Sunday, January 23, 2011

Casablanca

thanks to my brother Dave
we have quite a nice beginning collection
of Classic movies

Brandon and I watched Casablanca
for my FIRST TIME and his
I really enjoyed watching it together

on his way out the driveway
the piles of snow left by the plow
grabbed his tires
I am a New Englander so when it comes
to issues of snow
I believe that I am one of the few
people in this town/state who knows what to do!
not quite...
we all pitched in sort of

he's home now
my feet are warmer
and as I wrote the word Casablanca
Bryan's Spanish vocab words
came to mind:

"white house"

the sound of spinning wheels in icy snow
has never been pleasant
but whenever I hear a reference to Bogart
and Casablanca,
I will have memories and a tune stuck in my head

4 comments:

  1. Casablanca-nice to have watched it with Brandon-did he like it?

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  2. Hi Gloria, Glad you got a chance to watch Casablanca with Brandon ! OK, I'll get a little philosophical and analytical...I like the movie for many reasons. One is because it shows how the lines between right and wrong are often blurred, and we must make our own best judgement on how to act/react to all of life's situations. Our human desire is to have the lines be very sharp and in focus, and so our moral compass can never be in doubt, but I have not found that to be true much of the time. Perhaps especially during war time, what is normally right may be wrong, and visa versa. There was an 'edge' in the air, of how fragile life is during war time.

    And it was a painful reminder of how previous love affairs can resurface at any moment and how we may have to relive lost dreams and hopes when they do. And we have to decide whether it is worth another try or to move on.

    Of course, there were the overall themes of altruism and national pride....who couldn't cheer, watching the struggle against, and the undermining and eventual overthrow of the Nazis....? And there was a bit of comic relief thrown in here and there.

    So many things came together to make this movie a 'classic'...the script, the acting, lighting, directing...Bogart was at a high peak in his career and had found his niche at long last. Ingrid Bergman at her beautiful best. Ahh...the old Hollywood glamour shots with fuzzy filters !

    Claude Rains as the Inspector....a really humble role and a nice subtle performance....

    Some classic lines: "Round up the usual suspects", and the often misquoted "Play it again Sam" which really was never spoken exactly like that, but who cares....

    I love good movies on any day, but rainy days are the perhaps the best, and as I look out, what do you know, it's raining ! Now where is the Netflix DVD that came in yesterday ?
    Love to you , Gloria....Dave

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  3. I love Casablanca. It's one of those movies that no matter how many times I watch it, I always pick up on some detail, big or small, that I've missed the previous umpteen-zillion times I've watched. It never stops surprising me!

    And of course for fans of the wily Claude Rains and the delectable Ingrid Bergman, there's also "Notorious" with Cary Grant, which is my flat-out favorite Hitchcock film.

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  4. Hi Paul,
    Yes, Notorious, yes, yes, yes... ! What a film !
    Truly a classic.
    The performances by Claude Rains, Grant, and Bergman.....
    all so skillful, wonderfully nuanced, and Hitchcock, at the top of his game,
    pulled the whole thing together in his usual masterful way.

    SInce I got Netflix a few years ago, I go on these 'binges' of watching
    batches of films, all by one director, or one actor or actress.
    I've rated over 3,000 films on Netflix. pretty sick, huh ?
    Sorry, I have to go now and watch another one :-)

    Have you seen the Cary Grant comedies with Irene Dunne ?
    He called her his favorite comic actress.

    Gloria, thanks for posting all these deep personal thoughts and feelings.
    It is a real journey that probably can only be truly understood
    by someone that also has cancer.

    I don't have time to read them all, but I will check them regularly.
    I hope I never have to go through chemo or radiation,
    but it may happen to me, like so many of my friends, and hopefully,
    I'll have you, and some of them, to guide me through the hellish
    aspects of it, if you don't mind :-)

    Paul, It's great to stay in touch....
    It's been cold and rainy and we got about a foot of snow early Jan,
    but none since.

    I'm working on a sacred garden and sacred tree blog
    and will let you all know when it's up and running...

    Casablanca...the white house.....

    My friend Mary Anne, just returned from Santa Fe and brought some
    green chile back for me...it's going into an omelette tomorrow !
    Love,
    Dave

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