CINE-FORUM
RICHARD RASKIN
TWO -MARSEILLAISE- SCENES:
FROM CASABLANCA TO WEST BEIRUT
Resume: La scene emouvante de la « Marseillaise» execuMe avec tant de brio dans
Casablanca est generalement interpretee comme celebration de Ia resistance et de
Ja liberte. Mais si on envisage cette scene du point de vue des maroccains qui s'opposaient
~
I'occupation coloniale--de leur pays, cette glorification fran-;aise de Ia
111
Marseillaise It devient un affront a la liberte. Dans cette perspective, une autre scene
de la « Marseillaise. - celie de West Beirut de Ziad Ooueiri - repond tt celie de
Casablanca et en expose Ie discours refoule.
he "Marseillaise" scene in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca (USA, 1943) has
moved successive generations of moviegoers to tears since 1943. Even Murray Burnett. the man who first conceived of the scene, wept as he scripted the
duel of national songs: "I cried when I wrote it. I literally cried when I wrote ir.
Tears, actuallears. I was writing and I cried. lIt was that powerful to me. And it
was that powerfuJ in the film.'"
The following r~um~ may help to refresh the reader's memory as to exactly
what happens in this scene, set in Rick's caf~:
T
Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Victor Laszlo (paul Henreid) are upstairs in Rick's
office, with Laszlo offering t'O buy the letters of transit Ugarte (Peter Lorre)
had. stolen from a courier. Rick refuses. and in reply to Laszlo's question as
to why, Rick tells him to ask his wile. They then hear German orncen;
singing Die Wachl am Rhein in the main room below. Rick and Laszlo go
out on the balcony and look down at Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) and his
lellow officers singing loudly at the piano. Captain Renault (Claude Rains)
watches [rom the bar, his eyebrow raised. turning to see what Rick and
Laszlo will do. Laszlo, listening tight-llpped, walks decisively down the
steps and approaches the band, telling them: "Play the 'Marseillaise'! Play
it!" The band members look down, then up toward Rick who nods to them.
The band then begins to play the "Marseillaise," and lor a while, both the
German and French songs can be heard, as a kind of auditory duel. But
follOWing Victor Laszlo's lead, virtually all the cafe patrons stand up from
CANADIAN JOURNAL 0' FILM STUDIES 0 nYUE CAHAD'lNHE D'trUDE.S ONUIAJoCRAPHlqUlS
VOLUME 15 NO.l° M.LL' AUTOMNE 1I1l' 0 ,.11],-"8
their seats to join in the singing of the "Marseillaise." including many men
in French uniforms, as well as the guitar-pla>;ng Spanish chanteuse (Corinna
Mura); even Yvonne (Madeleine leBeau), recently dropped by Rick and
who had arrived that evening on the arm of a German officer, now sings
the French national anthem with tears running down ber cheeks. Major
Strasser and his compatriots have long since given up their singing. Usa
Lund (Ingrid Bergman) quietly observes this symbolic triumph over oppression, with love and admiration in her eyes for the husband who had taken
charge 01 the situation and known exactly what to do. When the last ven;e
of the "Marseillaise" has been sung, people shout "Vive la France! Vive 1a
Democratiel" and Victor is cheered. and toasted by the French officers
standing nearby, aiter which Major Strasser angrily "suggests" to Captain
Renault that Rick's cafe be closed immediately.
In earlier studies. I tried to show how this scene helped to shape the attitudes 01 U.S. audiences toward the Free (or Fighting) French,' and to look closely at the role of Bogart's nod in the scene. 3 In the present study. it is in relation
to French colonialism that I want to focus on this scene and on the film more
generally. And I would like to suggest that Ziad Doueiri's "Marseillaise" scene in
West Beirut (France/Norway/Lebanon/Belgium, 1998) might be considered a
reply to its counterpart in casablanca.
CASABLANCA AND COLONlAU5M
In describing her own experience of the .. Marseillaise" scene in casablan.ca,
Judith Mahoney Pasternak wrote, "'The 'Marseillaise' comes to its stirring conclusion, and with tears in their eyes the patriots in the bar cry out, 'Vive la France!'
