Casablanca - A critical analysis

We have watched Casablanca as an example of Classical Hollywood Cinema.

The lighting is formalist in the sense that it is Chiaroscuro lighting, with emphasis on the contrast between light and shadow. There is an emphasis on shadows in that film, possibly due to the fact that a lot of the film is set at night, and so they had to create shadow to give that feel. However, Ingmar Bergman (Ilsa)'s face is nearly always evenly lit, putting emphasis on her looks, due to the fact that she is meant to be very beautiful. To a lesser extent, this is also done to the other people, however her face is always the most brightly lit.
The recurring motif of stripes also appears in lighting, with a lot of things like blinds creating stripes of light and shadow.

The sound is inherently formalist due to the fact that the film has a musical soundtrack playing in the background. The music is mostly modeled around two songs: 'La Marseille' and 'As Time Goes By', both of which are played in Rick's Café at some point. The music does suit the mood of the events in the film.
Dialogue is very straightforward, with little or no editing done to it.

The mise-en-scene is pretty realist, with items that are generally what would be at the location. The only really formalist aspect is the inclusion of the recurring motif of stripes, in costumes, chairs, and other things. Other props and costumes are typical of films at the time, and seem to be particularly inspired by film noir detective films.

The camerawork isn't very obviously formalist, but there are hints of formalism in there. One example is that Ingmar Bergman is usually only filmed from a certain angle, particularly with close ups of her face, which are nearly always shot in a 3/4-view from her left side.
Other than that, the camerawork is usually quite still, tending to cut to another camera instead of zooming or panning.
The two main kinds of shots used are long shots for scenes with multiple characters, and close ups of characters' faces if they are saying something important. The latter is used extensively throughout the film.

The editing is continuity editing, typical of Classical Hollywood Cinema, and many other films even today. The main features are:
1) Eyeline match, where a character is looking at something (usually off-screen) and then the camera cuts to a point-of-view style shot of whatever the character is looking at. An example of this is the aeroplane in the beginning of the film, where a crowd looks up at something out of shot, then there is a cut to what they were looking at.
2) Cross-cutting, where two simultaneous chains of events/scenes are intercut, switching from one to the other to build tension. An example of this is the ending, where the events at the airport are mixed with the major in his car.
3) Match-on-action, where if the camera angle changes, the new angle starts from exactly the same point that the previous one left off. This happens a lot in dialogue scenes, where the shot changes from a wider shot to a close up.
4) Directional continuity, where the angle changes, but the new angle is within 180 degrees, so it looks as though the subject is still moving in the same direction. This can be seen near the beginning where the man who gives the letters to Rick is arrested, and the angle changes as he is being taken outside.
All of these devices are used to create a sense of the editing being 'invisible', and it makes the audience focus more on the events as there is nothing to really distract them.