Screening prompts for watching Casablanca - AL Film Studies

1. Casablanca Screening Booklet
As you watch, make notes on how film form (mise en scene,
cinematography, sound, editing) creates meaning.
Fill in the boxes as thoughts occur

2. How does the film position and orientate the audience in the
opening sequence?
How do mise en scene and sound introduce you to Rick’s bar and
its customers?
How is Rick introduced to the audience? What is he like?

3. What elements are introduced to further the narrative?
How is lighting used for symbolic effect when Renault and
Rick are in Rick’s office?
How is Ilsa introduced?

4. What roles does As Time Goes By play throughout the film? At
what points do we hear it?
How is editing and cinematography used during the flashback
to indicate romance and memory?
How is lighting used to generate mood and meaning when Ilsa
visits Rick?

5. What does the singing of Les Marseillais in the bar
symbolise? Why does it recur throughout the film?
How do Rick’s actions when he pulls the gun on Renault
indicate that he is both a ‘sentimentalist’ and a traditional
Hollywood hero?
How do mise en scene and cinematography contribute to
the mood of the final sequence?