What answer can take care of all their questions in Casablanca?
During Rick's flashback in Casablanca, he has a conversation with Ilsa.
ILSA - A franc for your thoughts.
RICK - I was wondering... Why I'm so lucky. Why I should find you waiting for me to come along.
ILSA - Why there is no other man in my life? That's easy. There was. He's dead.
RICK - I'm sorry for asking. I forgot we said "no questions."
ILSA - Well, only one answer can take care of all our questions.
They kiss passionately.
What is the meaning of this scene? Does she mean that their kiss, and thus their love, is the answer to all their questions, in the sense that the questions don't matter anymore? Or did I misinterpret this?
Best Answer
The "answer" is physical passion as a way of forgetting both personal and global troubles. The sexual bond between Ilsa and Rick is alluded to several times in the movie, and is the primary obstacle that must be transcended for them to embrace the moral choice that ends the movie.
Compare this similar, but opposed exchange of dialog between Ilsa and Rick:
RICK: I'm settled now, above a saloon, it's true, but...walk up a flight. I'll be expecting you. All the same, someday you'll lie to Laszlo —you'll be there.
ILSA: No, Rick. No, you see, Victor Laszlo's my husband —and was, even when I knew you in Paris.
The movie was made at a time when sex was often alluded to in the cinema, but almost never explicitly. The sophisticated audience of the times was expected to be able to "read between the lines."
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