[sircastor]

I had a film professor who told us that he thought Casablanca should be #1 on AFIs list of the best films. Citizen Kane is a masterpiece of cinematography, but otherwise I think it’s kind of weird. Casablanca is beautiful, complex, and approachable.

If you’ve never seen this film, give it a shot.

[Maxion]

> If you’ve never seen this film, give it a shot.

The atmosphere in the film is quite special, you almost feel like it was made in modern times, just adjusted in post to be black and white.

[YouWhy]

A different way of putting the above is that Casablanca's aesthetic was so influential that it guided decades of subsequent work.

My 2¢: this could be a consequence of both the movie's strengths as much as of the trade-offs taken that did not overshadow the strengths. For example, the movie's wartime moral dichotomy is carefully offset with reminders about the limitations of moralism.

[CoastalCoder]

> I had a film professor who told us that he thought Casablanca should be #1 on AFIs list of the best films.

I'm surprised that the professor never saw The Godfather :)

[loloquwowndueo]

Maybe he did. Casablanca is a superior movie.

[CoastalCoder]

> Maybe he did. Casablanca is a superior movie.

Wait, you haven't seen The Godfather either???

[loloquwowndueo]

I have. All three if it matters. Your point?

[CoastalCoder]

I was pretending to be so in love with The Godfather that I saw this as an objective fact, rather than a matter of opinion.

I was also making an oblique reference to the meme that The Godfather is "the perfect film".

I was trying to be amusing, but apparently I failed spectacularly. I am ashamed.

[DiggyJohnson]

This explanation makes it especially amusing.

[bkandel]

I was amused!

[1oooqooq]

godfather is bad and violent. but i was enjoying their cluelessness and your insistence.

[CharlesW]

"It insists upon itself." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAi5aI_NPc

[ghaff]

I've seen Citizen Kane a number of times but Casablanca is more approachable and rewatchable IMO.