Italian-French Co-productions and Transnational Cultural Exchange

Abstract:  The article explores some recurring features found in Pathé’s Italian-French co-productions in the 1950s and 1960s, addressing this corpus of films as a representative sample of the larger co-production trends between the two countries in the period under discussion. The analysis is based on the examination of unpublished documents as well as press material from the archives of the Fondation Seydoux-Pathé (Seydoux-Pathé Foundation) and the Cinémathèque française (French Film Library). 

As the article evidences, co-productions served as a powerful instrument of transnational cultural exchange, modern marketing practices, and the rethinking and revisiting of country-specific genres. They also paved the way for the exportation and popularization of Italian actors, directors and cinematic style across France. Great attention is paid to how the French specialist and popular press received such co-productions, whether the films’ dual nationality affected their reception and to what extent co-productions contributed to the image of Italian cinema in post-war France. (Palma, 2017)

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- Palma, P. (2017). Viaggio in Francia: Pathé Italian-French co-productions in the 1950s and 1960s. Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 5(3), 333-355.
- photograph of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve (1974) via