579 - Golden Helmet (Casque d'Or), France, 1952. Dir. Jacques Becker.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

579 - Golden Helmet (Casque d'Or), France, 1952.  Dir. Jacques Becker.

Marie is the woman with the casque d'or.  The golden helmet.  Meaning, she has beautiful golden hair.  We will trust that the term sounds more poetically lovely in French.

It is like saying she has golden locks, and calling her Goldilocks--though this Goldilocks is not curious in that way, or trespassing, or demanding that things be just right.  She just has beautiful golden hair.  Goldihelmet.  Goldihelm.

Marie is dating Roland.  He is the head of a crime gang.  The Apache gang.  They are known for being ruthless.  He treats her poorly.

One day when they go to hang out at an outdoor cafe, and are being cautiously watched as ruffians by the other customers, Roland is being particularly unkind to Marie.  Publicly.  He refuses to dance with her.  He talks down to her.  In front of the others.  He humiliates her.

Then Georges appears.

He asks her to dance.

Lightning strikes.

BOOM!

Coup de foudre.

Shot of lightning.

In an instant.  A split second.  Immediately.

Georges and Marie are in love.

In love for true.

In love for life.

She will never love another again.

Not like this, anyway.

And he will never either.

Their hearts have been fused.  Conjoined.  Their lives combined.

A consummation of the eyes.  A consummation of the soul.

Marie accepts Georges' invitation to dance.

Roland objects.  She cannot do anything without his permission.

Yes, she can.

It is too late for Roland.  He has lost Marie.  Forever.  And no effort to threaten or intimidate her will work anymore.  Never.

Marie belongs to Georges.

Georges belongs to Marie.

The dance is itself a sight to see.  He keeps one arm down at his side and holds her with the other.  They look at each other with blank faces.  They glide across the floor, moving quickly, with assurance.

Lovers dance.

It brings them together.  They share with one another.  They touch.  They move.  They gaze into each others' eyes.

If one could coin a term for a family of activities that couples do when they are engaging each other, this activity would play a prominent role in that family.  Foreplay is the wrong term, because it suggests that what they are doing is only leading to something else.  Courting is the wrong term, because it suggests that what they are doing is formal and distant and proper.  This couple is love-making.  Right now.  Not copulating.  Dancing.  Yet it is itself love-making.  A thing unto itself.

We do not have a term for that.

Maybe we could use the word mating.

As a kind of approximation.

The story will play out.  Georges has enraged Roland.  And Roland will seek his revenge.

There are two other men that long for Marie besides Georges and Roland.  After all, she is the Goldihelm.

But Georges and Marie will now try to make their way in the world, as complications ensue.  And Georges will prove valiant for her, if not always wise.

Regardless of how it ends, Georges and Marie know this:

That they love each other.

They have been struck by lightning.