CASABLANCA, Morocco — Tourists are flocking
to a bar in Morocco searching for the spirit of
Humphrey Bogart’s iconic,
fictional nightclub, 80 years after the classic wartime film “Casablanca” hit
the silver screen.
اضافة اعلان
The Moroccan port city entered the cultural
imagination of the US at a key point in World War II, thanks to the moody
romance starring Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund and Bogart as Rick Blaine.
Just days after its initial screening on November
26, 1942, American forces snatched Casablanca from Vichy control during
Operation Torch, a string of allied landings in North Africa that helped change
the course of the war.
But Morocco was still under Vichy rule when the film
was made, so director Michael Curtiz shot his entire masterpiece at Warner
Brothers’ studios in California.
Decades later, former US diplomat Kathy Kriger
opened a real-life “Rick’s Cafe” in Casablanca itself as a tribute to the film.
Complete with cocktails and piano, the venue is
modelled on Blaine’s eponymous bar, and became an instant hit with tourists
when it opened its doors in 2004.
“I absolutely had to come, even though I knew that
the film wasn’t shot here,” said Wendy, a tourist from Vancouver. “The place is
a unique experience, nostalgic and romantic. You have to see it once in your
life.”
Fellow tourist
Alexandra, from Spain, said she had
not seen the film but was “fascinated” by the place. “In my imagination, the
city of Casablanca is linked to Rick’s Cafe,” she said.
‘We’ll always have Paris’
Stepping into the chic bar
next to Casablanca’s old city feels like walking back in time. Tables are laid
out on two levels, amid sculpted stucco columns in a traditional Moroccan
style.
“It’s not an exact replica of the cafe in the film,”
said restaurant manager and pianist Issam Chabaa. “The only thing that was
perfectly reproduced in the end was its spirit.”
The interior is littered with reminders of the film
that inspired it — wrought iron candle holders, beaded lampshades, a jazz and
blues repertoire from the era, and posters of the film.
Of course, the restaurant houses a piano, similar to
the one on which Dooley Wilson’s character Sam played “As Time Goes By” — the
theme song of Rick and Ilsa’s affair.
“All that’s missing is a roulette wheel and the
smoky, dramatic atmosphere of the time,” said Irish diner Tony. He and his
companions said they were not cinema buffs, but could nevertheless recite lines
from the film.
“We’ll always have Paris,” quoted one, referring to
Blaine and Lund’s romance shortly before
Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940.
Blaine recites the enduring line to Lund as he convinces her to part ways with
him, sacrificing their love affair to help her husband, a Czech resistance
fighter, escape the Nazis.
‘Anchored in legend’
“Casablanca” gave allied
forces a propaganda boost as they gained control of North Africa, which became
a springboard from which to liberate western Europe.
The film’s US release came in January 1943 as
president Roosevelt took part in the Casablanca Conference in preparation for
that push.
Historian Meredith Hindley, author of a book on
wartime Casablanca, said the film formed “part of the American war experience
in a way that was never intended”.
“It just becomes part of the American cultural
fabric,” she said.
The movie has remained one of Hollywood’s most
beloved works.
American drummer Najib Salim, who has performed at
Rick’s Cafe for 15 years, described it as “timeless”.
“It will always be anchored in legend,” he said.
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