Casque d’Or

The UK premiere of a new digital restoration of one of the great classics of French cinema. Elegantly directed by Jacques Becker, Casque d’Or is both a picturesque depiction of the Belle Epoque era at the turn of the twentieth century and a gritty tale of small-time gangsters. Featuring a magnetic central performance by Simone Signoret as Marie, who is caught between ex-con Manda, who is trying to go straight, and the local crime boss Leca. Manda is drawn into a web of deception and intrigue in a finely wrought crime melodrama. Released by the Independent Cinema Office.

Signoret’s Marie occupies the moral and visual centre of Casque d’or, Becker’s seventh feature. Like a black hole in deep space, she draws into her dense core a trio of male characters. She exudes an easy sexuality. But she can also reveal her vulnerability, depending on the demands of those around her and on her inbred but finite supply of toughness. Signoret has never shied from roles whose characters embrace startling pairs of opposites: neediness and independence, ferocity and meekness, innocence and dark experience… For all her swaggering, Marie finds herself clutching at a rapturous, fleeting happiness in Casque d’or.

John Fidler, Senses of Cinema