Watching, lears in my own eyes, I always murmur along, 'Vive la France: It took
40 years for me to notice that they're shouting 'Vive la France!' on African soil. '"4
This imponant point has been missed by many commentators over the years.
As has been shown elsewhere (see endnote 2). much of the storytelling in
casablam:a is designed to elevate the Resistance and the Free (or Fighting)
French in the eyes of the viewer, at a time when u.s. policy was utterly WlaCcommodating toward representatives of these organizations. And as numerous
commentators have pointed out, the film casts in a positive light the transition
from .neutrality 10 engagement. But while serving those laudable purposes. the
storytelling in Casablanca also represses the reality that "French Morocco" as a
colonialist construct involved for an indigenous people: a) subjection to French
rule and exploitation; b) the frustration of their own sense of nationhood; and c)
the overshadowing of their own Arabian-Berber culture by another.
The Jilm defines the city 01 Casablanca as "FIeDch soil" in an unequivocally positive way, meaning that as such, it is-at least in principle-free from Gennan author.
ity. Victor laszlo, the most politically admirable character in the fIlm, does this when
TWO '"'MARSEJLLAISr SCENES
113>
confronted by Major Strasser first at Rick's. To Strasser's assertion, "You are a subjecl 01 the German Reichl" Laszlo replies, "I've never a<:repled thaI privilege. and I'm
here now on French soil.· And then again at the Prefect's office Laszlo insists. ·You
won't dare to interfere with me here. 1bi.s is still Unoccupied France."
What a curious casablanca we have in this film, in which not a word of Arabic is heard, though we are treated to smatterings of Italian, French, Spanish,
German and even a bit of Russian. And there is only one character with an Arabic name in this film: Abdul, the doorman at Rick's.
Is it unfair to expect a greater recognition of the colonial realities in a film
made in 19421 Nol il one considers the lollowing lacts. As early as 1924-1925,
the Berber leader Abd al Karim Al-Khartabi led "a resistance movement against
French and Spanish colonial rule in North Africa," and curiously. the Spanish
and French forces fighting againsl him were commanded by none other than
Francisco Franco and Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, respectively. 5 On August 14,
1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston 'Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter.
the third provislon 0.1 which commits the signatories to "respect the right 0.1 all
peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they
wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored. to those who have
been forcibly deprived of them." 6 This provision would soon be cited by groups
calling for Moroccan independence from French rule. such as the Istiqlal (fnde4
pend.ence) Parry, officially established in 1944.
Furthermore, Roosevelt expressed his own views on the necessity for
Moroccan independence al the Casablanca Conference held in January 1943,
when-al about the time of CasablanaJ's general release-the following meeting
took place:
On the evening of January 22, the president [Roosevelt] invited Churchill
and Morocco's Sultan Sidi Muhammad to dinner.... In deference to the sul·
tan'S Islamic faith, Roosevelt served no alcohol, much to Churchill's chagrin.
The prime minister's dismay increased when Roosevelt steered the conversation toward colonialism, a particular sore point between the president and
Churchill, who wanted to maintain Britain's colonies after the war. Morocco
had been a French protectorate since 1912, and Roosevelt sketched out for
the sultan the role that America could play in post colonial Morocco.
ChurchiU knew that Roosevelt'S views on France's colowes applied to
Britain's as weU, and the prime minister moved uneasily in his chair until
the conversation changed to another subject. 7
Before returning to the "Marseillaise'" scenes in the two fIlms, I would like
to cite one of Conor Cruise O'Brien's comments on Albert Camus's allegorical
novel, The Plague (1947). The action in this novel takes place in the Algerian ciry
of Oran, where a plague sets in and is fought, against all odds, by teams of medical workers. 1b some degree at least, the characters who fight against the
plague-the dOClor Rieux and other key figures in the "equipes sanilaires" such
as Tarrou and Grand-symbolize French Resistance groups in their snuggle
against the Nazis. O'Brien incisively wrote:
The difficulty derives 1 believe from the whole nalUre of Camus', relation to
the German occupiers on the one hand and to the Arabs of Algeria on the
other. It com~ natural to him, from his early background and education, to
think of Oran as a French town and of its relation to the plague as that of a
French town to the Occupation. But just \>clow the surface of his consciOU5+
ness, as with aU other Europeans in Africa, there must have lurked the pos·
sibility of another way of looking at things-an extremely distasteful one.
