Jacques Becker

Casque d’or

Casque d’or

Jacques Becker lovingly evokes the belle epoque Parisian demimonde in this classic tale of doomed romance. When gangster's moll Marie (Simone Signoret) falls for reformed criminal Manda (Serge Reggiani), their passion incites an underworld rivalry that leads inexorably to treachery and tragedy. With poignant, nuanced performances and sensuous black-and-white photography, Casque d'or (Golden Marie) is Becker at the height of his cinematic powers—a romantic masterpiece.

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Film Info

  • France
  • 1952
  • 94 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • French
  • Spine #270

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • Restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary featuring film scholar Peter Cowie
  • Interview with actor Serge Reggiani
  • Interview with actress Simone Signoret from the French television program Cinepanorama
  • Excerpt from an episode of the French television series Cineastes de notre temps, dedicated to Jacques Becker
  • Rare, silent behind-the-scenes footage of Becker on the set, with audio commentary by film scholar Philip Kemp
  • PLUS: An essay by Kemp

    Cover by Christine Ditrio

Purchase Options

Now Available

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • Restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary featuring film scholar Peter Cowie
  • Interview with actor Serge Reggiani
  • Interview with actress Simone Signoret from the French television program Cinepanorama
  • Excerpt from an episode of the French television series Cineastes de notre temps, dedicated to Jacques Becker
  • Rare, silent behind-the-scenes footage of Becker on the set, with audio commentary by film scholar Philip Kemp
  • PLUS: An essay by Kemp

    Cover by Christine Ditrio
Casque d’or
Cast
Simone Signoret
Marie
Serge Reggiani
Georges Manda
Claude Dauphin
Felix Leca
Raymond Bussières
Raymond
Gaston Modot
Danard
Paul Barge
Police Inspector Giuliani
Dominique Davray
Julie
Credits
Director
Jacques Becker
Producer
Robert Hakim
Production manager
Henri Baum
Screenplay
Jacques Becker
Screenplay
Jacques Companeez
Adaptation and dialogue
Jacques Becker
Cinematography
Robert Le Febvre
Editing
Marguerite Renoir
Sound
Antoine Petitjean
Costume design
Mayo
Assistant director
Marcel Camus
Music
Georges van Parys

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Simone Signoret

Actor

Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret

With her sultry sensuality, catlike features, and penetrating intelligence, Simone Signoret graced French cinema for more than thirty years. Throughout her film career, which began after World War II ended, this chameleonic talent shifted effortlessly between fierce imperiousness and affecting vulnerability, often within the same role. The product of a family of intellectuals, Signoret (née Kaminker—she switched to her mother’s maiden name during the war to obscure her Jewish roots) was the thinking man’s sex symbol. In the 1950s, she was known as much for the leftist politics she and her husband, Yves Montand (they were married until her death in 1985), outspokenly embraced as for such movies as La ronde, Casque d’or, and Diabolique. In 1959, she became the first French actress to win an Oscar, for the British crossover sensation Room at the Top. Her performance in that film as an unhappily married woman having an affair would prove iconic—years later, Time wrote that she was “everywoman’s Bogart, in a trench coat, dangling a cigarette.” Signoret continued to choose strong films during the sixties and seventies, including Stanley Kramer’s Ship of Fools (another Oscar nomination), Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows, and Costa-Gavras’s The Confession. In her last decade, she turned to writing, including her popular autobiography, Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be, and a novel, Adieu, Volodya.

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