important human factor that is the faith that drives the belief in the Universal Energy to face great obstacles, without fear of new challenges.

We now consider the card The Fool starting as zero and ending as 22. This card indicates the need to be alone (see Rick Blaine at the beginning of the movie alone with his chess board), getting away from the others in search for answers 20

in his heart. Often the target is presented without asking permission and produces a change in its approach (Rick Blaine sees Ilsa Lund again and listening to As Time Goes By). Then he needs to master his fears by recalling the feeling of love (the flashback scene that ends with Rick Blaine entering the train without his beloved, he fears he will never see her again, do not know why, nor has an explanation). He stops and sees the world through the eyes of the spirit, learns the importance of giving, feels the fear of losing, but at the break, he can harmonize and balance to begin again a process of transformation (Rick Blaine delivers the letters of transit for the couple to leave to Lisbon and then decides to accompany Captain Renault to Brazzaville where there is the Free French troops, when the movie ends). The Fool card indicates the beginning, middle and end. As number 22, the card The Fool indicates that humans arrived at the end of their journey and their wisdom allows detachment. The wealth is in their soul and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready to resume the journey.

5) Love, Rejection, Passion and Sacrifice in Casablanca

The case involves sacrifice and passion of Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund, after he rejected Yvonne early in the film and paid tribute to love (Bulgarian couple helped by the roulette with the number 22, twice in a row to provide enough money for both exit visas). There are different approaches previously held that deserve notice, for example: William Donelley in his book Love and Death in Casablanca focuses on the relationship between Rick Blaine and the pianist Sam and later with Captain Renault to show the repression of homosexuality. Sam refuses a proposal to double the salary to work for Signor Ferrari from The Blue Parrot while Renault declares his jealousy of Ilsa Lund telling her that if he were a woman he would fall in love with Rick Blaine [10]. Meanwhile, Harvey Greenberg presents a Freudian reading in his book The Movies on Your Mind, which believes that the transgression which prevents Rick Blaine from returning to the USA is the Oedipus complex, and it identifies the father figure in Victor Laszlo. Sidney Rosenzweig believes in his book, Casablanca and Other Major Films of Michael Curtiz, that both analyses are reductionist, because the most important aspect is the ambiguity of the character of Rick Blaine. The owner of Rick's CafĂŠ AmĂŠricain rejects Yvonne at the beginning of the film, a clear sign of recognition that he did not want to start a new relationship. When asked where he was the night before, he replies that he does not remember. Asked what he would do that night, he replies that he does not make plans in advance. Yvonne asks for more drink to forget the heartbreak, but Rick Blaine asks the bartender Sascha to escort Yvonne home. Yvonne returns the next night accompanied by a German officer in a clearly provocative attitude towards Rick Blaine. A French officer decides to argue provoking a quarrel with the German officer and forcing Rick Blaine to stop the conflict between the two officers. 23

The most striking relationship of the film is certainly between Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). The expression on the face of actress Ingrid Bergman during the song As Time Goes By is so striking and full of meaning that when the actress was dining in restaurants and there was a pianist, invariably the maitre asked that the song As Time Goes By was played for her, as the impact that the film remained over the years [11]. Something interesting is that in the film it was never said: "Play it again, Sam". The confusion arose because this is actually the title of the film starring Woody Allen in 1972, which paid tribute to Casablanca. The expression of Ilsa Lund reveals the inner emotion of the relationship experienced by her as the scene of the flashback from the point of view of Rick Blaine shows the visible emotion of the relationship [12]: to keep secret and not tell her husband anything that had happened, Ilsa Lund acts not only to preserve her marriage as well as not to show the importance and impact it had on her life (she was alone in Paris and wondering about that she had become a widow); to get out from the daily routine of a relationship with a leader of the Resistance always at risk of being arrested and killed for living a great passion in Paris reverberated with great intensity in the female audience regarding the film. Victor Laszlo can not get the letters of transit, and when asking the reason of Rick Blaine's insistence on not selling even for a million francs, he is confronted with the reality of the sentence: "I said, ask your wife". Faced with an extreme situation with no other option, it only remained to Victor Laszlo to show publicly the motives and reasons why he loved her so much as to the cause he was devoted. The duel of the songs is not only the resolution of an external conflict to fight for a cause but also the resolution of an internal conflict to fight for the love of his wife. Ilsa Lund tries to get the letters of transit in a conversation with Rick Blaine in which she is willing to kill or love in order to obtain them. The determination of 24

both impresses Rick Blaine who ends up sacrificing the passion he felt for her in order to preserve the love of the couple [13]. The image of Ilsa Lund reflected in the mirror - when the waiter Carl is told to take her back to the hotel as Rick Blaine comes down to talk with Victor Laszlo - shows a woman torn. The door that opens shows the duality of feelings within the character. Throughout the film the character Ilsa Lund uses nearly a dozen costumes that are sometimes accompanied by a scarf, sometimes by a different hat, sometimes by a pin, sometimes by a small purse or a pair of gloves. However, despite the film being in black & white, the blue dress mentioned in the first dialog when Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund meet again in Casablanca, has an important connotation (a man remembering which clothes the woman was wearing in Paris). Ilsa Lund said in this dialogue that she would only return to use it when the Germans marched from there. By being with the blue dress in the final scene again, she shows on the inner plane that she is ready to leave with Rick Blaine but on the outside plane still confident in the cause of Resistance. The blue color of the sky and the sea brings peace of mind, security, tranquility and harmony. Something that Rick Blaine and Victor Laszlo needed to contemplate moving forward in the struggle now common to both, but with the certainty that this time they would be winners.

