252. La Carrosse D'Or (The Golden Coach) (1952)

Directed By Jean Renoir

Synopsis

A troupe of Italian Comedia Dell'Arte actors arrives in Peru attempting to make their fortune. Their Columbine is soon the love interest of three people, a fellow troupe member, the viceroy and a bullfighter. She gets given the amazing Golden Coach by the Viceroy, but eventually ends up with none of the three, dedicating her life to the theatre instead.

Review

This film is one of those that is more interesting in theory than it actually ends up being in practice. It's a Jean Renoir film, it's in Technicolour and about Comedia Dell'Arte, it is very well written with some genuinely funny moments in it. So in the end why does it not quite work?

I think Anna Magnani explains it best in the film itself when she states that she can't act in a foreign language. She does a good enough job, but half the cast seem to be struggling and not only the Italian ones (I watched the English version of the film which was reputedly Renoir's favourite). Even some of the English speaking actors seem to find it difficult to act, an example of this is the love interest who is also a troupe member, a terrible actor.

Then it is hard to believe that Magnani would have so many men after her, she really isn't the prettiest actress around, and although her character is definitely more interesting than that of the ladies at court it still doesn't explain such interest, particularly at a time when women were supposed to be seen and not heard. Still, a not so good Renoir film is an excellent film.


Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was shot at Cinecittà in Rome. A French-Italian co-production, it was filmed in three different versions: English, Italian and French. Renoir reputedly preferred the English version.

Truffaut and a very young Polanski talk about Renoir's correspondence from his years in America (Yes, no clip of the film on youtube)Quite interesting but it's in French only: