Gillo Pontecorvo

Gillo Pontecorvo (actually Gilberto Pontecorvo ; born November 19, 1919 in Pisa , † October 12, 2006 in Rome ) was an Italian film director and screenwriter .

Live and act

Gilberto Pontecorvo, whose brothers Bruno Pontecorvo and Guido Pontecorvo became renowned scientists , first studied chemistry. After an interlude as a journalist and political correspondent in Paris , his film career began in 1951 as an assistant to director Yves Allégret . From 1953 he made short documentaries before making his directorial debut in 1957 in Life is Without Mercy with Yves Montand in the lead role. His greatest contribution to film history is the poignant war drama Battle of Algiers from 1966, whose realistic depiction of historical events made it appear so authentic that many viewers thought the film was a documentary. The film received in 1966 the highest award Golden Lion at the Film Festival in Venice . Pontecorvo in 1969 for this film in the categories of Best Director and Best Original Screenplay - the latter together with Franco Solinas - for the Oscar nominated. Two years later he set another exclamation mark with Queimada - Insel des Schrecking, but although the film starring Marlon Brando attracted attention, it did not become nearly as famous or successful as its predecessor.

Since a text by Jacques Rivette, Pontecorvo's film Kapo has served as an example of a film aesthetic that lacks a "moral of attitude" in film theory . In his well-known film review "De l'abjection", Jacques Rivette referred to the film Kapo (1960) by Gillo Pontecorvo and formulated his damning criticism of the film from the aesthetic choices that Pontecorvo made: "Meanwhile, look at the shot , in which Riva kills herself by throwing herself into the electric barbed wire; the person who at that moment decides to take a tracking shot forward to retrieve the carcass under supervision, making it his business, the raised hand in one To fix a certain angle of his final frame, one can only feel the deepest contempt for this person. "

Pontecorvo was director of the Venice Film Festival from 1992 to 1996.

Filmography (selection)

1954/56: Die Windrose - co-director with six other directors
1957: Life is without mercy (La grande strada azzurra)
1959: Kapo (Kapo)
1966: Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri)
1969: Queimada - Island of Terror (Queimada)
1979: Ogro (Operación Ogro)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Venice - Male Arts - Festival in: Der Spiegel from September 12, 1966. Retrieved on August 3, 2011.
↑ Jacques Rivette (1961): De l'abjection, Cahiers du Cinéma , No. 120, pp. 54-55.
↑ Jacques Rivette (2006): About the wickedness . In: Seibert, Marcus (ed.), Cinema must be dangerous . Frankfurt am Main, publishing house of the authors. Pp. 130-133, p. 131

personal data
SURNAME	Pontecorvo, Gillo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Pontecorvo, Gilberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	November 19, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pisa , Tuscany , Italy
DATE OF DEATH	October 12, 2006
Place of death	Rome

[1] Venice - Male Arts - Festival in: Der Spiegel from September 12, 1966. Retrieved on August 3, 2011.

[2] Jacques Rivette (1961): De l'abjection, Cahiers du Cinéma , No. 120, pp. 54-55.

[3] Jacques Rivette (2006): About the wickedness . In: Seibert, Marcus (ed.), Cinema must be dangerous . Frankfurt am Main, publishing house of the authors. Pp. 130-133, p. 131