One of the most common use-cases for a cinema camera is to point it at a beautiful woman... In this regard, "Casablanca" remains unsurpassed.
Casablanca is my favorite movies, and an absolute masterpiece of chance and time.
It is a film about world war 2 filmed during world war 2.
And as you noted, the use of gauze filters was very “of the time”, but it was always jarring to me as a kid and still is.
I grew up in a generation when those filters had been repurposed for signaling dream sequences.
I completely agree with your even tempered observation.