The Whitehouse project

2007-11-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Ingrid Bergman- Actress

The Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm in 1915. At the age of thirteen she became an orphan and had to move to live with an aunt. Five years later, she was admitted in the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. The same summer, she began working for a studio and dropped out school to work in the Swedish film industry. After working for a few years in Sweden, she signed with a producer to work in Hollywood making the English version of Intermezzo, movie in which she had already worked during her period in Sweden. The movie was an enormous hit and she became a Hollywood star. In the year 1942 she decided to accept one of the leading roles in the film Casablanca, which was highly praised by the critics who alleged that it was one of her best roles. Despite the approval of the critics she didn’t enjoy it very much since she didn’t get along very well with Bogart: "I never really knew him. I kissed him, but I didn't know him."(www.wikipedia.com)

In the year 1944 she won her first Academy Award for Gaslight. During the 1940s she worked with Hitchcock in three films: Notorious, Spellbound, and Under Capricorn. During the 1950s, she was involved in a huge scandal because she was already married when she had an affair with Roberto Rossellini the director of the film Stromboli and become pregnant. After this episode she had to leave the United States and go to Italy where she married Rossellini. Throughout the time in which she lived in Italy, she worked in a few films directed by her husband until their divorce in 1957.

In 1956, she won her second Academy Award with the film Anastasia which was her successful return to blockbusters. In 1974 she won her third academy award as Best Supporting Actress in Murder on the Orient Express.

Bergman finally died of breast cancer in 1982, in London. During her funeral was played the theme “As Time Goes By” which was the central theme of her most remembered movie: Casablanca.

The stars of Casablanca

2007-11-11T17:06:00.001-08:00

Humphrey Bogart- Actor

Humphrey DeForest Bogart, best-known as Humphrey Bogart was born in the year 1899, in New York. He started his career as an actor working in Hollywood as a B-movie actor, term which refers to actors who performed in low budget films during the Golden Age. In addition to this, he worked in Broadway as a stage player. During his adolescence, he joined to the U.S. Navy time in which he got closer to theatre. Despite his lack of experience, Bogart got his first role as an actor in 1921 portraying a Japanese butler on a stage in Brooklyn. After this event, he got many roles in Broadway productions.

Humphrey Bogart has been associated to gangster roles since he played Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest. Then, the rights of it were bought by Warner Bros. to make it into a film in which Bogart played the lead character again. After this episode, he became a well-known gangster in many television series for Warner Bros.

Bogart had many problems with Warner Bros. at the beginning of his career because of the studio system. During the studio system, actors were controlled by the big studios in order that they worked for only one of them, so Bogart’s problem with Warner Bros. was not only the fact that they didn’t give him substantial roles, but also the fact that they didn’t give him the chance of working for other studio. In spite of this fact, time later Bogart’s situation changed and his career began to ascend with movies like, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen in which he won an academy award, and Casablanca in which he got his first romantic role as Rick Blaine. After Casablanca, Bogart could get more different roles and he created a company to produce movies named Santana Productions, which wasn’t very successful. Bogart finally died in 1957 of cancer esophagus after smoking and drinking a lot for many years.

2007-11-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

The One Who created a Masterpiece

Michael Curtiz( Director):This Hungarian film director, responsible for the film Casablanca was born in 1886, in Budapest. Years later he studied in the same city at Markoszy University and the Royal Academy of Theater and Art. Then, in the early 1910’s, he began a career as a director and actor at the National Hungarian Theater.

After directing few films in Hungary, he moved to Denmark and began working in a studio. Then, during the First World War he served to the Hungarian Army. In 1919, when the Hungarian film industry was nationalized Curtiz decide to move to Vienna where he worked for Sasha films directing movies. During this period, he made a film named Die Sklavenkönigin (1924) which was released in the United States; in that occasion, Curtiz’s work was perceived by one of the Warner brothers who hired him to direct a film similar to Die Sklavenkönigin for Warner Bros. As a consequence, he moved to Hollywood and changed his name from Manó Kertész Kaminer to Michael Curtiz.

During his first time in Hollywood, he had a fertile career being credited in more than 100 films and earning more than $3,600 weekly. Then, in 1942 he directed the so-remembered film Casablanca for Warner Bros. in which he won an Oscar as Best Director, even when William Wyler was the studio’s first choice for directing the film.

