It takes a healthy dose of romanticism to try and build a film industry in a country whose economy is in ruins after war, but these producers were up for the challenge. Dissatisfied in Hollywood, brothers Robert and Raymond Hakim returned to France to re-launch their careers. André Paulvé was a grain broker who talked his way into his first production. Alexandre Mnouchkine parlayed fur business cash into a life in cinema. And the larger-than-life cigar-chomping Henry Deutchmeister built himself a faux 18th-century manor—complete with modular edit suites on the grounds.