The Golden Coach

Renoir's film, shot in Rome at Cinecittà in Technicolor, and made in English. In the eighteenth century, a travelling commedia dell'arte troupe performs in a Spanish colony in South America. Camilla is its star, and three men want her at once: a bullfighter, a soldier and the viceroy of the colony. The viceroy gives her a golden coach brought from Europe, and it turns into a political crisis. Renoir's subject is not the triangle but the difference between the stage and life. Camilla knows what to do on stage and does not off it; the film keeps raising and lowering curtains until the viewer loses track of which side they are on. The music is taken from Vivaldi. Anna Magnani plays Camilla and the film stands almost entirely on her energy. An important work for anyone who likes Renoir in colour and films built on theatre. For a viewer expecting realism, everything is deliberately artificial: the sets, the acting and the colour.