{"id":7955,"date":"2017-11-14T17:20:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T22:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=7955"},"modified":"2025-10-10T11:20:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:20:52","slug":"casablanca-screening","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/casablanca-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"Casablanca Screening: Here\u2019s Looking at 75 Years, Kid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Casablanca Screening: Here\u2019s Looking at 75 Years, Kid\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton University and the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman classic Casablanca<\/em><\/a> \u2014 widely considered one of the greatest films of all time \u2014 have a couple things in common. Both came into the world in 1942 and their identities are intrinsically linked to the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton was created by a group of visionary citizens<\/a> who wanted to help veterans build their careers after military service overseas. Casablanca<\/em> is a dramatic love story set in a Moroccan nightclub where Nazis, rebels and people caught in the geopolitical crossfire collude and clash as conflict rages in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But beyond the shared birthday, there are other interesting connections between the university and the movie, which Carleton\u2019s Film Studies program will screen for the public<\/a> in Richcraft Hall\u2019s Singhal Family Theatre on Nov. 26 as the university\u2019s 75th<\/sup> anniversary celebrations<\/a> begin to draw to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1976, when the first Film Studies courses<\/a> were offered at Carleton, Hollywood productions such as Casablanca<\/em> had only recently been recognized as works of art worthy of scholarly study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCasablanca<\/em> is the kind of film that made this argument possible,\u201d says Prof. Marc Furstenau,<\/a> assistant director of Carleton\u2019s Film Studies program, which is part of the university\u2019s School for Studies in Art and Culture (SSAC<\/a>) and one of the oldest programs of its kind in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe tendency now is not to show many of these classics in our classes, but they\u2019re an important part of our evolution as an academic pursuit. Casablanca <\/em>is a film studies staple, and it gives us a glimpse into the era when Carleton emerged as a university.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Casablanca<\/em>\u2019s plot, which revolves around refugees trying to escape war and forge new lives, also has echoes of Carleton\u2019s expertise in migration and diaspora<\/a> research, and the university\u2019s mission to help address the greatest refugee crisis in the world since the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Bridging Old and New<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Furstenau, who will host the screening in Richcraft Hall\u2019s custom-designed theatre, with both 35 millimetre and state-of-the-art digital cinema projection equipment, figures that he has seen Casablanca<\/em> on at least a dozen occasions, maybe as many as 20 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He watched it as a young man in a repertory cinema, and on a VHS cassette in the early days of home video. He has taught it to students and recalls, a few years ago, seeing the film in a theatre full of people in their 20s, many of whom appeared to be watching Casablanca<\/em> in its entirety for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were no doubt familiar with several of its famous scenes and soundbites \u2014 lines like \u201cHere\u2019s looking at you, kid\u201d and \u201cI think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship\u201d frequently appear on lists of famous film quotes. But Furstenau was struck by their reaction, which seemed to be: \u201cThis is better than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casablanca<\/em> may not be the greatest film of all time, says Furstenau, but it is a great movie, and perhaps the most popular ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ingrid Bergman’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6759 Hollywood Boulevard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was successful, winning three Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and has aged well because of its pitch-perfect combination of drama, romance and violence. Casablanca <\/em>features memorable characters, stellar acting by stars at the top of their game, and high-quality screenwriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also made at a time when Hollywood \u2014 an industry populated by powerful people who often display immoral behaviour \u2014 was treating serious subjects such as war in a sober way while still trying to be entertaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a product of that kind of system at its height,\u201d says Furstenau. \u201cIt\u2019s a hallmark of peak Hollywood, the golden age of American cinema \u2014 with all of its contradictions and complexities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Casablanca: Providing a Glimpse into the Era of Carleton’s Creation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Art History Prof. Brian Foss<\/a>, director of the SSAC, says it\u2019s important for the university to organize events \u2014 both on and off campus \u2014 that are open to residents of the National Capital Region (NCR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarleton has always prided itself on being a university that both grows out of and responds to the diverse communities that make up the NCR,\u201d he says. \u201cMany of our special events wouldn\u2019t take place without the interest and support of those communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Hollywood is one of many sources of films taught and researched in the Film Studies program, says Foss, it\u2019s arguably the one that\u2019s best known to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo Film Studies program can ignore the many other national cinemas of the world, but at the same time, no Film Studies program can overlook the production, the technologies and the critical and popular reception of Hollywood films,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cPast and current faculty members have done important teaching and research on the huge range of Hollywood\u2019s output: early silent films, today\u2019s mega-hits and everything in between. Their work situates Hollywood within an international context.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Both Casablanca <\/em>and Carleton have become steadily more influential and respected since their births in 1942, says Foss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCasablanca <\/em>was generally liked when it was first screened, but over the ensuing decades it became an institution,\u201d he says. \u201cI like to think that Carleton, as it has matured into the university we know today, has taken on a similar kind of enduring solidity. As a result, I think the National Capital Region and Carleton share the kind of \u2018beautiful friendship\u2019 that Humphrey Bogart predicted would bloom between the characters of Rick and Renault in the last line of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith each viewing, I become more conscious of the film\u2019s use of stereotypes and of its other shortcomings,\u201d adds Foss. \u201cBy this point, the movie is for me like an old friend: someone whose faults I can easily see, but whom I love anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To set the right mood, the free screening at Carleton will be preceded by circa 1942 newsreels and cartoons. And, yes, there will be popcorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for more information<\/a> on the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton\u2019s Film Studies program will screen Casablanca on Nov. 26 2017 as the university\u2019s 75th anniversary celebrations draws to a close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[1920],"class_list":["post-7955","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-arts-and-social-sciences"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97551,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7955\/revisions\/97551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=7955"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=7955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}