During his last years working for Warner Bros. Curtiz decided to change his agreement with them with the purpose that his own production company and Warner Bros. Studios shared the costs and profits of his next films. After this new agreement his films weren’t successful due to the decline of the studio system.

In his last years of life he ended his work with Warner Bros. and began directing movies for Paramount. Finally in 1962, Curtiz died from cancer.

2007-11-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

Warner Brothers: the company that brought Casablanca to life...

Warner Bros studios started working in 1918 which makes it one of the oldest film studios in the United States. The Warner brothers began their business only projecting films; time later, they expanded their commerce to distribution, which finally led them to film making in 1918. Many movies have been made in Warner Bros since then. They made the first talkie, The Jazz Singer (1927) and they began a color revolution with movies like, On with the Show (1929) and Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). Finally, from its beginnings until now Warner Bros has released some of the most successful and remembered films of all times, like: Wild Bunch (1969), Rebel without a Cause (1955), , Casablanca (1942),The Lord of the Rings ( via- New line cinema(2001)), and Corpse Bride (2005).

2007-11-11T16:33:00.001-08:00

Black and white films ( Blog Task 3)

Black and white movies were famous between the 1890 and 1930, until the development of color in the cinema industry, which received the name Technicolor. Despite this fact, there were many movies made in black and white even after the advert of color in cinema. Some examples of this case are Citizen Kane (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), The Third Man (1949), The Battle of Britain (1969), High Noon (1952), and Manhattan (1979). Some of these movies, like The Maltese Falcon, were made in black and white because of artistic purposes since they followed a style in which these two colors (B&W) and the effect they created in the film were extremely necessary. In the case of Casablanca, the fact that the movie was in black and white had the purpose of creating a romantic effect. In fact, special filters were used to take shots of Ingrid Bergman to make her look more angelical.

2007-11-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

Casablanca’s Background

Casablanca is a film production developed by Warner Bros. based on the expensive play Everybody Comes to Rick written by Joan Alison and Murray Burnett. The inspiration for the play was taken of a trip to Europe made by Murray Burnett, in which he had the chance of visiting the south of France where Nazis and refugees lived awkwardly as part of the same society. The screenplay of Casablanca was written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch who added some comedy to the movie and put emphasis in the melodramatic parts of the play.

Regarding the cast, it is important to take into account that the studio system was a dominant way of film production and distribution in Hollywood during the time in which Casablanca was shot. In this system, there was an oligopoly of 5 studios that produced, distributed, and exhibit their own movies. These studios, among which Warner Bros. is found, also owned a bunch of stars that had long-term contracts with them, contracts that obliged these stars to work only in the movies released by the specific studio they belonged to. This fact is known as star system. An example of this system in Casablanca is Humphrey Bogart, main male protagonist of Casablanca. Bogart participated as an actor in 75 films from which 49% belonged to Warner Bros, especially from 1932 and 1948; this mean that Bogart was a member of the Warner Bros. community and for that reason he didn’t have the chance of refusing his role in Casablanca because he could have been punished by the studio. Different is the case of Ingrid Bergman who worked for many film studios all around the world and was asked by Warner Bros. to work in this production.

Regarding the direction of the film it must be said that Michael Curtiz wasn’t the first option for the studio for directing Casablanca. The first option was William Wyler but he was unavailable at the time so his friend Curtiz was called.

2007-11-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

Curiosities:

Casablanca has some of the most famous phrases of all cinema History; Phrases such as " Play it again, Sam" or "here's looking at you, kid(Rick to Ilsa)" were chosen among the 100 most memorable lines of cinema history.
the other lines are:
-" Play it sam, Play as time goes by."
-"You played for her and you can play it for me". "If she can stand it, I can. "Play it!"
-" Louis, I think this is the beggining of a beautiful
friendship"
-" Round up the usual suspects"
-"We'll always have Paris"
- Of All the gin joints in all te towns in all the world,
She walks into mine."

2007-11-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

Technical Information *

Director: Michael Curtiz.

Script: Julius P. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Based on the story of Murray
Burnett and Joan Alison.

Distributor: Warner Brothers (theatrical release in 1942)

AAP( rights holder. 1956- 1958)

United Artists ( rights tholder 1958- 1981)

Turner Entertainment ( current rights, 1986- present)

MGM (1992 re- release in 1992. DVD release in 1998, and
film rights from 1981-1998)

Warner Home Video ( current home video distributor via-Turner, 1998- present)

Release date: November 26, 1942

Running time: 102 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

Budget: US$ 1,039,000

All movie Guide Profile

IMDb profile

Cinematography: Arthur Edeson.

