"Of all the gin joints of all the towns in the world, she walks into mine..."

(Be kind - I haven't written in awhile, so writing is somewhat questionable...it will improve with time though)
Recently, I renewed my membership to Netflix. With that simple act, I knew that it was inevitable to ressurect the movie review blog. What I did not know was what movie would inspire the resurrection. One film would have to be either so incredible or so terrible to inspire me to sit in front of my laptop and pound away. Some movies have been good ("Halloween" - no villain is scarier than Mike Myers pre-Dr. Evil), other movies have been bad (never ever bother wasting time on the crap French horror flick "High Tension", ptew - I spit on French horror - unless it stars Audrey Tatou), but none have inspired me to write about them....to shout out about them to the blogosphere until now. The film that was able to resurrect this blog was "Casablanca".

I think I was, until a few minutes ago, the only film afficionado who had never seen "Casablanca" - the classic love triangle. A man, Bogey, sacrifices his heart so that the woman, the beautiful Ingrid Bergman (if I had to choose between her and Grace Kelly....I would not want to be put in that situation), he loves can move to America with her husband to escape the Nazis. It has all of the elements that make up the pefect love story in my mind (hmmm...take note - maybe the following reasons are why I enjoyed "The Constant Gardner so much). 1.)It takes place in a developing country. This creates an exotic, raw aspect to the film. In the early days of film, it was difficult to capture the "raw" element, but I think "Casablanca" managed to do a fine job. 2.) Rick (Bogey) was the quintiessential tortured soul. His heart was light in Paris (he was in love with Ilsa , who's heart wouldn't be light?). As soon as he was left heartbroken and jaded, his soul became tortured. 3.) Unrequited love. Rick and Ilsa gave up their love for eachother for the greater good of the WORLD. That's right. The world. Ilsa was Victor Lazlo's, the Socialist Revolutionary Extraordinare, muse. Without her, he would have been nothing and would not have survived to inspire the masses to break-free from the Nazi hell. Ok, so maybe I'm getting whisked up in the romance of the situation. Time to come back to reality. Reality check: Rick decides to head to Brassaville in the now Democratic Republic of the Congo. Boy. He really knows how to pick those African destinations.

Film Viewing Protocol:
Due to exhaustion the protocol will be limited to the following - drink Cointreau, Veuve Cliquout (1929) and champagne martinis. more comprehensive viewing activities will be discussed in upcoming films.