There were Arabs for whom 'French Algeria' was a fiction quite as repugnant
as Hitler's new European order was for Camus and his friends. For such
Arabs, the French were in Algeria in vinue of the same right by which the
Germans were in France: the right of conquest. The fact that the conquest
had lasted considerably longer in Algeria than it was to last in France
changed. nolhing in the essential resemblance of the relations between CODquemr and conquered. From this point of view, Rieux, Tarrou and G.rand
were nOI devoled fighters against the plague: they were the plague itself.'
The same point could be made regarding casablanca: that from the perspective
of those Moroccans who wished to see an end to the colonial occupation of their
country, the glorification of France in the singing of the "Marseillaise" ntight be
viewed more as an affront to freedom than as a true expression of it. In this
respect, the "Marseillaise" scene in casa.blanca. is an unfinished situation since
it leaves unexpressed and unacknowledged an important aspE'~ct of the realities
in play. Those very realities, kept from surfacing in Casablanca, are given full
expression in a corresponding scene in Ziad Doueiri's Wesr Beirul.
4
Those who might argue that the wartime situation made it inappropriate even to
consider the issue of colonialism in North Africa, would be at odds with the
views held by Roosevelt himself at the time Casablanca was first shown in movie
theaters across the United States.
114
RlOtAaD lASKI N
THE MMARSEIUAlSE'" SCENE IN WEST BEIRUT
As this film begins. the setting is the schoolyard of a French Iycee in Beirut on
April 13. 1975, and aiter an initial scene in which the pupils observe a dogfight
of two military jets in the sky overhead, resulting in the explosion of one of the
planes. the children are called to order and told 10 line up for assembly.
The headmistress, Mme Vieillard, walks toward the flagpole. Tarek, a fifleeoyear 0ld boy, observes her, then suddenly puu; his books on top of his friend
Omar's and rushes 0(( without telling him where he is going. Mme Vieillard
4
TWO "M"ISEILLAlSl~ SCENES
115
France CTedted your counuy. France gave you fOur bon:Jel"5. We laughl you
peace. We prepared your ci"J1iz.atlon and your constitutlon. Know that educalion. French educauon in paniculJI. is me only means [or freeing you (rom your
pnmltive custom ...... \VhHe loolting down at the street. Tarek notLCe5 masked
gunmen laki,ng up positions along the side-.valk.. waiting m ambush fOf.1 bus Cdfrying Palesunians on \yham they will soon opt?n fire-an t"Vem mJ..rkmg the Slart
of Iht" civil war thai was to devastate LebJnon for the next fifteen years.
f"tgU,e: l. Mme vieillard Jeids the singirts fA
F"CUrf' 2. Ta,e«. on the bakony sines the
the ~MatWillaisoe.·
Lebanew national anthem.
~
}, .. " . ' j - - ..•..
... ,
.. '~-.._~~ ~
-"
,
-
<
,
-,
,.\,
rtgUre
1 TM8-'S.
schoolmates watdtinJ him
hom below.
,
,,
• r
-
.~
.
~
F'rgure 4. Mme. YietJlard orders TarN to
come down from the bakony.
arn\'eS.1t the- flagpole and begins 10 lead In the .singmg of the "Marseillaise," Tarek
ascends a StaUCd5e mside the school building.. enters a room. and emerges from
It again J. moment la1.er cdrrying a megaphone. He lhen walks quickly along a. b.ll·
cony. smiling. In the' courtyard below, the children cootlnue singing the "~1M­
seiUaise." TMek. now s-hmdmg on a balcony overlooking t'he school>·ard. raises
the- megaphone' 1.0 his mouth and begins to sing the LelMnesc n.llion~\1 anthem.
