莫里斯·皮亚拉70年代初筹拍的7集电视剧，但却为他赢得甚至比电影更高的评价。影评人将它与法施宾德的《柏林亚历山大广场》相提并论。故事讲述一战时期，一个猎场看守人收养了一个小男孩，战争逼近，他们必须在森林里躲避战火。

Byzance uses a text by Stefan Zweig to describe the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453. Before he turned to feature filmmaking in 1968 with Naked Childhood, Pialat worked on a series of short films, many of them financed by French television. Byzance is one of Pialat’s six Turkish shorts.

Il n'est pas question des fastes de Byzance mais de la prise de la ville par le sultan (1451-1453) et de son pillage. De lents travellings sur les ruines de la citadelle et ses remparts racontent cette perte et ce basculement de l'Orient gréco-latin à l'Orient musulman (la cathédrale Sainte-Sophie transformée en mosquée).

La Corne d'or is mostly concerned with religious ritual, examining the mosque (and former cathedral) discussed in Byzance. As a contrast against Istanbul's status as a center of historical religious conflict, Pialat — drawing here on texts by the French poet Gérard de Nerval — also describes the city as a place of strange ethnic and religious harmony, with representatives of various cultures and religions living in close contact. He emphasizes the city's hybrid culture, its blend of Southern European and Arab influences, reflected in both its people and its very construction.