Casablanca (1942) | Keeping the Score Series

Be it a gentle piano interlude or a glorious orchestral fanfare, no element of filmcraft sets a movie’s tone and identity quite like the musical score. Film music has the power to underline a filmmaker’s narrative ideas, forge our bond to a heroic character, and move us to the point of tears. Join us all year long as we showcase cinema’s iconic composers whose musical talents enrich the images we see on screen and have us humming their unforgettable melodies as we exit the auditorium. The series continues with our annual screenings of CASABLANCA! See it at 7pm on June 18th or catch the special matinee at 1pm on June 22nd. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀: princetongardentheatre.org/specials

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲: The Bogart film of all Bogart films, with nightclub owner Rick fighting his cynicism to choose between love and duty. Set in Morocco during WWII, this classic contains one memorable scene after another, only to be topped by one of the greatest endings ever. Co-star Ingrid Bergman simply glows on the screen.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲: If it’s difficult to imagine CASABLANCA without “As Time Goes By,” it’s downright impossible to imagine that legendary film composer Max Steiner did not like Herman Hupfeld's 1931 song and was against using it in the film. Production complications served against Steiner’s wish to compose his score around a different song, almost certainly for the better. “As Time Goes By” anchors the fraught romance between Rick and Ilsa, and Steiner’s stirring expansion of the song’s melody within the score shows, bittersweetly, that the embers of their romance burn still. Steiner’s integration of external music sources doesn’t end here, his invocation of the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” in key moments (most memorably in the scene where French and German patriots sing their duelling anthems) generates patriotic solidarity in a movie made during the height of the second World War. Steiner’s musical contributions amplify the gesture of allyship this great American studio film represents amidst the defining conflict of the 20th century.

𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟭𝟬!Become a member of our nonprofit theater for as little as $40 a year. Learn more at princetongardentheatre.org/membership

You may also like the following events from Princeton Garden Theatre:

• This Wednesday, 14th May, 07:00 pm, Blade Runner (1982) Final Cut Version | Keeping the Score Series in Princeton
• This Thursday, 15th May, 07:00 pm, Prof Picks | 20,000 Species of Bees (2023) with Professor Raquel Mattson-Prieto in Princeton
• This Saturday, 17th May, 10:30 am, $ 5 Family Matinee | The Land Before Time (1988) in Princeton

Also check out other Entertainment events in Princeton, Music events in Princeton.