80th songs can now b. heard, Children who had been {acing Mille Vieillard and
SlOgmg the '"Marseillaise- now tum 10 face "rcIrek. The-re J5 a moment
confusion as t-.1.me VieJJlo1rd tnes to understand whal is happerung. The other chlldren
now jom m Tarek's singing of the Lebanese natIonaJ anihem. Mme ViellLird calls
out to Tarek and orden him (0 "come down from there'" (Figures 1-4). Ignoring
her prolests. Threk and his schoolmates finish their singmg and Tan~k waves the
VlClory sign to hi' enthralled and cheenng claS1l1la'es below, Omar can barely
contain his admirauon for Threk. A the cheering conlinues. Mme VfeiUard makes
her way through the crowd. heading for an entrance (0 lhe budding.
In Ihe scene thai follows and that lakes place insidr the classroom. Tarek
has been called up '0 'he bl.,'kbo.rd to answer lor his rebellious beha\'lor. but
responds 10 Mmt> VieiUard's ordel'3 and questions in a way lhat indirt."Ctly mocks
her and the French cuhure she represents. He is reprimanded and 1.hrown oul 01
the c1.usroom_ While Th.rek stands in the corridor and looks through a window,
:1me Vieillard sa LO the boy's da"mates (in FrE'nch). "We must not forget that
or
I I' ItCIIUO tARtM
ZIAD DOUElRI'S OWN COMMENTS ON THE SCENE
lToiepbone Interview. 14 AuCWt 2D04)
RR; West Betruc has been described as ninety per cent JUtOblographlcal, Doe!;
that apply (0 the "Marseillaise" s('en~l Did )-'Ou actually do what Tarek does in
IhLS scene?
ZD: No. actually it's probably the most fiClion..ll scene 10 the film_ Because {in me
french [ydel we were never asked to do tha(. The school fiii."Ver performed
slOging pcnod. The rea on \\'(' did it was tx:-cause for me. dr.lffi.1U(.'ally It worked.
For several reasons. wbich I'll explain in a moment And a.lso becaust:' Irs symbolic. It s-hows molt the Lebanese studems al thal time, In thIS pdJUCUldI :;(hooL
had .heir own iden'i'y which they wao'ed to display in 'foot of French authonry,
So It w,)s d way to say th.at \\Ie are ready to rebel dgamSt you. b.lsK'allr.
But ffid.inly the reason 1 did that scent'__ ._ You knO\\. In fe-dime fHms in
dram.a. you can say whatever you want You're not bound by any responslblbty
e.'(cept 10 make a llIrn that works. I wanted to sho\\' lh.1t the m.110 cha.racter.
Tdre.k. is a rebel. He does not like authority, period. whatever illS. And I thought
thaI tbat SCene was .1 good manipulative way iOT me to ,],hieve that
w!O
No\-\'. I got ., 101 of hassle for lholt scene when the- film
WJS
shown
hi5l..~.
There Jre a 101 of pro-French people, people who 'hink \'ery highly of tile French
and who are francophone, who Ir.wel to France for all of their vaCdtlO!1S. ~i.lin·
ly the bourgeoisie. They really protested. They said; "How can you do thaI? \\'e
never dJd thai!" They look 11 literally. They could not 5epdralt' realily from fico
tJon. And I kept on saYIng: "Well you know. Hus i jUSI.1 fictional thlllS" T1ev
were pretty upset. Also some of the French dJplomals who were JOVlled from the
embdssy were more civtltzed and diplomatic about n. but they aId: "You knilW.
we n{"\'er laught you thiS." The currenl principal of the Lycee franCJjs-the sce-ne
where thJS is supposed (0 happen-he was not the pnndpaJ when I was <1 teenag·
er-he dlso said "I don'l think lhat's pan of our dgenda.ll our schoot., 10 teach
any form of nationalism or patriolism," I hJd to explain to him ag3J.O that thiS
was JUSt an idea, lO dramatically help the scene and help thiS character. whose
rebelliousness. I wanted to show. J saId that if it had been an American setting in
Lebanon. J would have had him sing againsl the Amenc-an nalion.ll anthem.