Conclusion

The movie Casablanca has a hybrid genre that is very different from other films of its time and it was widely discussed by Umberto Eco in his classic semiotics paper. The film depicts a world in crisis of identity and changed over time. Casablanca transports us to an exotic place and away from the Western world during the Second World War, just to be able to place the elements needed to analyze reality. Rick Blaine appears to be isolationist (like the U.S.) but he becomes interventionist given the circumstances of war. Captain Renault appears to be collaborationist (support for the Vichy government), but turns out to be an ally of the Free French. Ilsa Lund looks single (Ms. Lund) to protect her husband (the idea is his), but ultimately when the film ends she takes notice that she is Mrs. Laszlo.

There is a game with scenes between the hidden and visible that allows you to follow the transformation of the characters. Even Rick's CafĂŠ AmĂŠricain is the picture of this game where there is the visible for most people (bar and music) and the occult for a few people (the card games and roulette). The meeting of Rick Blaine with Ugarte at the door happens in the fine line between the hidden and the visible. There are several events that do not materialize in the eyes of the viewer that highlight the game between the hidden and visible. We do not see the death of two German couriers and the death of Ugarte or even the Resistance meeting. We see the kissing scene between the couple in love again just before the end of the movie and then talking about what to do and which decision to take, but there is a long lapse of time between the two scenes and it was filled by the lighthouse with its turning light. The two letters of transit that were with Ugarte are delivered to Rick Blaine for him to store. He hides them inside the piano in the middle of the bar, and within reach of anyone who opened the piano. Subsequently, all the Rick's CafĂŠ 27

AmĂŠricain is searched (not shown in the movie), looking to find the letters of transit, but they are not found. This evokes the tale "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in which a letter is placed in the most obvious place to everyone, but it is not recognized during the course of the search. The letters of transit did not exist in reality, only in fiction, but served to show the dialectic in decision making. A rational approach (thesis) is used by Victor Laszlo with patriotism and support for Resistance movements or the sale for cash, but Rick Blaine does not accept it. The emotional approach (antithesis) used by Ilsa Lund threatening to kill him or love him ends up generating a decision-making approach based on a rational/emotional (synthesis) by Rick Blaine, who realizes that both (Victor Laszlo and Ilsa Lund) were willing to sacrifice themselves for the other one to escape, and so he sacrifices his passion to keep them together. Casablanca reminds us that the world is in motion, like the spinning globe at the beginning of the movie, you can not stay static and that dynamic decisions and even sacrifices are often necessary in the quest to regain a new balance. The problems of three little people appear small before the great problems of the world. We are not responsible for our feelings but for our actions.

Notes

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------[1] The paper "Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage" by Umberto Eco was presented at the Symposium "Semiotics of the Cinema: The State of the Art", in Toronto, Canada, June 18, 1984. [2] The use by Umberto Eco has no psychological or mythic connotations.

[3] The opening montage of the film was made by Don Siegel (1912-1991) based on the style of the March of Time newsreel that was narrated by Westbrook Van Voorhis (1903-1968). [4] Ilsa Lund appears in the middle of Victor Laszlo and Rick Blaine in various scenes reinforcing the idea of a love triangle in the plot of the movie.

[5] I Keep my Promises, Just as I Keep The Promises of Others.

[6] The prefix F-AMPJ the plane that takes off in the final scene seems to encode the message: Freedom to Allied Members Politically Joint.

[7] When his body is removed the license plate appears A452ML. In chemistry an ideal gas whose initial volume is 452ml, under constant pressure and being heated to 22 Â° C to 187 Âş C, increased to 705ml, a shift. I leave open the reader to interpret it through the fog of the final scene. [8] An image inspired by this scene was used as the basis for the poster advertising the film for France, even by replacing Ugarte Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), the massive head of the black market, whose cigarette smoke around the face of Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). [9] Fortified line of defense at the border of France designed by Andre Maginot (1877-1932).

[10] In course of "ambiguity" of the final phrase of the film dubbed by Humphrey Bogart who returned to the studio after the end of filming to say: Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. [11] In one of his last trips to the United States, the song As Time Goes By was played in a tribute to her in a television program, and none other than Frank Sinatra took a flight from coast-to-coast just to sing song for an emotional Ingrid Bergman. [12] The message of Ilsa Lundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note to Rick Blaine is dissolved by the rain, will never be forgotten as opposed to the wall of the beginning of the film with the message of Marshal PĂŠtain, that will never be remembered. [13] It is very interesting the discussion which was made in the movie When Harry Met Sally... (1989) about love and sex in the movie Casablanca.