If you don’t know a pan from a dolly, or an over-the-shoulder from a two-shot, this program is for you. Retired film-maker Nina Kleinberg walks us through the making of Casablanca. Learn how the Warner Brothers’ team took “the worst play ever written” and turned it into one of Hollywood’s most treasured movies. Hear about the players who brought the script to life. Humphrey Bogart knew it would make his career. Ingrid Bergman took the job while she waited for something better. Paul Henried tried to get out of it. Rick’s Café Americain was filled with real refugees from Hitler’s Europe. You’ll hear their stories, too.

Along the way, you’ll learn about the work of the director, the cameraman, the editor and others. How do you move a 200-pound camera? How do three lights define a face? And how did classically trained composer Max Steiner take a simple tune and turn it into a symphonic masterpiece of scoring? Using raw footage, clips and production stills with expertise and humor, Kleinberg reveals how suspense is "manufactured" from raw materials, how continuity errors end up in the final film, and how the filmmakers worked around the censors from the Hays Commission.

Trailer for the presentation: https://youtu.be/_HywoUDW58I

Speaker Bio:

Nina Kleinberg’s passion for film began in the late sixties. She attended the University of Southern California for graduate studies in cinema and worked in the film industry for about ten years before moving to Massachusetts for a new career. She realized as she attended movies with new friends that she was seeing films in a completely different way than they were. So began the series she called "Film School 101.” They’d gather at a friend’s house, watch a film, share a potluck, and then she would give a presentation on how the film was made. Amherst Cinema heard about her talks and invited her to present them for their audience. Since then, she has given many talks on film-making, film history, and film politics to both the Amherst audience and at universities and other wide-ranging locations.

SPECIAL SCHEDULE for Monday, Feb. 19:

1:00 pm - 2:45 pm: Showing of the actual Movie,Casablanca, on the OLL Terrazzo.

Limited to ticket-holders for The Making of Casablanca.

2:45 - 4:30 pm: BREAK

4:30 pm: Presentation: The Making of Casablanca followed by Q&A with the Presenter