The 1942 opus directed by Michael Curtiz has plenty of elements necessary for spinning a great dramatic love story: Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman burning a hole in the screen with their smoldering, star-crossed chemistry against the backdrop of a looming Nazi occupation in pre-war Morroco—all within the confines of a swinging jazz bar. Yielding some of cinema’s most lasting dialogue about hills of beans, usual suspects, looking at kids and gin joints, Casablanca also features one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite scenes: the bar montage in which French citizens and German officers attempt to outsing one another. In perhaps one of the movie’s biggest twists, the French actually win.
Mon., Dec. 13, 8 p.m., 2010
