Casablanca

WiseMan is such a Casablanca fan, so we gathered the usual suspects for a long evening of films with this classic (in B&W, of course) first off. It turned out that three (3!) of the men had never actually seen the film. One admitted to having watched a few minutes while zapping, but never seen it in total. And he said that it was really fascinating to watch.

Even the kids - 1, 3, 6, 8 - were fascinated and either watched or played quietly to let the adults enjoy the film. The resident teenager, of course, thought it corny and slunk off to exchange nastilities with his buddies on his chat portal.

What a wonderful movie! The light and shadows; the framing of Ingrid Bergman; the tears; Bogie's cynicism; the corny plot; and all of these quotes that you just know by heart (although often quoted wrongly).

Reading up after the movie on IMDB I read that in the 80s someone submitted the screenplay with the original title to all the major studios. Some of the readers caught it, but many just rejected it on grounds of being too old, too boring, and not enough sex. When the film was made, it was really racy - a married woman having an affair, although to her credit she thought her husband was dead.

"You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh; the fundamental things apply, as time goes by...".