Casque d’Or

The story behind how this final poster design was chosen remained vivid in its creator’s memory: “When I made the poster for Casque d’or, I drew my inspiration from Toulouse-Lautrec’s poster depicting May Belfort in a red dress (with Simone Signoret’s head). I submitted this design to Mounier, who said to me: ‘Is that all you have? — Yes, that’s all I have. — That’s odd…’ And without adding anything, clearly disappointed, he threw my design into his drawer. I left thinking my project would not be chosen. Some time later, Becker came to see him, intending to review the poster designs for his film. Mounier showed him a few, none of which were mine. In turn, Becker asked him: ‘Is that all you have?’ As a last resort, Mounier pulled my design out of his drawer, telling him: ‘I do have this one too, but…’ — ‘This is exactly what I need,’ Becker immediately replied. ‘It’s pure Toulouse-Lautrec. It’s exactly in the spirit of the film!’ Mounier was stunned. It was Mounier himself, with whom I was very close, who told me this story. The funniest part is that he then asked me: ‘But did Toulouse-Lautrec actually make posters?’” (Forney, pp. 24–25).

On the final poster, Jean Jacquelin slightly altered the axis of the two capital letters of the title, creating an effect of movement that echoes that of the face drawn in the foreground, that of Simone Signoret.

It was at the age of ten that Jean Jacquelin first discovered, with wonder, Eugène Vavasseur’s Ripolin posters. Born in Paris, he entered the École supérieure de dessin Germain Pilon in 1920, then joined the advertising agency TAP (Travaux artistiques de publicité) as a draftsman. Artistic director of the Step agency from 1929, he produced several film posters beginning in 1940 while continuing his work as an advertising illustrator across many sectors: automobiles (Peugeot, Delage, Simca, Buick, Fiat), energy (Antar, Esso, Shell), press and publishing (Paris-Soir, L’Intransigeant, Éditions Froissart, Presses de la Cité), fashion (Scandale, Magasin Le Printemps), retail (Coop, Vittel, Brandt, Champagne Mercier), and tourism, travel and leisure (Air France, SNCF, Aéropostale, Compagnie Transatlantique, Les Châteaux de la Loire, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Semaine du cinéma, Casino d’Enghien).

He is best known as the illustrator of dust jackets for Georges Simenon’s novels at Presses de la Cité (about thirty titles from the 1950s are original compositions, executed under the novelist’s supervision and with his approval).

A major exhibition was devoted to him in 1993 at the Bibliothèque Forney, accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue (Jean Jacquelin affichiste et dessinateur publicitaire, April 29–May 28, 1993).