2012 Movie #41 - Casablanca (1942) This is my third time seeing CASABLANCA, but my first time seeing on the big screen with an audience. I was lucky enough to see this projected on 35mm at the BFI Southbank over the weekend. Like most classic films, CASABLANCA gets better with each viewing. Seeing it on the big-screen you really get a sense of how masterfully Michael Curtiz moves the camera. Seeing with an audience, I was also struck by how funny the dialog is, but never at the cost of the serious nature of the story. The humor comes from character and dramatic irony, not from forcing jokes into an inappropriate context. What I’ll Take Away: Storytelling pace is a different thing than cutting pace. The opening sequence of CASABLANCA where the usual suspects are being arrested moves incredibly quickly, but this has more to do with density of storytelling than speed of cutting. It’s possible to have a brisk pace with a single shot, and a slow paced scene with fast cutting. It’s about the speed of information being revealed, not the speed of cuts. High-res

2012 Movie #41 - Casablanca (1942)

This is my third time seeing CASABLANCA, but my first time seeing on the big screen with an audience. I was lucky enough to see this projected on 35mm at the BFI Southbank over the weekend. Like most classic films, CASABLANCA gets better with each viewing. Seeing it on the big-screen you really get a sense of how masterfully Michael Curtiz moves the camera.

Seeing with an audience, I was also struck by how funny the dialog is, but never at the cost of the serious nature of the story. The humor comes from character and dramatic irony, not from forcing jokes into an inappropriate context.

What I’ll Take Away: Storytelling pace is a different thing than cutting pace. The opening sequence of CASABLANCA where the usual suspects are being arrested moves incredibly quickly, but this has more to do with density of storytelling than speed of cutting. It’s possible to have a brisk pace with a single shot, and a slow paced scene with fast cutting. It’s about the speed of information being revealed, not the speed of cuts.