Possibly the most quoted film ever, referenced by hopeless romantics, the love lorn and Woody Allen (who famously paid homage in Play it Again, Sam, reinforcing the infamous misquote in the process).

Revisiting the film you are helplessly drawn in by the film's emotional pull and richly detailed, morally equivocal world. Set in the early stages of World War II Casablanca is a city in an uneasy truce between the increasingly confident expanding Nazi occupation and the uncertainties of Vichy-controlled Morocco. There is also a rife black market through which refugees can get passage to America.

Into this tense stand-off comes resistance leader Victor (Paul Henried) and with him his wife, the beautiful Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) who unbeknownst to her husband had a passionate affair in Paris with Rick (Humphrey Bogart), the American expat, now owner of the eponymous bar. Cue the unravelling of emotions for the cynical, stoic Rick, much to the amusement of Captain Renault (Claude Rains), and the playing out of one of cinemas finest love stories.

What will Rick fight for? His one true love or forgo his heart for a more noble cause? Even the writers were unsure which way Bogart should jump, giving Bergman’s Ilsa an extraordinary emotional vulnerability as she is pulled between husband and lover, culminating in Casablanca's timeless, tense ending. An absolute classic which rewards with every viewing and loses none of its emotional power.

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