Casablanca<\/strong>, another powerful film about resolving anger, grief and loss. When Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks back into Rick Blaine\u2019s life (Humphrey Bogart), Rick goes through the same five step process to resolve his anger, grief and loss.<\/p>\n1. Rick must see the situation as a whole<\/strong>. Rick learns Ilsa had to send him away to save him from the Nazis. She had to keep her marriage to Victor Laszlo secret to protect him and others in the resistance. She had to go to Victor (Paul Henreid), who was deathly ill outside of Paris.<\/p>\n2. Rick must see his relative place in the situation<\/strong>. Victor was the hope of the whole resistance movement. The resistance would die if Ilsa didn\u2019t go to Victor and save him. Ilsa made the only choice she could possibly make under the circumstances.<\/p>\n3. Rick and Ilsa speak the crucial unsaid emotional communication.<\/strong> They love each other, they have always loved each other and their hearts will always belong to each other. Ilsa says: \u201cI said I would never leave you.\u201d Rick replies: \u201cAnd you never will.\u201d<\/p>\n4. Rick and Ilsa are able to cherish the positive:<\/strong> Rick says: \u201cWe\u2019ll always have Paris. We didn\u2019t have it, we\u2019d lost it until you came to Casablanca<\/strong>. We got it back last night.\u201d By truly cherishing that time together they have rekindled and reclaimed their love for each other.<\/p>\n5. Rick is able to let go of the rest<\/strong>: Rick says: \u201cThe problems of three little people don\u2019t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.\u201d He sends Ilsa away just as she sent him away. Rick says: \u201cIf you don\u2019t go with him, you\u2019ll regret it. Maybe not today, but soon, and for the rest of your life.\u201d \u201cWhere I\u2019m going you can\u2019t follow. What I\u2019m going to do you can\u2019t be any part of.\u201d<\/p>\nLike Volver<\/strong>, Casablanca<\/strong> puts Rick in Ilsa\u2019s situation. He now fully understands her choice. He validates Ilsa\u2019s choice by making the same choice she did. Rick sends Ilsa away with Victor because Victor\u2019s work in the resistance cannot continue without her.<\/p>\nAlthough they are not physically together Rick and Ilsa will live forever in each others\u2019 hearts. Their grief and loss are resolved and they are both free to go on with their work and their lives.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how to implement these steps in your film:<\/p>\n
1. See the situation as a whole.<\/strong> Have your character learn, discover or expose something that fills in a crucial missing piece in the story. Your character has made some assumption that was false, incomplete, misguided or ignorant. His or her bitterness and\/or anger is built on an assumption that isn\u2019t the whole truth. He or she doesn\u2019t fully understand what was in the other person\u2019s heart or what the full circumstances were. A revelation, discovery or realization fills in the gap.<\/p>\n2. See your relative place in the situation<\/strong>. Your character\u2019s bitterness, anger, loss or grief stems from a single-minded and narrow personal perspective. His or her feelings or situation were just a part of what was going on at the time. Instead of seeing things just from a personal perspective, force your character to see the broader canvas. Put your character in the other person\u2019s situation or position. Make that person\u2019s choice more understandable by forcing your character to make a similar kind of choice. Force your character to \u201cwalk awhile in the other person\u2019s shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n3. Speak the unsaid emotional communication<\/strong>. This is some form of: \u201cI love you. I have always loved you.\u201d Those we love have the power to hurt us most deeply. Remembering and reclaiming that love is crucial to forgiveness. Please note: This communication is not \u201cYou have hurt me deeply.\u201d It is a positive affirmation of the other person and how deeply the character feels about him or her.<\/p>\n4. Cherish the positive.<\/strong> There is a reason nearly everyone in the world knows the line: \u201cWe\u2019ll always have Paris.\u201d It\u2019s because Rick\u2019s line speaks to the power of positive memories. No one can take those transcendent moments from us. They remind us of all that was good, true, funny and\/or wonderful about a person or time we loved. Force your character to embrace and cherish what was positive about the person or situation.<\/p>\n5. Let go of the rest.<\/strong> Forgiveness is not an emotion. It is an action. Forgiveness is letting go of the hurt, bitterness and\/or disappointment of the past. Forgiveness demands that we let go of that which we cannot change. It requires us to be generous with ourselves and let go of the destructive bonds that bind and imprison us. Force your character to let go of bitterness and anger. Give your character an action that offers the gift of generosity.<\/p>\nI often ask my students to think of someone they love who has hurt them deeply. I ask them to think about how hard it would be to take each of those five steps themselves. Then I ask them to make that process equally as hard for their characters. When you force your character to confront and resolve loss you give an amazing gift of generosity to your audience. Volver<\/strong> gives that gift now. Casablanca<\/strong> has given that gift for decades. It is your turn next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forgiveness is at the heart of two powerful movie experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,57],"tags":[844,25,26,27,28,30,31,1267,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,1268,42],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-character-development-screenwriting-screenplay-script-blog","category-power-of-love","tag-casablanca","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-forgiveness","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-tv","tag-volver","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Forgiveness is at the heart of two powerful movie experiences.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}