Casablanca Movie Analysis

The eye-level shots were used when they were both on the porch, which also is when the single character’s point of view was used to film. The camera was position right over the characters shoulders when speaking and position on the other person as if the audience were the ones talking to the

Casablanca is one of the most beloved films of all time, so much so that it returned to the big screen in spring of 2014 during the 20th anniversary of Turner Classic Movies. I personally remember watching Casablanca as a young girl and becoming immersed in the tale of love, survival and politics. Growing up in a household full of members of the armed forces, who were old enough to remember Casablanca, from their youth; I am all too familiar with the classic black and white movies. Many of the storylines were similar in their Hollywood style during the Golden Age of film – there was love, there was betrayal, possibly a love triangle and someone brave enough to make the sacrifice for all. Casablanca had the setting of its title, a city in unoccupied

One of the massive aspects of movie making is the movement and angles at which the camera is held. One film that does a great job of creating this form of cinematography is Raising Arizona, directed and produced by the Coen brothers. This fast paced crime comedy does an excellent job of capturing the audience’s attention by making them feel as though they are actually a part of the action. An example of the great camera movement is when the camera bobs up and down as it gets closer to the Arizona’s house, this creates the effect that the viewer is actually the person who is approaching the house.

Released September 29, 1950, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir of a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond, that dreams of a comeback and an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis, working together. Ultimately an uncomfortable relationship evolves between Norma and Joe that Joe does not want a part of. Sunset Boulevard starts off with an establishing shot from a high angle shot with a narrative leading to a crime scene shot in long shot (a dead body is found floating in a pool). The narrative throughout the film established a formalist film. Cinematography John F. Seitz used lighting and camera angles in such a way to create a loneliness and hopefulness atmosphere.

Mise-en-scéne is crucial to classical Hollywood as it defined an era ‘that in its primary sense and effect, shows us something; it is a means of display. ' (Martin 2014, p.XV). Billy Wilder 's Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) will be analysed and explored with its techniques and styles of mise-en-scéne and how this aspect of filmmaking establishes together as a cohesive whole with the narrative themes as classical Hollywood storytelling. Features of the film 's sense of space and time, setting, motifs, characters, and character goals will be explored and how they affect the characterisation, structure, and three-act organisation.

Similarly, the cinematography of Casablanca also strives to shape the viewer’s attention to the time and space of the story. The film employs a handheld movement of the camera in certain instances, to display the mise-en-scene in a genuine manner that emphasizes the setting and time of the movie. For example, evaluate the scene in the film when the camera sought to illustrate the workings of Rick’s establishment. The handheld movement of the camera explores the club in a manner that brings the viewer’s attention to the viewpoint camera. The point of view of the camera, at this point of the movie, demonstrating a human experience of observation, and fixates on investigating war uniforms of characters and their actions.

Cinematography is critical to the success of any movie. Cinematography uses composition, lighting, depth of field, and camera angles to determine what the audience sees. Casablanca’s cinematography directs the audience’s attention, shapes the audiences feelings, and reveals the theme of the movie. Cinematography directs the audience’s attention and acts as the viewer’s eyes. The cinematography highlights Casablanca as a dangerous place filled with deception.

The cinematography in Casablanca overall directs the audience’s attention while skillfully revealing not only the characters’ emotions, but the audience’s as well. The element of close-ups in this film’s cinematography is something that stood out to me from the very beginning. Throughout the entire film the use of close-ups directed the audience’s attention to the speaker as it would take a major distraction to unglue the audience’s eyes from the character’s that are being emphasized. The audience gets drawn in to the subject of the close-up and the background fizzles away to unveil intense emotions and a restless tone that have been created by the cinematography. For instance, when Rick notices Ilsa in his saloon the camera closes in on the characters as the camera goes back and forth to each of there faces to create a tense feeling without the audience knowing of their history.

It was captivating how the film has transformed lives and how it imparts a provoking thought to

The audience starts to have stress on the situation Llewelyn is in when the camera slowly creeps on his face in a high-angle shot, displaying a possible vulnerability that might befall him. As the scene moves forward, the length of each shot made and how there are no fancy transitions evokes a realism to the scene; where nothing fantastical or magical is created but instead comes close to home on the reality the scene is created, and this scene, in particular, could have the possibility of happening in real life. With all of these elements together, the scene right off the bat intensifies that idea of the cat-and-mouse chase that was going on previously in the film. As the camera switches to a medium shot of the hotel room with Llewelyn around the middle, there’s a sense of claustrophobia that is displayed from the camera not showing the entirety of the room itself. This is further emphasized by the close-up shots of Llewelyn’s face and the briefcase he handles, which later he finds a tracking device that obtains an extreme close-up shot.

For example, during the book burning scene, a variety of high to mid-low shots are used to position the audience in the crowd or as one of the speakers up front. In addition, the way the objects in the scene are positioned and the frame are composed creates an intimidating effect. All the large Nazi flags are positioned symmetrically around the town square, yet the camera is framed slightly off centre, making the whole shot feel off and like something is wrong [Fig. 5]. This certainly shows that Percival utilizes Percival employs cinematic techniques such as camera angles and the framing of the shots used to communicate and allow the audience to explore the power of the human spirit when dealing with adversity in his film The Book

This creates a connection between the viewer and the characters in the film. In Lost in Translation, this technique is used to show the growth of these characters emotionally as they interact throughout the film. This is seen when the two characters just looked at each other as they sat in the hallway without talking to each other. In such a way, it shows the emptiness and loneliness in their

The critically acclaimed film, Goodfellas, is a gangster crime drama that features an incredible amount of talent. Household names such as: Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway), Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito), Paul Sorvino (Paul Cicero), and promising stars like Ray Liotta (Henry Hill) and Lorraine Bracco (Karen Hill), attracted numerous Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. That type of cast power, linked with the signature talent of Martin Scorsese as a director, made for cinematic gold. Unquestionably, the actors and actresses did an excellent job augmenting the verisimilitude of this film and compelling audiences to empathize with their characters. But the cinematography in this film plays just as large a role in having audiences feel what the characters

he said that it 'becomes like photographing words'. He believed that Eisenstein and other Swedish silent film directors were a lot more visual than any recent films.(Nykvist 1998) The close-up shot is often taken for granted and is used everywhere and sometimes used for no particular reason other than being a safety shot. However, it has only been taken for granted after decades of establishment. "It(close-up) does not only reveal new things but gives meaning to the old"(Balazs 2009).One of the most obvious functions of a close up that a close up does is that it makes one notice elements not noticed before and by doing that it is more revealing of things that one takes for granted.

For one thing, the atmosphere was very real and tense. They used music which made me feel particularly anxious about what was happening. Despite the poor setting of watching this movie in a bright classroom, the movie itself actually made me sit at the edge