by Scott Lawson
Movie directors frequently use casinos to contrast the real world with the glamorous casino lifestyle. There are many reasons why casinos play huge roles in cutting you off from reality. First, it’s the fact that there are no windows and clocks as a main connection to the outside world. Second, it’s the societal rules and interior of casinos that make it magical and mystical.
What Place do Filmmakers Use to Portray a Luxury and Glamour
Whenever I go on a holiday or walk the streets of my hometown and come across luxury hotels, the first floor always belongs to casinos. I don’t know the exact reason, but from these places, I always get the feeling of mystery and enigmatic energy. Maybe that’s why filmmakers connect lovers and enemies there. But there are movies in which casinos are portrayed as a place that can change your destiny if you are lucky and smart enough.
In Casablanca, a classic film directed by Michael Curtiz, the casino is a place where different people from different backgrounds meet each other. In one of the scenes, a Bulgarian couple comes to the casino and decides to play Roulette to win money and escape from Nazi Europe to go to America. There, we can picture casinos as the only chance of survival and hope of a better future.
Other than the fate that casinos bring upon the movie characters, it can be solely used as a place of glamour and luxury. Ocean’s Eleven, a film directed by Steven Soderbergh, is a great example of how filmmakers used casino floors to portray them as elegant, luxurious spaces.
Marble floors, expensive casino tables, and extravagant people help to form a high opinion of casino life. People are dressed exclusively for casinos. They wear fancy attire, silk dresses and shirts, with polished faces and hair. In one scene, where Rusty Ryan is talking to Terry Benedict with a phone from a casino, Rusty is wearing a silky shirt with a polished suit over the top.
Under the shirt, we can see golden jewellery. Every character in any movie going to the casino is dressed extra well and sophisticated. So a casino is a place where you can go overdressed, and nobody would pay attention to it.
Where do All TV Show Characters Go, at Least in One Episode
I’ve never watched a single TV show where one episode is not dedicated to characters going to a casino just for having fun. In the American series, Las Vegas is illustrated as a place where you should go once in a lifetime, as all the big casinos are located there.
In one episode of Sex and the City, Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda go to Atlantic City to just have fun in a casino. In that episode, it was Charlotte’s birthday, and when she realised that she was aging and getting older, she decided that the casino was the best place to wear a glamorous dress with big hair. So, she wore a short, cleavage, orange dress with smoky eyes and blowout hair. But Charlotte was not the only one appropriately dressed for the casino. We shouldn’t forget Samantha with her elegant black dress that perfectly goes with the radiant casino atmosphere.
Glamourous Characters
When we are talking about the casino life and its atmosphere, the first character that comes to our minds is James Bond. In Casino Royale, one of Hollywood’s pretty faces is cast to play a role as a British officer and a British Treasury agent. In Casino Royale, the elegance of casinos is not portrayed only through the interior and its customers’ clothes, but also their calm energy and manners. In the martini episode, where James Bond plays poker with Le Chiffre, he orders a dry martini with a precise recipe of how he wants his drink to be made. Yes, manners are important as it is a great way to show your social background and you are where you belong, but we shouldn’t forget Eva Green’s exquisite violet dress that took everyone’s breath away.
Contrast of Our Reality to the Hollywood World
If Casino Royale were filmed in 2025, I think James Bond would play against Le Chiffre via online casino platforms. It sounds funny, but the 21st century changed the behaviour of customers in many ways, and the casino market is no exception. Nowadays, people shop and play casino games online. Our reality of playing casino games is different from how Hollywood portrayed it to us. Mainly, because in reality, people don’t pay huge attention to what they are wearing while going to play poker or roulette. Also, nowadays people are choosing to experience casinos online without leaving their homes. Now, you can go to Las Vegas casinos without having to leave your country.
How Hollywood Formed Our Opinions of What Glamour and Luxury Look Like
As we can see, in almost all examples, a casino is a place where you can see the luxurious and fancy side of the world, where TV characters, criminals, agents, thieves, and scammers gather together in their fancy clothes and attire.
