Genealogy of The Golden Coach

Why was it that the first film Jean Renoir made in Europe after WWII – a French-Italian co-production – was shot in Italy and not in France? We think of The Golden Coach as director Jean Renoir’s film, but an interview with the film’s producer, Prince Francesco Alliata, coordinated with documents from Renoir’s archives at UCLA and in Paris, and with French bank records for international co-productions, opens new vistas. The essay examines the involvement of Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman, Anna Magnani and Luchino Visconti; the creative implementation of regulations for French-Italian co-productions in the post-WWII era; the complications of mounting a Technicolor production far from the nearest Technicolor lab; and the visionary financial planning that kept the production financially viable by making two sure-fire swashbucklers with the same sets and crew.