Casablanca

Michael Curtiz, 1941

As Noel says in his review of "Cyrano" above, all great romantic movies are to some extent about loss. Whether its our cynicism about love working out or our self-pity encouraging us to believe that fate is always against us, love stories which end up with the lovers eternally parted are always more appealing than those with happy endings. "Casablanca" is Hollywood"s finest love story because its as much about the things which keep us apart as the things which bind us together - honour, chance, and the love which is so great that it extends to letting go of the person because that"s what is best for them. Humphrey Bogart"s cynical, uncommitted cafe owner Rick has pretended for so long that he doesn"t care about anyone or anything that he almost believes it to be true but the arrival in Casablanca of Ilse - Ingrid Bergman at her most radiant - reaffirms his faith in the world because it shows to him that there is something he cares about after all. When Rick sends Ilse off with Victor Laszlo at the end of "Casablanca", it"s because it"s not only the right thing to do but because it"s the only thing to do. What redeems this, one of the greatest moments in Hollywood cinema, from being crushingly sad is that Rick remembers that the love one feels doesn"t go away simply because the loved one is no longer there but it lives on, the memory of the past forever lighting up the darkness of the present. As he says to her, "We"ll always have Paris". Then, just to tease, us, the film ends with a joyous affirmation of the love we can feel through platonic comradeship as Rick says to Claude Raines" corrupt police captain, "You know Louis, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship".