BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Steineded How sad is this?

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

morrison-dylan-fan Deciding to spend the next 100 days watching 100 French films,one of the main goals I gave myself was to watch as many of auteur film maker Jacques Becker's 13 credits (with the superb Antoine et Antoinette being the only one I've seen before.) Taken by Simone Signoret's role in Henri-Georges Clouzot's chilling Les Diaboliques,I was delighted to find a title where Signoret and Becker teamed up,which led to me putting on the Casque D'or (Golden Helmet.)The plot:Getting out of jail,former gangster Georges Manda vows to stay on the straight and narrow.Returning to town,Manda crosses paths with powerful gangster Félix Leca.Attending a dance hall,Manda meets Marie,and falls in love at the very first sight of her.Taken by his rugged appearance,Marie finds herself starting to secretly fall for Manda. Furious over Marie having eyes for another man,Leca's gang member Roland Dupuis challenges Manda to a fight to the death for Marie.Killing Dupuis,Manda and Marie decide to leave town and run to the countryside. Desperate to get their revenge,Leca's gang decide to plant Dupuis's murder on Manda's old friend Raymond. View on the film:Rowing into the movie,co-writer/(along with Jacques Companéez/ Annette Wademant & "Romi") director Jacques Becker & cinematographer Robert Lefebvre enter Leca's underworld with an immaculate shine,with the razor sharp suits,gold-covered walls and blazing sun keeping the evil under the sun bubbling away.Along with expert use of deep focus shading in Marie's transfixing face,Becker chips away at the sunlight to crack the Film Noir darkness,which pours out in stylish reflecting mirror shots gazing at the fractures Leca is creating,and powerfully raw, unflinching close-ups punching into the Film Noir darkness Manda has returned to.Looking ravishingly beautiful, Simone Signoret gives an incredible performance as dame Marie,where Signoret displays a subtle grip on make each facial expression (no matter how minor) express the developing love Marie has for Manda.Caught in the middle of a vicious set-up, Raymond Bussières gives a great performance as Raymond, (how long did they spend think up that name for him!)by making Ray try in desperation to hold onto a gentleman's loyalty,even as the Film Noir pit caves in. Finding himself unable to escape the old crowd, Serge Reggiani gives a superb performance as Georges Manda,via balancing a heart-wrenching love for Marie with a chewy Film Noir grit,as Manda sets his sights of Marie and Leca.Following Manda back into the darkness,the screenplay by Becker/ Companéez/ Wademant & Romi brilliantly twist Manda's Film Noir world round Marie's little finger,which slides in on a silk,romantic atmosphere,where the writers place a tense sense of longing between the couple.Clawing away at the dapper dress of Leca,the writers dip Becker's theme of loyalty into deadly Film Noir waters which tear Film Noir loner Manda's between loyalty for his friend,and loyalty for his love,the girl with the golden helmet.

Teyss "Casque d'Or" has long been an underrated movie and Jacques Becker an underrated director. When it came out, it was a complete flop in France. Criticisms revolved around the mismatching star couple (Simone Signoret was almost as tall as Serge Reggiani, and more corpulent), the simplistic love story, minimal psychology and tragic ending. It was reassessed years later, notably by the "New Wave" directors, and now stands as a masterpiece, the best film of one of the best French directors.The title literally means "Golden helmet", the main female role's nickname, after her blond hair. The movie is seemingly of the classic genre: image is black and white with a standard ratio of 4/3; the story is linear with regular pacing and no flashbacks; symbols are traditional (city versus countryside, interiors versus exteriors, the ill-fated café, the blind men at the end). However, this is only apparent. Image is exceptionally delicate, with subtle tones of grey, very sharp texture and extremely deep views. Psychology is condensed to emphasise form and other content: a modern feature. We could hence qualify the movie as the quintessence of classic cinema announcing modern form, a "meta-classic". Likewise, it is more than a brilliant reconstitution of late-19th century France: its story and themes are timeless.*** WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS ***The movie is structured around social milieus: criminals, prostitutes, workers, bourgeois, policemen. Each milieu has its own rules. You immediately recognise persons by their clothing: bourgeois criticise the prostitutes at the beginning; "don't wear a cap when coming to my place", Leca tells his men, etc. Criminals kill but do not betray. Prostitutes help each other. Workers do not take money if it is not earned. Symbolically, because Leca thought he could act above these rules, he will die: he has a cover-up work, he mingles with the police, he kills Anatole, he betrays Raymond, he breaks his promise to Marie.Milieus do not mix. When they do, there generally is trouble. Manda joins the group at the beginning: he fights with Roland. Marie meets Manda around his workplace: she is insulted by his fiancée. Manda goes to the café: he kills Roland. Anatole warns the police: he is murdered. The final murder of the criminal Leca by the worker Manda happens at the police station: three milieus are involved.In such an environment, the love story develops against the lovers' milieus. It is love at first sight, there is no explanation why they fall for each other, and it does not actually matter: what counts is their relationship and its consequences. Marie and Manda barely talk, which does not reduce, but on the contrary increase the strength of their relationship (although she does somewhat play with him at the beginning, maybe to test him).Social segregation increases the importance of windows and openings through which characters look at other milieus: Raymond looks at Manda working, the bourgeois look inside the café, the policemen look at Manda after he killed Leca. In this context of social postures, people intensely stare at each other. Gazes are crucial, more important than words. When Manda announces Raymond is about to die, looks immediately turn towards his best friend Paul. After Raymond died, the four criminals angrily look at Leca who goes away: without a word, we instantly understand Raymond told them about Leca's betrayal before dying, and so does he. Logically, the movie ends on a final important gaze: Marie specifically goes to a hotel to see Manda being executed. These are only a few examples, towards the end.Visually, gazing is articulated by formidable depth of field (we see sharply very close and very far, as in real life), frequent close shots (we seem to be part of the scenes) and frequent subjective shots (we see what characters see, notably Marie and Manda). We are hence immerged in the movie: we watch characters like they watch each other.This "in situ" viewing is reinforced by life-like elements: apparent simplicity of dialogues; strong presence of secondary roles, while the two main characters' dialogues are voluntarily reduced; collateral and seemingly pointless images (e.g. the memorable shot on the newly-wed in the church). All these increase the authenticity of the movie, yet transcended by superb image and direction, like artistic photos beautify reality.In this movie where eyesight is key, the ending is signalled by two blind men singing: this exterior element disrupts all-important gazing and tragedy unravels. Their famous song "Le temps des cerises" (the period of sherries) conveys a nostalgic message of short-lived happiness: it tells about summertime (that is brief) and love (that is gone); historically, it was an iconic tune during the 1871 Parisian revolt against oppression (that was crushed). Hence the song represents a transition between the beautiful hopes of the two lovers and the coming tragedy. This compelling allegory is reinforced by the repetition of the musical theme in different forms, binding the last scenes together in progressive culmination: the blind men sing, then an orchestra distantly plays off-screen, then a flute plays and ultimately the orchestra plays full-scale."Casque d'or", fundamentally, is a story about impossible redemption and happiness. We believe the lovers can succeed when they spend idyllic moments in the countryside, away from the violent city, close to where they initially met. However there is no escaping one's milieu. Marie thought she could give up prostitution, but has to go back to Leca. Manda thought he could avoid being a delinquent (he previously spent five years in jail) to become a worker, but kills twice and is executed. In parallel to the love story, the infallible friendship between Manda and Raymond also cross milieus; yet both eventually die.This tragic message and ending is somewhat smoothed by the movie's final image: Marie and Manda dance together, alone at last in the sunny open-air dance hall where they first met. They swirl to the background, as if fading in Marie's memory.

david-sarkies It is so interesting looking at this movie and the movie below, The Castle. There is simply a huge contrast in them. Casque D'or is a tragic French Movie while the Castle is an Aussie battler movie where the good bloke comes through against all of this odds. The Castle is something designed to appeal to the average Australian who likes the D-Generation, where as Casque D'or is designed to appeal to the more intellectual audiences and those that want a portrayal of a bleak world in which love that exists is brutally extinguished.Manda, a carpenter who has just been released from gaol arrives in a town that is dominated by a mafia style organisation. He is a tough guy and won't allow himself to be pushed around. As soon as he arrives he catches the eye of Marie who cannot turn away from him. In the first scene where she is dancing with her boyfriend, her face is solidly facing him and does not change even though they are fluidly moving across the dance floor. Even though it is love at first sight, it is a love that is not allowed.Marie is considered to be little more than a whore. She lives with prostitutes and she works from the crimelord of the town. Her boyfriend is a gutless wimp who dies in a knife fight that the crimelord organises between him and Manda. This fight doesn't brush over for even though the town is ruled by the crime lord, murder is still illegal, except that the crimelord uses it to get his own way, that is Marie.Manda is a noble character who fights not only for Marie's honour, but also for the honour of his friend who he works for. His friend is set up for the murder but Manda knows the truth and cannot let it be pushed aside. He also knows that it is the crimelord that set everything up. Though people say that love conquers all, human love, especially in this movie, does not. His love for Marie does not mean that everything is going to turn out all right. A murder has been orchestrated and justice must be done, even if it is by the hands of Manda. Beyond this, the law cannot allow a rogue vigilante run around uncontrolled. Even though he guns down the crimelord, he still must pay for his crime, which he does. We know that this movie is going to end tragically, we see that through the movie the love between Manda and Marie is constantly held apart and that it is never going to be a happy ending, which is what I like.

zetes The basic question at the heart of Jacques Becker's 1952 film Casque d'or is whether Simone Signoret is worth destroying your entire life over. The logical answer would be no. She's pretty, but she ain't that pretty. Becker's answer is the opposite of mine. Serge Reggiani plays the ex-con, now working as a carpenter, who has the misfortune to be introduced to Signoret by his old prison buddy. Fed up with her gangster boyfriend, Signoret gleefully accepts an invitation to dance, and makes sure her boyfriend knows just how gleefully. That opens up a can of worms that the dummy could just as easily have walked away from unopened. All this film really has going for it is general prettiness. Not only Signoret, but the costumes and the cinematography are very nice. The story itself is entertaining enough, I guess, but for most of the film I was just shaking my head thinking how Simone Signoret was so not worth the trouble.