Taika Waititi: No one knows the name of the director of Casablanca

People who are “extremely online” will understand what it means to be the internet’s main character of the day/week. This week, it feels like Taika Waititi is one of the internet’s main characters. People have been climbing up his ass all week and I’m not entirely sure why. It definitely feels like there’s been a shift, in recent months, in how Taika is perceived. He went from art-house god to Marvel guy and Oscar-winning screenwriter, and currently people think the luster has worn off. He recently had some milquetoast stuff to say about the WGA strike and people climbed all over him for that. Currently, he’s on the new cover of the Hollywood Reporter, all to promote his latest directorial effort, Next Goal Wins. In the THR piece, he suggests that “no one” knows the name of the director of Casablanca. This has been all over Film Twitter for days.

Before he became a global acting-writing-directing star with an Oscar and a Marvel résumé, Waititi, a Maori-Jewish filmmaker from New Zealand, found community in the U.S. among Native American filmmakers like Harjo. “One of the things we all connected on was our disdain for how we appear onscreen in white productions,” says Waititi. “Indigenous characters, they’re always stoic. They’re always the people who talk to trees and play flutes on mountaintops. They’re never funny, they’re never normal. Nerd has not been a choice. Or dorky. Where are the dorky Natives?”

Waititi has managed to preserve the showmanship and silliness of his condo dance-off days, even as he has seen the stakes of his career raised. “I’m 47,” he says. “My God, take the pressure off. People are so obsessed with likes or leaving behind a legacy, being remembered. Here’s the thing: No one’s going to remember us. What’s the name of the director of Casablanca? Arguably one of the greatest films of all time. No one knows his name. How the f–k do I expect to be remembered? So who cares? Let’s just live, make some movies. They’ll be obsolete and irrelevant in 15 or 20 years. And so will I, and then I’ll die and someone else can do it. This whole idea of chasing, chasing, chasing this life. It’s like, do we have to actually work this hard? Maybe not.”

Waititi’s wit is a Trojan horse for exploring issues like antisemitism and colonialism. “Comedy is a great way of pulling people in and going, ‘Hey, we’re all friends. Get comfortable. You’re racist,’ ” he says. Humor with sociopolitical themes has its pitfalls, however. “People check themselves and they go, ‘Am I allowed to laugh at this?’ ” he says. “They have to google if they’re allowed to. And sometimes you shouldn’t laugh at some stuff. You’ve got to navigate it.” On Jojo Rabbit, some audiences felt uncomfortable with the idea of a Holocaust comedy. “People were really unsure if they should laugh until about 20 minutes into the film,” he says. “One issue they had was like, ‘Well, I wish I’d known that I was allowed to laugh.’ Another issue was, ‘I wish I’d known that he was Jewish before I went in.’”

[From THR]

So… I’ll admit it, I didn’t know who directed Casablanca either, off the top of my head. It was directed by Michael Curtiz. Which kind of proves Taika’s point – I’m a film buff and I’ve seen Casablanca a half-dozen times, and I didn’t know/remember the director’s name. Besides, I think his larger point is that unless you create some huge legacy as a filmmaker – a Spielberg, a Hitchcock, a Tarantino – most people aren’t going to remember you, so why are you killing yourself in the name of art? Why not spend more time with your family? Granted, Taika is coming across like a dude who is going through a midlife crisis, but that’s been true for several years now. Anyway!

michael curtiz. jewish hungarian who lived in abject poverty until theater school, then served in WWI until he was wounded and got noticed for directing red cross docs. he would likely have a hard time forgetting the name of the man who directed the-nazis-but-cute movie. https://t.co/CL2qD22qJN

— Chris Cabin (@Crabin) June 1, 2023

Taika Waititi spending the day getting kicked around film Twitter because he made the inarguable point that most people don’t know who directed CASABLANCA is why you never start a sentence with “Nobody” or “Everyone”

— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) June 1, 2023

"Man, I can't wait for the strike to be over. As a WGA member, I can't wait for us to get the thing that we want" – @TaikaWaititi jokes about the #WritersStrike during his keynote speech at THR's #RaisingOurVoices event pic.twitter.com/FUh8NK2itl

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 31, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, cover courtesy of THR.

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