Casablanca

Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever, and perhaps the greatest romance. Curtiz's 1942 piece is indeed a fine picture, and any criticism of it is a little bit churlish.
The direction isn't completely absent, we have a few nice pan ins and pan outs. These are used to bring home the plot and the characterisation as a part of that, so, like nearly all Hollywood, it is the plot and the acting we focus on.
The plot can be read thousands of different ways. It is most refreshing to finally have a Hollwood film not entirely in a thrall to the relationship dynamics, indeed the whole film can be seen as nearly a struggle within Hollywood itself as to whether or not the constant reduction to individual's affairs has a purpose. Saying all this, masses of psychonanlytic and various other eadings can be made of the piece, in attempts to explain the often ambiguous actions. We can read it as a homosexiual piece, an Oedipal piece, a sublime object piece. Take yor pick.
The ambiguities give it very much a noirish feel, though the narrative stance and wartime propoganda elements mean it is not a fully fledged noir. What it does well is conjure up the atmosphere of stasis (the kind of atmosphere perhaps developed further in a Checkhov or an O'Neill), with almost comic amounts of drinking.
The dramatisation of the individual versus the whole is well made, though perhaps 'La Grande Illusion' by Renoir does everything this does and more (compare the two movies' 'Marseilles' scenes; both hugely moving, but we'd give the edge to Renoir's work).
The acting is of course impeccable, Bogie the star turn, giving a subtle variation on his Chandler characters/ The quietly fascinating French prefect also deserves a mention.
This is then a finely exectuted piece of filmaking, with a beautifully paced and engaging scipt (so ubiquitous as it now can nearly seem that they quote lines back and forth to each other). An interesting message expertly told. We won't go overboard, but this is obviously a very fine film.