Cinematography In Casablanca

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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. Another element in Casablanca are camera angles. In the shot of Ilsa pointing a gun at Rick, the use of a low-angle looking up at Ilsa is ultimately applied to give her a power over him. …show more content…

The first example that popped out at me, while viewing Casablanca, was the scene in which Rick has a flashback of him and Ilsa driving through parts of Paris. The cinematography, in this case the characters filling the frame and having added highlight, creates a certain lightness and care free feeling to the mise-en-scène. This can be compared to the moment in which Rick wants to leave Paris with Ilsa. There is no highlight; thus, creating a sense of wary and disconsolation to Ilsa’s portrayed

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