So Ihal's basically what it was. BUI I still gal a 101 of shit for II (l.au,ghIl"~).
RR There IS an obvIOUS companson 10 be made With the ".\1arsetJl.use'" scene
fWD -M,uSlEILLAJU'" SCl!Nts
111"
in casablanca. Old Ih.:n play any role at all for you, in imagining your own" Mar·
seillaise'" seene-?
ZD: No. Not at all.
COHCWSION
Though not Intended as such. the "MarseiJlaise" scene in \I\'est Berrut-involving
a.!I II does .l duel 01 nauon.ll 301hems-can be underslood as a .fitling reply to the
corresponchng scene in Casablanca. fin~Jly drawing into open view an implicit
colonial element m that scene that gmer.uions of Western moviegoers and com·
mentators hav~ missed. presutrulbly as a r..ulr of a cultural blind spot ...hieb
evl"l1 today is dtf(icuJt to recognize. The Casablanca scene will always remain a
cinematic masterpiece. and will continue 10 Ihrill audiences around the world.
But It is ~1.lso a record of an outlook that focuses on one occupation while repress-ing all awareness or acknowledgment of another.
NartS
).
1.
Interviewed in You Must Remembet This: A Tribute to ·Cosoblanca: a vtdeo produced
.n<! dire<tod by Scott 8enson (1992). The ........-to-~roduced >toge play "Eft1Ybody
Comes 10 Rick's,· by Mumrt Burnett and JOtO Alison. was the initial basis 'Of the
Coscbkmco scr~pl'Y.
~d Raskin. ·CtJSOb/onco and US. Foreicn Poicy," first pubtished in Raskin. The func._
~ 0# Art: An ApproocJJ !o 11M! SoOOI ond Psyd>oIogicoJ F1Jnctiom 01 Uteroture, Pointing ond Film (Aarhus: Atlon., 1982), 2n-315; reprinted in abridgoed form in
Film
3.
4.
S.
Histoty4 (1990): lSJ-l64.
Richard Raskin. "'Bog~rt's Nod in the Morseilloise ~I!: A PhysiQl Gesture in C'..osob/otJ.
co,· in p.o,tl.: A Dantsh Journal 01 Film Sttxhes 14 (December 20(2): 136-142. AlIJitable
"htlp://po"",,•.au.dIV1ssu'U4/Se<lio'U/art£1SA.htmI (occessed 31 July 2007).
)udil!l ... ho..... Pasternak, 'The Shilling Sond$ 01 Riglltl!OUSO<SS. C.."b!o.. (1942)'Non>dolenl AdJ~ The Mogozil>e 01 rho War R....rets LOCJ9I'f' (May-June 2000).
htlp://wwN.wlrre:sisten.Ol'glnva0500-8.htm (~ J 1 July 20(1).
,o
See I.. ewnple lntp;f/enqtlopedia.thelreedi<tional'/.(om/_Krim (aa:essed 31
July 20(7).
6.
lntp://www.y.Ie.<du/1awweb/...lon/wwilatlantidl1m (acces.sed 31 July 20(1).
7.
Raymond w. Copson, -p,esident ffanlUin D. Rl,)()SeYt'lt Flew to Meet British Prime Minis.ter Winston Chu,dUll fOf a Summit. in Casablanca. av_labfe at:
htlp://www..histo<ynet.CD<TI!QlIturefloreign_affo i..no33881.htmI1showAll-y&o-y
(accessed 31 July 2007).
W
&.
O'~, Comus (london: FontJ~ 1970), 47·4& A di5.cusSlOn of the poIitic.aI
meanings af rhe Plague can be found ;n Raslcin. The Functioncl Analysis 01 Art, 255-276.
