(Casablanca) Play it again, Sam “. Wendy, Alexandra and Tony traveled to Morocco from Canada, Spain and Ireland to live the “experience” of Rick’s Café, a replica of the mythical nightclub of the Hollywood classic casablanca released in the middle of World War II 80 years ago.
In this cult film, Rick’s Café is the scene of the romantic love story between Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund – played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman – who meet in Casablanca, under the Vichy regime in 1941.
However, no scene of Michael Curtiz’s melodrama (1942) was filmed in Morocco. It was entirely made at Warner Bros. studios in California.
In 2004, an ex-American diplomat, Kathy Kriger (deceased in 2018), passionate about film, had the idea of recreating the nightclub in Casablanca.
Immediate success: the restaurant and its bar have become a must-see attraction for tourists from all over the world.
“I absolutely wanted to come here, even knowing that the film was not shot there. The atmosphere is fascinating,” Wendy, originally from Vancouver, told AFP. “This place is a unique, nostalgic and romantic experience, you have to live it once in your life”, enthuses this film buff.
Alexandra, she has not seen the film but she remains “fascinated” by her reconstituted universe. “In my imagination, the city of Casablanca is associated with Rick’s Café”, adds this Spaniard.
“The spirit of Casablanca”
To cross the threshold of this chic establishment leaning against a rampart of the old medina of Casablanca, is to be propelled into another era.
The American restaurant is housed in a beautiful riad, on two floors, structured around stucco arcades, with soberly sculpted beams, in the pure Moroccan architectural tradition.
“Rick’s is not an exact replica of the café in the film. The only thing that was perfectly reproduced in the end was his spirit, ”said Issam Chabaa, restaurant manager and pianist, to AFP.
And if the place has its own cachet, many details echo the casablanca Hollywood.
The dim lights of the wrought iron lanterns, the beaded lampshades, the jazz and blues repertoire of the 30s and 40s, the vintage movie posters.
To the piano on which the song is played in the evening As Time Goes Byperformed in the film by “Sam” (musician Dooley Wilson), who accompanies Rick and Ilsa’s romance.
“All that’s missing is the casino roulette and the smoky, dramatic atmosphere of the time,” jokes Tony, an Irishman dining for the first time at Rick’s with his girlfriend and a couple of friends.
“This film has marked generations and we have not escaped it”, opines this sixty-year-old.
“Timeless”
These Irish admit that they are not big movie buffs, but they nevertheless know the cult lines of the film by heart.
” We will always have Paris (We will always have Paris)”, launches one of them, in reference to the romantic escapade of Rick and Ilsa, before Paris fell into the hands of the Germans in 1940.
It is on the tarmac of Casablanca airport that Bogart sniffles his regrets to Bergman, sacrificing his love to save the life of Ilsa’s husband, a Czech resistance fighter hunted by the Nazis.
“This message resonates with the American public” who discovered Casablanca with “Operation Torch”, the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria from November 8 to 16, 1942, explains American historian Meredith Hindley to AFP.
This victory for the Allies will gradually allow them to take control of North Africa and then have a base for the reconquest of Europe.
casablancaa claimed propaganda work, will premiere on November 26, 1942, just after the start of Operation Torch.
The film will receive a second spotlight when it is released nationally in January 1943 with the participation of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Casablanca Conference, a meeting to prepare for Allied operations against the Axis coalition.
“The film has thus become part of the American experience of the war and its cultural fabric”, underlines the historian.
Even today, the popularity of the film in the collective imagination does not weaken.
“It’s a timeless film that will remain forever anchored in legend”, summarizes Najib Salim, American drummer who collaborates with the ” live band at Rick’s Café for 15 years.