Last night I saw an outdoor showing of Casablanca at Chapman University. They are doing a black and white movie series where they basically put an old, acclaimed movie on the screen (black and white as previous mentioned), pop some movie theater-esk popcorn, put out some store bought cookies, lemonade, and ice water, and people convene on blankets and lawn chairs at 8 p.m. on Friday night. Did I mention it's free? Yes, well that does add a certain charm to it.

It was the perfect evening, not too hot, not too cold, with a calm breeze floating all around. I had forgotten how: 1) confusing Casablanca can be, and 2.) once you get all the details how crazy good it really is. I mean that movie is truly an epic. And I'm a fan of anything epic-related.

What I thought was interesting was how the theme song for the movie, "As Time Goes By," talked about how the world will always welcome lovers ... how falling in love, though good and right, is always in some sense, the "same old story," time does not change love. This was an interesting theme song for the movie because Casablanca was sort of a place where time stood stagnant, a place where there was little certainty in anything, and amidst a war, which Igrid Bergman mournfully claimed to hate, there was little good. Yet there was that simple, time-tested, age-old thing called love, and that seemed to be the film's redeaming color. It was love that saved the couple in the game of roulett, love that ended up getting Ingrid and her husband on a plane out of there, love that, somehow, despite it's painstaken and jiltish ways, seemed to redeam Rick into wanting to vacation from Casablanca in the end, and love, even the influence of it, seemed to soften the bad guy. It seems that despite all the war and agnoy, that "same old story love" still rang true. I suppose the song was fitting then.

If you haven't seen it, or it has been awhile, I'd recommend watching it.