The Golden Coach Analysis

The Golden Coach is a 1952 film directed by Jean Renoir. The film tells the story of a commedia dell’arte troupe in 18th century Peru. Renoir is a French film director, and the son of impressionist painter Pierre Renoir. His films, in both silent and later eras, are noted for their realism and narrative. Inspired by both Mérimée's short play, “Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement” and Vivaldi’s music, Renoir's film unfolds naturally in a dramatic atmosphere that is both theater and life. Indeed, with the creation of The Golden Coach, Renoir manages to reinvest a theatrical aesthetic, specifically a Baroque one, which is articulated mainly around three main themes: illusion and reality, art and existence, theater and life, whose borders seem undefined. …show more content…
The narrative focuses on a lost commedia dell’arte actress named Camilla. The story also involves a Peru viceroy whose mistress hopes to acquire the golden coach he has recently acquired. However, the viceroy is charmed by the leading actress of the troupe who just arrived in the New World. It is to this newcomer who he gifts the valuable coach. This decision incites outrage in the court. The coach, as the viceroy tells us, is the symbol of his power though it is also the image of all material pleasures. The golden coach in the movie was created two centuries prior to the production of the movie for the “First Lord of the Kingdom of Sicily” and was restored in order to be featured in the film as it was in “lamentable condition”. This provided historical context to the movie and a real aspect of the 18th century. It showed that this coach both in the film and in real life held great significance. Filmed in English and in an artificial setting, the movie marked a turning point in Renoir’s directing career. He had always been passionate about natural color and scenery but as he got older he enjoyed the possibilities of creating sets …show more content…
Felipe find peace in voluntary exile, Ramon will return to the arena and Camilla will understand that his place is on stage since "is not made for what is called life." We must not forget the coach, object of ornament and longing that will fall into the hands of “the best”: those of the Church and in this way will finally serve something. The Golden Coach can be defined as Renoir’s tribute to the theater consisting of a vision of art’s denial of normal life. It is impossible to define the tone of the movie as The Golden Coach so smoothly does comedy shade into drama, joy into despair, optimism into cynicism and vice versa. A colorful grand finale gives way to a hauntingly melancholic coda, in which the performer is forced to acknowledge her ultimate isolation making a devastating climax to a magnificent