Review of Casque d'Or (1952) by Private U — 11 Jul 2007

A glorious evocation of la belle epoque in the poetic realist tradition of Marcel Carne'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-pere, 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 Ophuls' 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''.