My Journey Through French Cinema

Bertrand Tavernier: "Dernier Atout" is a brilliant but minor film of Becker's. The real shock cam in seeing "Casque d'Or" at the Noctambule on Rue Champollion where I used to play hooky. I was staggered by the serene assurance with which Becker managed to create a tragic climate that he usually distilled with more restraint... Here the tragedy hits you frontally. What's striking is his formal and visual command, the narrative elegance, and the way this mastery never interferes with the emotion, never makes the work impersonal. It's a film in which you constantly feel the character's heartbeat. The mise en scène flexes emotion like you flex your muscles.