When I, for the first time, travelled to Casablanca, I wasn’t disappointed. I had been warned by my friend, who lived there:
-You won’t find any romance here, here’s no smog in the shades of black and white and you won’t see Rick and Ilsa whispering in the shadows. Sam isn’t going to play you again. Casablanca is not a movie.
No, Casablanca wasn’t a movie, it was more. It was life after death. I know I won’t have Paris any more, like Rick and Ilsa did. I know I won’t find beginnings of beautiful friendships anymore.
But - I’ll always have Casablanca.
It’s a state of mind. My own private Idaho. A place to seek out whenever I feel the need to.
10 comments:
Yeah, but the movie didn't have the proper feeling of hot air and the smell of kif that one encounters - or at least did some time ago - in the real Casablanca. It was just another town with a nice name on the way to Marrakesh and Ouarzazate and farther south...
You can have it. With Sam by the piano, and all.
The sea brings breezes and pushes the hot air inland, maybe to Marrakech. And if the sea doesn't help, one can always flee to Tanger. Another town with a nice name.
But, we must remember this: a name is just a name like a rose is a smelly flower.
Welcome back from Casablanca!
Oh, I wish, HPY, I'd been there...
You were!
Not really, because I didn't have a complete peace of mind during the weekend -I'm just on my way to Casablanca, somewhere on the road...but I'll get there, somehow, sometime.
Even after so much time has gone by, Casablanca still remains one of the most romantic movies. I just caught a free outdoor screening of it in the middle of Union Square, San Francisco. It was part the Film Night in the Park series. The low-hanging layer of fog, of course, complemented the mood of the movie. I wish I can go to the real place some day. I'd gladly have my heart broken there (if I don't leave it behind in San Francisco).
In case you're wondering how I stumbled on your blog, I apparently created a post with the same title as yours on my blog.
Hi, Kennethsf, nice of you to drop by. But, really, the same title, this I must see!
That outdoor screening was surely wonderful, I should think.
Now I'm off to visit your blog:)
Hey, Susu! Thanks for the visiting my post. Indeed, Casablanca is so mythical that it is, for many of us who've never been there, a state of mind, an emotional experience--like Yeats' Byzantium.
Casablanca is almost Shangri La:)
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