Director: Jacques Becker
Screenplay: Jacques Becker, Jacques Companéez, Annette Wademant
Starring: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin
Country: France
Running Time: 94 minutes
Year: 1952
Jacques Becker directed only a short run of films, but as with the similarly brief careers of Preston Sturges or producer Val Lewton, his work was frequently revolutionary. Casque d’Or (Golden Helmet) is one of the very best.
Set during France’s Belle Époque, the “beautiful era”, around the turn of the last century, the story is loosely based on “Apache”, the criminal underworld subculture. The film is at once a period piece and a gangster movie, defined by a poetically tragic romance. Serge Reggiani plays Manda, recently released from jail and determined to go straight until he unwisely falls in love with Maria (Simone Signoret) and has to duel her gangster lover, Roland. Manda accidentally kills him, making him and his skills vulnerable to gang leader Lece (Claude Dauphin).
Reggiani’s Manda is the classic wandering hero. He’s a fantastic character, convincing as the nice guy who nevertheless should not be messed with. He could have just kept wandering but Maria is hard to ignore. The “blonde helmet” of the title, she is a beautiful force of nature; a gangster’s moll who refuses to be curtailed. Simone Signoret’s BAFTA winning performance is breathtaking and it makes for a fascinating comparison with her icy, sullen role in Diabolique. Her eyes rarely stop smiling. The first acts of the film are deceptively simple and Signoret is suitably playful and witty, but as the story takes a darker turn, she is even more convincing. Similar plots with a willing or unwilling Femme Fatale have been done many times since, but so often, the importance of the role slips into the background while the men fight over her. Signoret is impossible to ignore and the wonderful narrative, full of misdirection, wouldn’t want to anyway.
You barely notice the coils of the plot tightening and the tonal shifts are handled with aplomb. Much of that execution is at the behest of Dauphin’s Lece, a cool and truly despicable smiling assassin of a villain. For a film that starts in a rather understated fashion, it is very effective at sneaking up on you. It’s evocative and powerful, especially a terrific last act that capitalises on all the tension, building to a crescendo.
The mood of the film is less eccentric than might be expected, including Becker’s own work. Its period setting and myriad characters is more reminiscent of Powell and Pressburger’s work and like those stalwarts of British cinema, the style obfuscates just how clever the direction really is. Becker’s control of what appear to be haphazard scenes is superlative, especially the opening waltz as the camera moves between characters and sets up the plot, as much without dialogue as with (the dance features several times, perhaps a nod to the tradition of the time).
Casque d’Or is a wonderful, gripping example of just how much fun French film can be.
VIDEO
StudioCanal already released a very good Blu-Ray a few years ago, but this is no simple 4K upgrade of that edition. In honour of the film’s 70th anniversary, this transfer is the result of a meticulous re-scan, repairing the film to a near faultless presentation. Becker’s mise en scene is as opulent as it is indulgent, chintzy even, and the detail pops right from the opening titles. The lighting is beautiful, smokey and bright in equal measure. And it’s rarely better than when focused on a close-up of the wonderful Simone Signoret. There is a moment when she wakes up a dozing Serge Reggiani that may remind you of Grace Kelly in Rear Window. This is all true in the original Blu-Ray, but the image overall is now even more striking. The depth of field and detail responds confidently to 4K scrutiny and the grain which was always apparent, is now more subtle. Softer moments of photography are more noticeable, but this is merely the style of the time.
EXTRAS
The 4K edition provided for review contained a couple of new pieces. Both are a little thin though and the original set of supplemental material still provides more substance.
“Alex and Marie: Once Upon a Time There Was Casque d’Or”
“In the Heart of Hearts – The Legend of Casque d’Or”