Conor Cruise:
RICHARD RASKIN te.lChes screenwriting and video production at Aarhus Univecsily tn Denmark, wheel> he also e<lns p.o.1I. , A DanISh Joumal of Film Sludie:;. His
books include ~ Funcllonal AnalysIS of Art: An Approach co rIlE Social and PsycIrD/ogzaJl FrmcriDn of
Pamring and FUm (1982), Alain /lesnai$'s Nuil d
BrouiUiJrd: On rIlE Malang. I1fo?plion and FlUlCtwlU af a Major Docuntenuuy Fibn
{l9B7]. ~ AlroftheSlwrt FiawnFflm' A Slwr-by-Shor Srudyof Nine Modem C1f.usia (2002), and A auJd III GW'poinl: A Case Study in IIlE Ufe of a Phoro (2004).
Lu_.
111 atQMItD RAIKIN
REVIEW-ESSAY • ESSAI COMPTE RENDU
BART TESTA
THE CINEMA Of ATTRACTIONS RELOADED
ld_ by Wando Slrawen
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 2006,460 pp
IS Tale enough for a critical slogan to gain the Wlde currency th,u Tom Gunning's .. the dnerna of 3UfaetJons" has. but what is there to diSCUSS funher
about the idea, which Cunning has expiained variousiy but al.... ys clearly? 'l'1w
Cinem.a of AttTnalOflS Reloaded. or a third of n, seeks 10 answer that Quesuon
AnOlher thud 15 a ktnd of inlellectual archeology. The remainder is speculah.... e
dilal.ion and re-tasklOg of thl? concept.
In 1982. four ye.lrs before the "attractions" coinag.e. Cunmng tOok his first
SWIpe at the ,dea WIth -The Non·Continuous Style of Early Fdm. 1900-1906" and
pursued 11 in -An Unseen Energy Swallows Space. Tbt" Space in Early FUm .1nd
lts ReIJtion (0 American AVJm·Carde Film" (l9S3). Fmall}' puttmg the phrJse
inlo play with "The Cinema nf Attraction: Early Cinema. Its SP<'C,ator. and the
A.ant·Garde" (1986), Gunning sa... it anthologIUd and gJioing liS plural "AUlactioos" in 1990 in Thomas Elsaes er's Important anthology Earl}' Cmema. Spa£l"
frome Narratwe. l
TIle back-story chronology is developed further in editor Wanda SUduven's
wonderiully wacky flow chan. embedded in her earnest introducuon to Cmema
of A/l'I'OCCioIU Reloaded. Her~ in brief: "The Cinema 01 Auracllo,,- (smgul"'l
beg.n a a confeIence paper In 1985, close by Andre Gaudreault's "Le cinero.
des premier lemps: un dtHi a "histeire de cinema?M GdudreJuJfs lecture was
published. 10 Japanese, in the lbkyo Journal Gertdm ShlSo. Just before thJS. Don·
ald Grditon used the term ·dttraction"' in a talk on slapstick comedy at MOMA
(Gunning was present). Ho...ever. Grafton published his talk !a'e enough (in
19B7) to be quoting Gunning's 1986 essay as if it preceded his o...n use of the
I
t
lerm.
There were more "attractions· essays to come. with surpnslOgly few redundancies, up to as recently as 2005 when Gunning published WCmema of Attractions" in RIchard Abel's EncyclopedUl of Earfy CinertUl.' The dUfft Impad of
these texis is probabJy less remarkable than tbe ca~{ Of the phrase "cinema at
attractions" llself. which persuadE'S oDe IM1the explanatory aspects or a volume,
even one as unwieldy as The C,nema of Attraaiolt$ Reloaded. and as peculiarly
CA.HJUJIAN JOURNAl. OF JlLM STUDIIS' IIVUE CANADII.NNI D'truDIS CIHtaulToGkAPtHQUlS
VOLUME I' NO.1· 'ALL' "UTOMNE no,· pp 11t~ln