By Karla Dieseldorff
By Karla Dieseldorff
Miami – The BBC and its prestigious rankings has once again created a poll. This time, with the help of 62 film critics who came up with a list of the 100 Greatest American Films in History. The movie Casablanca climbed to ninth place in the list of feature films.
Casablanca has won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The critics sent in their list of their 10 best films that deserved placing. The first received ten points and the tenth one point. The BBC says that those films that received US funding were likely to be cut from the survey and those whose directors were not originally from the US, which were 32.
According to the poll, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane ranked 1st place, followed by Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Murray Burnett and Joan Allison’s play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”. Played by actors Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, the movie tells the story of an American expatriate named Rick Blaine who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII.
The nightclub becomes a haven for those in need of illicit letters of transit to escape to America. Rick is one day approached by a political leader looking for help to escape, along with his wife Lisa, who happens to be Rick’s greatest love.
During WWII Casablanca was, indeed, considered a refuge for many exiles. Even though the entire film was centered in the Moroccan economic capital of that time, not a single scene of the entire film was actually shot in Morocco.
Casablanca’s famous love triangle has lead the way and inspired many more films. Growing its reputation over time, the fantastic performances of its stars and those memorable quotes, this film does deserve its ranking. One of the best movie quotes of all time and my personal favorite “We will always have Paris”.
