Word: casablanca
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...Front? Nope, an inset of Allen making a rare public appearance to voice his concern about the controversial practice of "colorizing" black-and-white movies. Joined by fellow Directors Milos & Forman and Sydney Pollack, Allen protested the computerized coloring of such classics as It's a Wonderful Life and Casablanca, calling the result "cheesy, artificial symbols of one society's greed." Allen was equally plainspoken about how he felt on becoming a father for the first time. The auteur, 51, said that his longtime girlfriend Mia Farrow, 42, had become pregnant "by accident" and that he has no plans...
Also dealing indirectly with war but far less blunt is Casablanca (Brattle Theater). Probably the most famous film of all time, Casablanca actually has an illogical and melodramatic plot, centering around a cynical American (Humphrey Bogart) who runs into an old flame (Ingrid Bergman) from his days in Paris. Under the influence of the striking young woman, Rick progresses from a selfish and apolitical bar-owner to a member of the French resistance against the Nazis. Though lacking the chemistry of Bogart and Bacall, Bogie and Bergman turn this rickety plot into a timeless film about sacrificing personal interest...
Well, yes. The colors are dismal. The film is distorted. The director's intentions are trashed. It is true that most old films are junk anyway, so colorizing them would turn dank junk into juiced-up junk. It is also true that watching Casablanca for the chiaroscuro lighting rather than the dialogue is a bit like buying Playboy for the articles. The charge of philistinism is slightly overdrawn. But, on the whole, only slightly...
...individual choose. Anyone can rent the black-and-white Casablanca. And even when the philistines insist on putting a tainted Casablanca on TV, all you have to do to restore artistic integrity is turn off the color on your set. Why the panic...
...appointed you guardians of the public taste? Let the people decide. If they want junk, that's their prerogative. What did we fight two world wars for if not the right to buy Penthouse at the 7- Eleven?" But not, you see, for the right to rent a colored Casablanca...