Thursday, December 01, 2005

Casque D'Or

*Warning Second Paragraph Has Spoilers*

Almost every Sunday I go to my state's main art gallery to see the free films they hold in their full size film theatre. In the past I have seen as diverse films as "La Dolce Vita", "The Blue Kite", "Taxi Driver", "L'Age D'or" among many others. The films featured are always related to a particular art exhibition at the gallery. The films from the past few weeks, and the next few weeks to come relate to the current Pissarro exhibition. The first film of the series was Jean Renoir's excellent "La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast)". A very enjoyable film directed by the son of impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The second film in the series was Jacques Becker's Casque D'Or, a superb tragic drama.


Casque D'or, The Golden Helmet played by Simone Signoret

The film was influenced by the real life story of Amelie Helie, a prostitute nicknamed "Casque D'Or". However there a great discrepancies between the real story and the plot of the film. In a sense it would be unwise to say that the film was based on the story of "Casque D'Or". Instead it used its backbone as a basis for the film, the story of jealous love that overtook the minds of Casque D'or's suitors. While doing research for this review a discovered a very interesting website relating to the real Manda-Leca scandal. I think it helps put the film into historical perspective. In reality Manda was no carpenter, but a well known leader of an infamous apache gang named Orteaux. He did indeed stab and kill a former lover of Casque D'or, but the ending of the film is pure fantasy. With Manda serving life manual labour rather than the guillotine, and Leca 8 years and Casque D'or forgetting about both of them by entertaining herself with wealthier men. It is therefore important to understand Becker's decision to make fundamental changes to the nature of the different characters. By doing so Becker was able to create a more symphetic view of Casques D'Or (Marie), and Manda. Instead of a story of betrayal it becomes a tragic love story. Manda is presented as a simple carpenter, drawn into a life of crime because of his love of Marie, while Leca is polarised into a stereotypical gang leader. This decision allows Becker to accentuate the devastating power of love on Manda. If we were to believe he was a leader of a gang, the stabbing of Raymond, and the shooting of Leca would seem far less shocking. The transformation of Manda is in my opinion a key aspect of the film. Becker also makes the character Leca highly unlikable, presenting him as an arrogant and deceitful gang leader. In the end in is hard to feel compassion for Leca, when he is murdered by Manda. Given the nature of the real Casque D'Or I was somewhat surprised by the ending. The radical transformation of Casque D'Or to find true timeless love is a little less convincing (at least for me).

All this drama is filmed beautifully with some fantastic cinematography. The film's cinematic highlight perhaps can be found in the fight to death scene between Manda and Roland. The close up of Manda's face being eye-gouged is a stands out as a beautiful piece of cinematography.


I can't help but feel this shot was influenced by film noir


I also loved this particular shot too

Well I think I've gone a little too much regarding this film. I was quite impressed with it as a whole. It has also recently been released by the Criterion collection. So if you have the money, I would recommend picking it up sometime in the future. It is well worth watching.

Link with more information on the real Manda/Leca Scandal

Another link with more info regarding the real Manda/Leca Scandal

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks like an interesting movie, this place you are seeing the movies at to begin with sounds the most interesting though, It'd be great to have a thatre here that appreciated classic movies and artistic movies, or people that did.... is there a pretty good turnout at these films and galleries?

2:00 AM  
Blogger Geoffrey Balasoglou said...

It's normally pretty full.

I'm not sure of the capacity of the theatre though.

7:02 AM  

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