Photography: Arthur Edeson.

Music: Max Steiner.

Songs: M. K. Jerome and Jack Scholl.

Montage ( Editing) : Owen Marks.

Sound: Francis J. Scheid.

Artistic Director: Carl Jules Weyl.

Producer: Hal B.Wallis.

Producer Companies: Warner Bros. First National.

Cast: Humprey Bogart ( Rick).

Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa).

Paul Henreid ( Victor Laszlo).

Claude Rains ( Captain Louis Renault).

Conrad Veidt ( Major Strasser).

Sidney Greenstreet ( Ferrari).

Peter Lorre ( Ugarte).

S.K. Sakall ( Carl).

Madeleine LeBeau ( Yvonne).

Dooley Wilson ( Sam).

Joy Page ( Annina Brandel).

John Qualen ( Berger).

Leonid Kinskey ( Sascha).

Curt Bois ( Thief).

*Source: http://www.monteuve.com/archivo/fc19.html

About the Music:

The music was scored by Max Steiner, a famous musician who became well- known due to his musical score for " Gone with the wind". Even though, the main theme song of Casablanca ( "As time goes by") was created by Herman Hupfeld.
Steiner wanted to create a brand- new song for Casablanca, but he couldn't do it, for Ingrid had cut her hair in order to act in another movie ( From Whom the Bell Tolls), so He couldn't re- shoot the scenes to include his song. In addition to this, he made a duel of songs between " La Marsellaise( France's national Anthem)" and " Die Wacht Rhein ( The German national Anthem during the Nazi Dictatorship)." Others songs included are : "It had to be you" by Gus Kanh and Isham Jones, "Knock on Wood" by M.K Jerome and Jack Scholl, and "Shine" by Cecil Mack, Lew Brown, and Ford Dabney.

Watch and Lisen to the main theme song!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_bMFVDu9yo

2007-11-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

About Casablanca

The plot: Rick is an American who is exiled in a city of Morocco called Casablanca. In addition, He is owner of the "Rick's cafe Americain." A famous nightclub which is visited for all kind of people ( from rich citizens to criminals, burglars and gansters).

Later, a criminal called Ugarte arrives at the club with some "letters of transit," Which permitted him to travel freely through the countries conquered by Germany, and with those lettes you are even able travel to the U.S . The letters are priceless, for there are a lot of refugees in Casabanca. Ugarte plans to sell the letters at a high price so he could make a fortune by selling them. However, he is arrested by Captain Renault, a corrupt Vichy officer who helps the Nazi. Luckily, Ugarte gave the letters to Rick before he was caught.

After that, Rick meets his ex- lover, Illsa Lund ,who arrived with his new partner called Victor Laszlo, to buy the letters because they need to travel to America ( We will not tell the reasons because we do not want to spoil everything).
When the club closes its doors, Ilsa tries to speak with Rick about their past but Rick refuses to listen because he was too drunk

Laszlo suspects that Rick has the letters and talks to him in private, but Rick refuses to leave with them. Afterwards, Nazis commanded by Major Strasser arrive at the cafe and are drown out by the people who was still at Rick's(you will have to watch the movie in order to see what happened between Rick's party and the Nazi, hehe). In return, Strasser orders to close the club.

That , Ilsa tries to take the letters away from Rick by threatening him with a gun, yet she is not able to shoot because she still loves him. By the time, Rick is arrested by Renault for a petty charge but Rick convinces him to let him go by telling him that he can by arrested for a much more serious crime ( the tickets). Then, Rick decieves Renault and obligues him to help them to escape from the Nazi.

Ilsa and Laszlo escape to Lisbon on a plane while Rick and Renault flee by car, so they separate their ways from now on. after being followed for a long time, Strasser is killed by Rick when he was trying to intervene. When the police arrives, Renault saves Rick by telling them that they have to look for the usual subjects.

In the end, Rick and Renault dissapear into the fog with one of the most famous exit lines in movie history: " Louis, I think this is the beggining of a beautiful friendship."

Watch the trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1-QVu8E50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zrEcBikzb8 ( you MUST see this!!!)