When Eva Green appeared in Casino Royale wearing an Algerian Love Knot, many people wanted to learn more about it. Her character – Vesper Lynd – was one of the best Bond girls in a long time, no doubt helped by the fact that the story and character where written by Ian Fleming in his novel dating back more than 50 years.
Casino Royale was unexpected in many quarters, which had written of the James Bond movie series years before. However, when Daniel Craig was introduced as the new James Bond, the mould was well and truly broken. Gone were so many of the stale elements of the Bond series and in their place was something that was a bit like the Bond that had gone before, but something else too.
A love knot consists of three or more rings or tubes of metal that are linked together to form a knot – the most common type of love knot is the Celtic love knot, which is a symbol of wholeness and stability. The rings are often flattened down and in the case of the Algerian Love Knot, decorated with an intricate pattern picked out in gold.
The Algerian Love Knot necklace that appears in Casino Royale – and later in Quantum of Solace, when James Bond is seen to carry it with him throughout the film – was designed for the movie by London based jeweller Sophie Harley. The hand made item had a price to match its quality ensuring exclusivity, much to the dismay of many Bond fans who loved the item.
In fact it seems that before its appearance in Casino Royale there was no such thing as an “Algerian Love Knot” and the concept was fabricated for the film because there seem to be no mentions of it anywhere prior to 2006.
Vesper’s Algerian Love Knot necklace was apparently given to her by her ex-lover, of French Algerian descent. However, all is not what it appears and the story arch that starts in Casino Royale is finished at the end of Quantum of Solace when 007 confronts the man.
Although falling in love with Bond, Vesper goes on to betray him – in fact it later turns out that she has been betraying him from the outset. In the book she simply takes an overdose of sleeping pills, but in the film the producers decided to give her a more dramatic death while she and Bond are visiting Venice.