Chapter 2 of 20 · 3'03"
Ferrari offers to buy Rick's café and even Sam, and Rick refuses flatly: 'It's not for sale,' he says, 'at any price.' Under the banter is a bigger fight over Casablanca itself—Ferrari wants to profit from refugees through the black market, while Rick runs his own business. A drunk Yvonne is sent home, and Louis arrives to needle him.
Ferrari Tries to Buy the Café
Rick Sends the Drunk Yvonne Home
Signor Ferrari comes to Rick's café to buy it, and when that fails he offers to take Sam and propose a black-market partnership. Rick turns him down and tells him to run his own business. Meanwhile a drunk Yvonne is escorted home, and Captain Louis Renault arrives for a cat-and-mouse chat about why Rick never returns to America.
The polite sparring hides what the scene is really about: nobody in Casablanca is neutral. Ferrari's offer to buy the café is also an offer to join the black market, and his line 'In refugees alone we could make a fortune' turns human desperation into inventory. Rick answers with a principle—he doesn't buy or sell human beings—and with a boundary: run your own business. Around them, the café keeps dealing with the same scarcities. Yvonne drinks herself out of a relationship, and Louis jokes about picking her up 'on the rebound,' treating people the way he accuses Rick of doing.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“In refugees alone we could make a fortune, if you'd work with me in the black market.”
A full pitch in one line: the profit, the source and the partnership he is proposing.
Neutral
“I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me.”
He accuses Rick of murder and calls it romance, so the question never has to be answered straight.
Neutral
“Who do you think you are, pushing me around?”
A clean counter-punch: the question attacks the other person's authority before naming what he did.
Informal
“Too bad. That's Casablanca's leading commodity.”
Human misery named as the local export: the calm delivery is the whole chill.
Informal
Up next · 03stick my neck outThe scene: Renault Warns Rick About LaszloIt's the best location in town, and he wants to expand his black-market business. He even tries to buy Sam, calling people Casablanca's leading commodity.
He says it's not for sale at any price, refuses to buy or sell human beings, and tells Ferrari to run his own business.
It means being vulnerable right after a breakup. Louis jokes about getting Yvonne 'on the rebound,' moving in while she's still hurting.
She's drunk and has clearly been involved with Rick, who sends her home in a taxi. She accuses him of pushing her around and says she was a fool to fall for him.
