Casablanca (film) somehow wanders into Rick's Café Américain and listens to a strange tale related by Sam. The 2016 musical film "La La Land" contains multiple allusions to "Casablanca" in the imagery, dialogue, and plot. Director Robert Zemeckis of "Allied" (2016), which is also set in 1942 Casablanca, studied the film to capture the city's elegance. "Casablanca" has been subjected to many readings; Semioticians account for the film's popularity by claiming that its inclusion of stereotypes paradoxically strengthens the film. Umberto Eco wrote: Eco also singled out sacrifice as a theme, "the myth of sacrifice runs through the whole film". It was
Casablanca (film) "The Usual Suspects". Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam" (1972) appropriated Bogart's "Casablanca" persona as the fantasy mentor for Allen's character. The film "Casablanca" was a plot device in the science-fiction television movie "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" (1983), based on John Varley's story. It was referred to in Terry Gilliam's dystopian "Brazil" (1985). Warner Bros. produced its own parody in the homage "Carrotblanca", a 1995 Bugs Bunny cartoon. Film critic Roger Ebert pointed out the plot of the film "Barb Wire" (1996) was identical to that of "Casablanca". In "Casablanca", a novella by Argentine writer Edgar Brau, the protagonist