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Renoir once described the first part of his theatrical trilogy as ‘a translation into English of a French film in the Italian style’. Based on a play by Prosper Merimée, inspired by the music of Vivaldi, this is also a highly cinematic comedy (here in Renoir’s preferred English version), whose disregard for narrative convention anticipates the nouvelle vague.

Set in 18th-century colonial Peru, the storyline is pure whimsy, as commedia dell’arte star Anna Magnani steals the hearts of a Spanish viceroy, a toreador and a fellow troubadour. Some of the support playing is a little stilted, but Magnani is as ravishing as Claude Renoir’s photography and Mario Chiari’s décor, while the direction audaciously toys with the notion that the whole world is a stage.

Indeed, with the sets becoming increasingly stylised and Magnani directly addressing the audience, it’s impossible to distinguish between artifice and reality. Powell and Pressburger similarly excelled at this filmic theatricality, but Renoir surpassed them for wit, artistry and sheer joie de vivre.

 

David Parkinson on 30th September 2009
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