Here's my pitch: a Casablanca sequel, only not. It's the story of Rick and Captain Renault's "beautiful friendship." You don't make it explicitly a sequel, out of respect for the original, which is perfect. If anyone brings it up, you deny, deny, deny, deny. But, in a postmodern way, it's obvious. It's what might have happened. Your two characters have Rick and Renault's backstories, which aren't filled in all that completely in the first place. Unlucky-in-love American hardcase restored to his International Brigades idealism, Frenchman whose attack of conscience has blown his career as a raffishly bent copper. You cast them, make them up, and shoot them to match Bogart and Rains as closely as possible, though not so closely that you topple over into parody. We need Clooney for this, obviously. And somebody French, or somebody like Rains who can be more French than a Frenchman. Where'd all the white French leading men go?—maybe we use Charles Berling? Anyway, the characters don't have Rick and Renault's names, but then, Rick and Renault wouldn't be fighting under their real names anyway, would they? Hell, even in Casablanca we can't be sure either man is using the name that was on his birth certificate. So they have adventures. Fighting the Nazis. It's gold. But it's not a sequel. In fact, forget I ever said anything.
Comments (21)
Suggested title: Après Brazzaville.
Posted by Colby Cosh | July 31, 2009 9:51 PM
Posted on July 31, 2009 21:51
Jean Reno?
Posted by AtlanticTy | July 31, 2009 10:36 PM
Posted on July 31, 2009 22:36
No.
Posted by Colby Cosh | July 31, 2009 10:37 PM
Posted on July 31, 2009 22:37
In lieu of Raines: Daniel Auteuil or (believe it or not) Johnny Depp.
Posted by lazygal | August 1, 2009 2:43 AM
Posted on August 1, 2009 02:43
Some great critic –can't remember who– pointed out that for all its brilliance, there's a huge hole in the plot of C.: That this stunning, worldly-for-being-so-young woman is going to casually go & spend her life with whoever Rick wants her to, as if her heart was a tool in his hand.
It's still my favorite film. The lighting of Renault's face in the early office scene is itself worth an armload of Oscars.
But this criticism can make you look closely at other good love movies for similar cheats... E.g., in Four Weddings, why does Charlie –denied his soul's dearest wish– marry the conniving Henrietta instead of the adoring, wealthy, faithful, alluring Fiona?
Arc, babe... That's why. Or as Florence King once described this corner of the craft: "And then a bunch of stuff happens."
Posted by Crid [CridComment@gmail] | August 1, 2009 6:01 AM
Posted on August 1, 2009 06:01
But half the appeal of Captain Renault's character was the polite, pleasant corruption, the fact that he was such a neat guy you could never be sure which side he was on (and you got the impression he was never sure either). That would be hard to maintain in a sequel, and without it you're left with "look how French this guy is!"
Posted by Lord Bob | August 1, 2009 11:14 AM
Posted on August 1, 2009 11:14
Chances are this is how Casablanca was developed in the first place.
Posted by bill needle | August 2, 2009 12:59 AM
Posted on August 2, 2009 00:59
Adam Sandler as Rick, and Jacques Demers as Renault.
Posted by KMK | August 2, 2009 3:00 PM
Posted on August 2, 2009 15:00
I'm on board, so long as Eva Green plays the Ilsa character. And there should be full frontal nudity, it would be criminal if there wasn't.
Bertolucci is right, she is so beautiful it is indecent.
Posted by Vic Ferrari | August 2, 2009 6:50 PM
Posted on August 2, 2009 18:50
There's no Ilsa character onstage in Après Brazzaville. She got on the plane; her arc is extinguished. The thing about Casablanca is that the male relationships in the movie are all more interesting than anybody's with Ilsa.
The truth is, there is about a 99% chance that Ilsa and Laszlo's journey is going to end in a concentration camp. I would be tempted to start the non-sequel with "Rick" running across a copy of Combat and learning the bad news.
Posted by Colby Cosh | August 2, 2009 7:11 PM
Posted on August 2, 2009 19:11
The Johnny Depp idea is really growing on me.
Posted by Colby Cosh | August 2, 2009 7:12 PM
Posted on August 2, 2009 19:12
I would be tempted to start the non-sequel with "Ilsa" dancing across a courtyard naked.
Seriously. Watch Dreamers.
Posted by Vic Ferrari | August 2, 2009 7:15 PM
Posted on August 2, 2009 19:15
> so long as Eva Green plays the Ilsa
Too pouty, like a child of divorce. Ilsa thought her husband was dead by Nazis... But you didn't see her whining about it.
(You're right about the thundering dairy, though.)
Posted by Crid [CridComment @ gmail] | August 3, 2009 2:27 AM
Posted on August 3, 2009 02:27
If Ilsa and Laszlo are going to end up in a concentration camp, then it seems pretty obvious that you've got the makings of a Mel Gibson vehicle in this non-sequel. "The Nazis stole his lover... now it's payback time!"
Posted by GS | August 3, 2009 11:22 AM
Posted on August 3, 2009 11:22
You know, at first I thought that if you go with Depp, you can't use Clooney: the Bogart and Rains characters have to be about the same age. Then I checked their ages. Huh.
Posted by Seb | August 3, 2009 5:36 PM
Posted on August 3, 2009 17:36
I'm no longer sure if Clooney is right. He's the only A-lister who could play a character that Bogart played (sort of; it's not a sequel) without looking downright ridiculous, but a friend of mine insists that basically that's an absurd, fatal restriction, because even Clooney is better suited to play the roguish Renault and everyone else in Hollywood is pretty much a girl now. Clive Owen has the roughness and magnetism but is far too good-looking and metro; Bogart was basically ugly (what one would call, in French, if he was a girl, une jolie laide.) Javier Bardem would be closer to the mark if he could shed the accent. I'm now officially depressed about the casting of a movie that will never be made.
Posted by Colby Cosh | August 3, 2009 5:46 PM
Posted on August 3, 2009 17:46
Has been made. This is how Tarintino's Inglorious Basterds was pitched.
Posted by Jack M | August 3, 2009 7:43 PM
Posted on August 3, 2009 19:43
Danial Day Lewis in the Bogart role and Clooney as renault would work. or Depp. They're all about the same age.
Posted by grey wall | August 3, 2009 11:35 PM
Posted on August 3, 2009 23:35
Danial Day Lewis or Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the Bogart role and Clooney as renault would work. or Depp as renault. They're all about the same age and probably the only ones that could pull it off.
Posted by grey wall | August 3, 2009 11:36 PM
Posted on August 3, 2009 23:36
Unfortunately, the Humphrey Bogart role will go to Mark Wahlberg. In remakes, he's already done the roles of John Wayne, Charleton Heston, and Michael Caine.
Posted by John Mansfield | August 4, 2009 11:11 AM
Posted on August 4, 2009 11:11
I assumed this was your review of another Clooney movie I will never see, the good german...
PSH and Don Cheadle are good actors. Di Caprio as your shifty Renault.
Posted by Campbell | August 4, 2009 12:33 PM
Posted on August 4, 2009 12:33