FOLCS’ newest series is for the cinema lover: we select classic arthouse films for our audience to view, directed by the most important filmmakers around the world, and then host a Conversation with special guests who discuss the importance of these films as works of art, and as timepieces of cultural history. Conversations on Essential Cinema was launched as a public service in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide meaningful and entertaining content for a global audience sheltered at home. It has quickly become one of our most popular series, so stay tuned as we make our way through the great film libraries with our always special guests.
One of the world’s most beloved films, and widely considered the best screenplay ever produced, Casablanca (1942), has been immortalized not merely for its 1943 Best Picture Academy Award win, but for the way this World War II love story, improbably with Morocco as its backdrop, showcases so many memorable lines and startling images – blending both romance and suspense in one smokey cafe. Casablanca uses its characters, including the love triangle at the heart of the story, to expose the many complex political dilemmas of the early 1940s, with the Nazis imposing their will on the world. It also has come to define noir cinema with its sinister and menacing sense of impending danger.