CASABLANCA

Watch Casablanca as often as you can: here is a picture that is as entrancing during its 50th viewing as it is during its first.

Words fail to describe the marvel Casablanca is. Of all the masterpieces the Hollywood studio system produced this film is probably the crown jewel.

Take for example the pivotal scene where Paul Henreid instructs the band in Rick's Café Américain to play the Marseillaise. In narrative purpose, in Michael Curtiz' exquisite framing, in acting choices: it quite simple cannot be improved upon. And that goes for Casablanca as a whole.

From a screenplay that has produced more quotable lines than any other film in history to the romantic longing in the eyes of Bogart and Bergman and a supporting cast that is unequalled, Casablanca has it all.

75 years after it was made, the picture remains a prime example of consummate professionalism and how it can flourish into remarkable art.

release: 1942

director: Michael Curtiz

starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Reins