Saturday,
October 14, 2006
Obit: Gillo
Pontecorvo,86, Movie Director 'The
The
ANNOTICO Report
Gillo Pontecorvo's first feature-length movie,"La Grande Strada Azzurra" ("The Wide Blue Road") in 1957,
starred Yves Montand and Alida
Valli, then "Kapo"
(1959), and "Queimada" (1969) starring
Marlon Brando.
"Kapo" was about concentration camp guards recruited
from among the Jewish prisoners, often noted for brutality.
But
it was "The Battle of Algiers" (1966) that made his name. This epic
depicts the Algerian uprising against the French in the 1950s in a
documentary-like style, and won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as
well as Oscar nominations for best director, best screenplay and best foreign
film.
Both "Queimada" and "The Battle of
Algiers" were Anti- Colonialistic and Anti-
Imperialistic, and if Gillo had been
younger would no doubt be filming "Into Babylon" a story of the
US/Bush Imperialistic Expansionist Invasion of Iraq.
One
of his last movies, "Ogro" in 1980, was set
in
LOs Angeles Times
From
Times Staff and Wire Reports
October 14, 2006
Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo,
who directed the black-and-white classic "The Battle of Algiers," has
died in
Pontecorvo died Thursday night, hospital spokesman
Nicola Cerbino said. The cause of death was not
given, but reports said he had suffered a heart attack months
ago.
Pontecorvo directed only a handful of feature movies
in a career that spanned decades, earning the nickname of "lazy
director." But he remained involved in the world of cinema, directing
documentaries and heading the Venice Film Festival for several years.
A former resistance fighter during World War II, Pontecorvo
maintained strong political passions that were reflected in his movies.
His 1959 film "Kapo" told the story of a
Jewish girl trying to escape from a concentration camp, and "Queimada" in 1969 starred
But it was "The Battle of Algiers" that made his name.
The 1966 epic depicts the Algerian uprising against the French in the 1950s in
a documentary-like style, with a cast of mostly untrained actors and a
distinctive score by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone. The film was
banned in
It won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as well as Oscar nominations
for best director, best screenplay and best foreign film.
When "The Battle of Algiers" was re-released in 2004, Los Angeles
Times critic Kenneth Turan said that it "depicts
one of the paradigmatic dynamics of our time, the guerrilla struggle to get out
from under what the occupied perceive to be the
oppressive weight of an occupying power."
The Pentagon considered the movie accurate and powerful enough to use as a
training tool, screening it for military and civilian experts in 2003.
But Pontecorvo didn't expect viewers
! to approach his film from an educational
standpoint.
"I don't think that any film can teach anything," he told an
International Herald Tribune reporter in 2004. " I
think that the most 'The
The movie was groundbreaking for its neo-documentary techniques, so convincing
that the initial distributors attached a disclaimer saying, "Not one foot
of newsreel has been used."
Critic Pauline Kael called it "probably the most emotionally stirring
revolutionary epic since Eisenstein's 'Potemkin.' "
Born Gilberto Pontecorvo on Nov. 19, 1919, in
In his early 20s, he started shuttling between
After World War II, he studied chemistry and worked as a journalist before
taking up directing, starting with documentaries.
His first feature-length movie, in 1957, was a tale of a fishing community
starring Yves Montand and Alida
Valli called "La Grande Strada
Azzurra" ("The Wide Blue Road").
One of his last movies, "Ogro" in 1980, was
set in
Pontecorvo served as director of the Venice Film
Festival from 1992 to 1994.
News of his death came as
Pontecorvo is survived by his wife, Picci, and three children. Funeral arrangements were not
immediately announced.
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