Tag: important.

pyrrhiccomedy:

pyrrhiccomedy:

The famous La Marseillaise scene from Casablanca.

You know, this scene is so powerful to me that sometimes I forget that not everyone who watches it will understand its significance, or will have seen Casablanca. So, because this scene means so much to me, I hope it’s okay if I take a minute to explain what’s going on here for anyone who’s feeling left out.

Casablanca takes place in, well, Casablanca, the largest city in (neutral) Morocco in 1941, at Rick’s American Cafe (Rick is Humphrey Bogart’s character you see there). In 1941, America was also still neutral, and Rick’s establishment is open to everyone: Nazi German officials, officials from Vichy (occupied) France, and refugees from all across Europe desperate to escape the German war engine. A neutral cafe in a netural country is probably the only place you’d have seen a cross-section like this in 1941, only six months after the fall of France.

So, the scene opens with Rick arguing with Laszlo, who is a Czech Resistance fighter fleeing from the Nazis (if you’re wondering what they’re arguing about: Rick has illegal transit papers which would allow Laszlo and his wife, Ilsa, to escape to America, so he could continue raising support against the Germans. Rick refuses to sell because he’s in love with Laszlo’s wife). They’re interrupted by that cadre of German officers singing Die Wacht am Rhein: a German patriotic hymn which was adopted with great verve by the Nazi regime, and which is particularly steeped in anti-French history. This depresses the hell out of everybody at the club, and infuriates Laszlo, who storms downstairs and orders the house band to play La Marseillaise: the national anthem of France.

Wait, but when I say “it’s the national anthem of France,” I don’t want you to think of your national anthem, okay? Wherever you’re from. Because France’s anthem isn’t talking about some glorious long-ago battle, or France’s beautiful hills and countrysides. La Marseillaise is FUCKING BRUTAL. Here’s a translation of what they’re singing:

Arise, children of the Fatherland! The day of glory has arrived! Against us, tyranny raises its bloody banner. Do you hear, in the countryside, the roar of those ferocious soldiers? They’re coming to your land to cut the throats of your women and children!

To arms, citizens! Form your battalions! Let’s march, let’s march! Let their impure blood water our fields!

BRUTAL, like I said. DEFIANT, in these circumstances. And the entire cafe stands up and sings it passionately, drowning out the Germans. The Germans who are, in 1941, still terrifyingly ascendant, and seemingly invincible.

“Vive la France! Vive la France!” the crowd cries when it’s over. France has already been defeated, the German war machine roars on, and the people still refuse to give up hope.

But here’s the real kicker, for me: Casablanca came out in 1942. None of this was ‘history’ to the people who first saw it. Real refugees from the Nazis, afraid for their lives, watched this movie and took heart. These were current events when this aired. Victory over Germany was still far from certain. The hope it gave to people then was as desperately needed as it has been at any time in history.

God I love this scene.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

worn-whorehouse-stairs:

NYC family/friends who will be affected by the impending travel/immigration bans-if you (or your loved ones) have a passport from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen CUNY Clear is offering legal help in Arabic, Bangla, English, French, Spanish, Urdu, and many other languages (helpful for our older family members). They can do workshops at your local masjid too.
Contact them at cunyclear@mail.law.cuny.edu or (718) 340-4558.
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(Thanks Brendan!)

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tastykake:

A PROBLEM, THOUGH, with the “hitler was in fact human, which does not preclude him from ALSO having been literally 100% bad and evil” stuff that i was talking about the other day, in relation to the Punching Nazis Discourse, is that this sometimes leads to ppl going “AND ISN’T THAT THE SCARIEST PART OF ALL, THAT ANY OF US COULD BE A HITLER!!!!!!” and like—

i mean, ok, yes. the fact that we are all capable of doing terrible things is pretty scary, sure, but i also think u have to examine where you’re situated in relation to this stuff when u make comments like that—by which i mean, if u ask me, the scariest thing about hitler is arguably, oh, idk, the fact that if he’d had his way more thoroughly, neither i nor literally anyone i’m related to would exist? like, that’s what i find scary, personally, lmao, but that’s just me.

(and also: i think there’s a tendency sometimes to use “hitler” and “nazi” as a stand-in for simply “the literal most evil a person can be”—which, fair! not unreasonable! but also, hitler in particular and nazis in general are NOT just the embodiment of standard issue evil as a vague concept; rather, they’re the embodiment of evil in combination with some specific violent and oppressive and powerful ideologies, and those of us on the other end of those ideologies are like—i mean, i’m not saying i couldn’t ever become EVIL, bcs i could, bcs i am a human and thus fallible! but i’m pretty damn fucking 8000% confident i could never become a nazi.)

anyhow, point is, i think the ability to look at hitler or at nazism and say “the scariest part of this is that it reminds me of my own human capacity for evil,” rather than “the scariest part of this is the fact that these people would literally murder every person like me in the entire world, if they could, and the world historically has never been all that invested in stopping them” speaks to a sort of privilege that needs to be thought about a little bit more, when engaging in these discussions. the ability to have that distance is a privilege—the ability to look at this stuff and draw broad theoretical conclusions about Man’s Inhumanity 2 Man or w/e rather than just like, feel incoherent visceral rage and/or blind paralyzing terror. basically, tldr, everyone should punch nazis, but also bear in mind as u do that if you aren’t descended from ppl who were the literal targets of nazis, ur relationship to nazism is necessarily going to be different from that of those of us who are, i guess, is my point.

‘The best thing for being sad,’ replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, ‘is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then–to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you.’

T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone, 1938
(via valencing)