When Louie is talking about Rick, and he says something like, Well, Rick is the kind of a man that, if I were a woman I should be in love with Rick.
That's always struck me as a very peculiar comment that I'm not sure any man would make about any other man, and not just because of the homosexual implications, it's just very weird.
To me it's an example of Renault's sense of humor, making a proud point of his decadence by hinting that he's likely to do anything if it suits him. But that's just a feeling, based on just how utterly jaded he likes to present himself as being, without any shame or embarrassment.
shareI notice things about attempts at serious comments here in MovieChat. It is that statistically most will take comments in a way that provokes them to defend the movie, or their taste. Whereas I as a commenter would like to hear comments that go in the same direction as whatever perception I may post. Because the natural thing to do in a movie, and often in life, is to accept something, that is suspend your disbelief, and let it go as normal. That causes a lot of problems, for one reason, because it is mostly done below the level of consciousness.
My comment was not meant to criticize the movie, attack the movie, or attack the character of the character in the movie. It was simply to draw attention to that one line and to see if it stuck out to anyone else.
If I read a comment like that, I'd either say, I never noticed that line in the movie, OR, Yeah, I noticed that too, but didn't give it a thought, however since I do recall it, it must have stuck with me in some way.
It made me wonder what the writer was thinking when they wrote those lines, and why. Casablanca is an extraordinarily well written script, even in its more surreal aspects, it works by a kind of ambiguity in what plane it is operating on. Anyway, I think the drugs are really kicking in now.
Oh, I never took your question as an attempt to criticize the movie! And I do agree that it's an ... interesting line, to say the least. My response was simply how I took the inclusion of the line in the movie, as reflecting some aspect of the character. Of course, it could also have been something one of the writers decided might be ... interesting to add, perhaps to see how the audience took it, perhaps to see if he could get away with it.
shareI think Louie actually *would* do anything if it suited him!
Why the hell not, like any sensible person stuck in a war, he knows that he may be dead tomorrow, and that he doesn't have any good options. If the French win he's a "collaborator", if Germany wins he's oppressed and likely to be shot without a trial whenever they like, and if he joins the resistance he's likely to die soon. So why not admit his feelings, and spend his life squeezing any little bit of joy he can out of each day under the Nazis, before things get worse.
Yeah - but he's supposed to be French so, you know *shrugs in the French manner*.
shareQuite a normal thing to say? I think it points to some deep-seated homophobia in the culture you have around you that you are so weirded out by this.
shareI said it was weird, not that I was "weirded out". I'm not weirded out.
You just assume I talking homophobically, but really it is an effeminate thing to say - which is adjacent to, but not the same as homophobia. It's like a man man-splaining to a woman how she should decide her love. How would be know, and know better than a woman? There is a deep complexity to this exchange, which I think is why people just glossed over it. That's how it's weird.
It would actually be nice if there were a bit more depth to people responses instead of just name-calling, or comments that could be construed to be superior or name-calling.
share