Simone Signoret in "Casque d'Or"
by Eric Blume
Today is the centennial of French Oscar-winner Simone Signoret. Daniel paid lovely tribute to her last night for her brief role in 1950's La Ronde. Her next big film, director Jacques Becker's 1952 movie Casque d'Or, made her a star six years before Oscar embraced her with Room at the Top. Becker captures all of Signoret's magic in this turn-of-the-century Paris underworld story. It doesn't hurt that he has his cinematographer, Robert Le Febvre, lighting her in a gloriously celestial way throughout the movie...