casablanca

The scene I will be analysing from Casablanca is the last scene in the movie. It contains most of the characters that are in the movie. It has a very classic film noir style to it. It is very dark and set in the fog. This is classic film noir style. There is a clear separation in characters by the use of costume. The so called 'good guys' tend to have lighter costumes such as Lisa and Lazlo. They are the stereotypical heroes. Although rick never does anything wrong or criminal he has a darker ,but in the middle, outfit which shows that he isn't the definite hero and is still a bit dark and mysterious.

Another classic film noir trope that this specific scene in Casablanca abides to is the shadows. In film noir rather than finding creative ways to light a scene they find creative ways to cast shadows and darkness. In this scene there is a clear casting of shadows by the characters' hats. The shadows always cover at least half a characters face. This adds a sense of mystery and unknowing of what each character is secretly plotting or ideas they have. 

The scene has some great iconography, the main one being the Vichy water. After Rick shoots and kills Major Strasser, Renault bins a bottle of Vichy water. Vichy was an unoccupied region of France that persecuted Jews and collaborated with the Nazi government.

By binning the entire bottle of water, he is symbolically severing his ties with the corrupt Vichy government and the entire Nazi regime.