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Brittany Gefroh

English 169

Eunice Johnston

12 October 2010

The Ever-present Searchlight in Casablanca

Casablanca, which was released in 1942, is often considered one of the greatest films of

all time—due in part to the brilliance of its visual elements, also known as its mise-en-scène.

The film centers on Rick Blaine, an American expatriate who runs a popular nightclub (Rick's

Café Américain) in Casablanca, Morocco that attracts a diverse clientele—Nazis, French, and

refugees. One day a man named Ugarte comes to the nightclub and asks Rick to hide the letters

of transit that Ugarte had stolen from two Germans whom he murdered. Rick hides the letters in

the piano, and Ugarte is arrested. Next, Rick’s ex-lover Ilsa Lund and her husband Victor

Laszlo, a member of the Resistance, enter the nightclub. They seek the letters of transit in order

to escape to America. Eventually Rick decides that he and Ilsa, whom he still loves, will go to

America, but he changes his mind during the infamous airport scene and decides that Ilsa needs

to go with her husband. As Ilsa and Victor board the plane, Major Strasser, a Nazi commander,

comes to stop them, but Rick shoots and kills him. The film ends with Rick and Captain Louis

Renault, a Frenchman, walking off into the fog and Rick saying his famous line, “Louis, I think

this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

An important element of mise-en-scène is lighting, which is used effectively in

Casablanca to create meaning. A particularly striking example of lighting is the ever-present

searchlight that towers over Casablanca and circles outside Rick's Café Américain throughout the

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film. The searchlight is a constant reminder that even in Casablanca, part of Unoccupied France,

one is constantly being watched, and safety and security are only illusions.

The searchlight first circles Rick's place immediately after Captain Louis Renault assures

Major Strasser that the murderer of the two German couriers and thief of the two letters of transit

will be found at the nightclub. Here a connection is made between the invasive searchlight and

governmental power. The only place the searchlight is ever shown shining upon is Rick's

nightclub, a place where Rick would appear to hold authority, but considering all the

governmental authorities who frequent the nightclub, his power far from absolute. The

government officials know enough about Rick's place—they have been spying on it, in a sense,

just as the light has—to know that the criminal is bound to show up there. Rick's limited power

is further shown later in the film when his nightclub is shut down without good reason by the

governmental authorities, specifically Louis, who in the following still, speaks with Rick, as the

searchlight looks on. As a potential threat, Rick is constantly being watched. Note how the

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searchlight in this still shines on Rick and the airplane—presumably departing for Lisbon and,

from there, America—but Louis is safe from its invading light.

The searchlight next shows up as Victor Laszlo and Ilsa Lund are leaving the nightclub.

The implications here are obvious: Laszlo is not safe even in Casablanca, and he and Ilsa are

constantly being watched. The only way for Laszlo and Ilsa to escape the searchlight and the

ever-present, intruding gaze of the enemy is to obtain the letters of transit and escape to America.

Such an action proves difficult, for the authorities do whatever it takes to prevent his escape; as

Louis declares, echoing the opinion of all the authorities on his side, “Laszlo must never reach

America. He stays in Casablanca.”

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The searchlight appears twice as Ilsa and Rick, the former lovers, interact. It first shows

up when Ilsa returns to Rick’s—this time without Laszlo. This occurrence is shown in the

following still:

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The searchlight dramatically frames Ilsa in the doorframe of an otherwise eerily dark Rick's Café

Américain, and she appears somewhat angelic. Significantly, this is the first time that the

searchlight actually penetrates the outside of the nightclub. The searchlight also appears later as

Rick looks out the window of his apartment after kissing Ilsa. Rick and Ilsa’s secret romance is

not even safe from the scrutiny of the searchlight. Rick realizes that their romance may have

worked out when they were in Paris before the war, but now that circumstances have changed, it

could never work out. He decides, then, to help Ilsa and the man she should be with—Laszlo,

her husband—escape the eye of the searchlight and flee to the freedom of America. In America,

the searchlight will not pursue the couple, unlike how the searchlight dramatically pursues

Laszlo and Carl as they escape the Free French meeting. Laszlo’s heroic stance for what is right

and honorable is accepted in America, and he and Ilsa will have no reason to hide.

The searchlight in Casablanca serves as an ever-present reminder of the control that Nazi

Germany and its allies had over the characters in this film—especially Rick, Ilsa, and Laszlo—

and over the world in general. No refugee could be truly safe and secure until he or she escaped

the gaze of the searchlight and entered America—a land of freedom with no metaphorical

“searchlight” circling its residents. Fortunately for Ilsa and Laszlo—thanks to Rick’s self-

sacrificing love for Ilsa—the couple is able to escape the constant scrutiny and go to America,

where they could shine a more positive light themselves. There is a hope for the world that

comes from those, who like Ilsa and Laszlo, fight the evils of the world, and that light of hope

that emanates from their appearances throughout the film overpowers the evils of the searchlight

and everything it represents.