What do you know?

[fpb]

Only a few days ago I filled a meme about my favourite movies, mentioning CASABLANCA. Tonight I found it, purely by chance, on a cable channel -- one of the few that I can afford. And, as with every time I have the good luck to watch it, it looks better. If you do not get tears in your eyes at the Marseillaise scene, you have no tear ducts; and to use it to lead into the humiliating closure of Rick's saloon is pure genius. What a wonderful movie. And the strange thing is, we are used to associate genius with a single person, but this is a movie in which none of the contributors - except perhaps for the actors - were of the absolute first rank, and yet the collaboration of scriptwriters, director and producer produced something immortal.

Comments

[curia-regis.livejournal.com]

um, i was really bored the last time i tried to watch that movie. i think i actually fell asleep watching it. then again, it was after an incredibly long day

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, I know that our tastes in fiction differ very much, so I am not surprised. But I hope I do not come across as patronizing when I say that I feel a bit sorry for you on that account. I simply feel that you are missing out on an immense and elementary pleasure. The technical perfection and moral greatness of CASABLANCA are not in that sense the point; they just are part of an experience of tremendous admiration and personal enjoyment that I have in watching, reading, or listening to, such things. (For instance, I am currently listening with enormous excitement and enjoyment to Liszt's mighty transcription for two pianos of Beethoven's awesome Ninth Symphony - the musical statement of the values of our civilization, and an earth-shakingly exciting piece of music into the bargain.) I would dearly love, one day, to share it with you, not because I want you to learn anything, but because it is such a beautiful and positive experience - fun and pleasure raised to the nth power. Till then, however, do whatever seems best to you.