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MovieMail's Review
A glorious evocation of la belle époque in the poetic realist tradition of Marcel Carné’s Les enfants du paradis (1945), Jacques Becker’s Casque d’Or is one of the great filmic romances featuring star-making performances from Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani as ill-starred lovers Marie and Manda.
Having served as assistant to Jean Renoir during the 1930s, Becker bathes in the same nostalgic glow as his mentor’s Une partie de campagne (1936). We are in the Paris of the Impressionists, the Paris of Renoir-père, in which a carpenter Manda, in falling helplessly for the stunning Marie, sparks an underworld tussle which ends on the gallows.
Casque d’Or was released in the same year as Max Ophüls’ similarly elegant evocation of late 19th century French society Le Plaisir but is not marked by the dry cynicism of the latter work. Becker’s film is one of the masterpieces of the post-war, pre-New Wave period, soaring above the vast majority of films made during a period scathingly characterised by the Cahiers critics as the ‘tradition de qualite’. Essential.
Starring international sex symbol Simone Signoret, Casque D'Or is often considered director Jacques Becker's masterpiece. Becker was an assistant to the legendary Jean Renoir, and Renoir's influence on Becker is readily apparent in this poetic, impressionist film. Signoret plays Marie, the girlfriend of a minor gangster, who falls in love with a working man. Their love affair leads to a power struggle within the gang and speeds everyone inexorably towards tragedy. Casque D'Or features a diligent and careful production design that recreates Paris of the late 19th century, and was based on actual criminal cases from that era. Though dismissed on its initial release in 1952, aside from a BAFTA acting award for Signoret, the critical reputation of Casque d'Or grew in subsequent years and is now generally considered one of France's great artistic films.
Simone Signoret, one of the classiest and most elegant actresses, is strikingly irresistible as the moll of a suave gang leader in Jacques Becker's 1952 masterpiece Ca... more >
Simone Signoret, one of the classiest and most elegant actresses, is strikingly irresistible as the moll of a suave gang leader in Jacques Becker's 1952 masterpiece Casque d'Or. Considered a failure when it first opened but, after receiving critical acclaim in New York, the film developed a wider audience in France and has now become a classic. After being released from prison where he served five years for an undisclosed crime, Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani), a soft-looking, taciturn man with a handlebar moustache, becomes a hard working carpenter, determined to go straight.
When Raymond (Raymond Bussieres), a fellow gang member with whom he served time in prison, introduces him to Marie (Simone Signoret) at a dance, however, the solid foundation he was trying to build begins to come unglued. Set in Paris in the 1890s and based on actual police accounts, Casque d'Or is not an arid period piece or costume drama, but a rich, vibrant, and lovingly evocative work that successfully recreates the ambience of Paris at the turn of the century.
Despite being about the criminal element, there is little violence in Casque d'Or and it is more of a moody romance than a crime drama, perhaps accounting for its initial failure. The most brilliantly realized sequence takes place at a countryside retreat where Manda and Marie go for a few hours of happiness together before the inevitable denouement. Casque d'Or is a film about friendship, loyalty, and, most of all, about passion and its consequences. When Marie hears wedding bells and drags Manda into a church, all he can say is "not now", but his expression suggests that he knows that their love will be a dream that fades into dawn.
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