The enforced Babel

When Casablanca came out in 1942, a lot of people and institutions were involved in the making. One producer, one director, three authors, roundabout twenty nations (regarding the heritages of cast and crew) and the OWI. Casablanca, very well known for its melodrama, can highly be seen as an anti-Nazi propaganda movie.

Since the movie is an adaption of a play called Everybody comes to Rick’s, written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison between 1938 and 1940, the way the movie had been arranged and shot is close to the staging of a play. There are typical filmic moments, like the flash back scene or the tracking shot, when the café is introduced. Nevertheless the movie lives through its narration and the dialogues.

Speaking of dialogues, it is likely that we think of famous one liners like “Here’s looking at you kid” or “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.

However, in this text I would like to discuss one of the tiniest little conversations that had ever been recorded on film.

It takes place around 7’ and shows Sacha, the barkeeper, serving what appears to be a long drink.

Sacha places the glas, looking at the customer, who is sitting at the bar, and says “Na sdorówje”, to which the customer replies “cheerio”, leaving Sacha irritated.

Dealing with refugees and the terror regime of the German Third Reich, the movie is not just produced but also set in the middle of WWII. “Rick’s Café Americain” seems to be essential for the black market in Casablanca, when it comes down to get visas or other possibilities of transfer.

The café, a melting pot that summons a variety of stories and fates, gives the audience an impression of what it is like, to be a human being on the run from death.

Casablanca is, though it has a serious topic to deal with, not a completely dramatic movie. It has a widely spread humour that keeps the atmosphere from getting to sinister.

This small dialogue between Sacha and the customer is neither largely established nor explained. It is of no consequence and therefore even more striking. The fact that Sacha is mistaking the customer’s nationality for being a Russian expresses the exile situation Sacha, as well as almost all other characters in the movie, is in. That the dialogue is nevertheless funny, can be explained through its classic three stage structure.

1. A situation is established: Bar, barkeeper, customer
2. Plot is told: Sacha serves the drink and gives a toast
3. Punch line: Customer replies different than expected

Nationalities and their relationships towards the Third Reich is a key element of Casablanca and quite often it is discussed with a wink. When asked about his nationality, Rick says that he is a drunkard, which would make him, according to Renault, “a citizen of the world”. When welcoming Strasser in Casablanca, Renault greets the German major with “the unoccupied France welcomes you to Casablanca”, giving a proper greeting as well as a hint that the Nazis are perhaps not unbeatably powerful. 

The dialoque between Sacha and the customer of course, is not quite that political, but gives an idea what it must be like living in a foreign country far away from home.