We'll Always Have Paris

I'm reading a marvelously entertaining book by Aljean Harmetz, The Making of Casablanca:Bogart, Bergman, and World War II, another Christmas gift from my wife. For many years, if asked, I would claim my favorite movie of all time was The Godfather but lately I'm not so sure. I find Casablanca so compellingly watchable that any time I run across it on television I can't pull myself away. There are a few other movies like that, movies that I can watch any time with pleasure - The Shop Around the Corner, (which I mentioned in one of this blogs very early posts), It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday, Groundhog Day. "Groundhog Day", you say? Yes, Groundhog Day. For years my buddy Mike and I discussed and considered the movie as one of the all time greats. It was not just a great comedy, it was also a love story, a morality tale, and a story of redemption, all wrapped up inside a tremendously funny movie. Mike and I thought it was just the two of us who appreciated its greatness until Jonah Goldberg wrote this column in National Review a few years ago. Clearly it wasn't just us. Read Jonah's appreciation of the movie, then rent it and watch it again. One of the finest movies ever, certainly of the past twenty years. (Another of what I consider one of the best movies of the past twenty years that may surprise you: this one.)

But I think if at this point of my life I had to pick a single desert island movie, it would be "Casablanca." It's as near to a perfect movie as can be. It's full of humor, romance, and suspense. It has some of the most memorable lines in movie history, and it has the perfect ending - the cynical hero performing a selfless act for the greater good. He gives up the girl, and his cynicism, to rejoin the fight. And, of course, it has Bogart, my favorite actor this side of Cary Grant, and Ingrid Bergman, the most radiantly beautiful actress ever. She exuded both innocence and sensuality at the same time. She had a perfect face and a perfect voice. When she is on the screen it's impossible to take your eyes off her.

"The Making of Casablanca" is chock full of interesting nuggets. Ingrid Bergman would apparently fall in love with many of her on screen lovers during filming (though interestingly Bogart was not one of them.) The book claims she had over a dozen affairs with her costars or her directors. But her love only lasted until the filming was complete:

...she was happiest when the emotions she was feeling on screen could spill over into real life. Bergman's first husband, Petter Lindstrom, told a biographer that his wife worked best when she was in love with her costar or her director. Whether the love was chaste or carnal, it never lasted beyond the last scene. Of his affair with Bergman on Saratoga Trunk, a bemused Gary Cooper told one journalist, "In my whole life I never had a woman in love with me as Ingrid was. The day after the picture ended, I couldn't get her on the phone."

That story made me laugh out loud. The book contains dozens of other interesting and amusing stories about the making of the movie, the studio system and its workings, the actors and their off screen personalities and peculiarities (Bogart, for instance, was extremely difficult to get to know. While not a primadonna, he was a loner who would retreat to his trailer once a scene was complete. Bergman summed it up: "I kissed him, but I never knew him.")

At any rate, if you love the movie the book will entertain you. If you don't love the movie, well, what's wrong with you?

Here's that perfect ending:

UPDATE: Looks like the original video I posted is no longer available. Here's another version: