Casque d'Or

The passion and mores of a lost era, turn-of-the-century France, is recreated in Jacques Becker’s great romantic melodrama from 1952. One of the more underappreciated French filmmakers was Jacques Becker, who brought a great deal of style and intelligence to the cinema in the 1940s and 50s. In 1952 he directed what many consider his masterpiece, Casque d’Or, which translates as “Helmet of Gold” but which actually refers to the enticing blonde hair of its main character, a courtesan named Marie. Serge Reggiani plays Manda, an ex-con trying to live a new life as a carpenter in 1890s Paris. He…