R.I.P. Gillo Pontecorvo

Whether they are behind the camera or in front of it, this is the place to discuss all filmmakers regardless of their role in the filmmaking process.
Post Reply
User avatar
Sonic Youth
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8003
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 8:35 pm
Location: USA

Post by Sonic Youth »

Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo dies


ROME (AFP) - Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, best known for his 1966 epic "The Battle of Algiers", died at the age of 86, ANSA news agency reported.

Pontecorvo is widely considered one of Italy's greatest post-World War II directors.

"The Battle of Algiers", a film on the Algerian fight for independence from French colonial rule which was banned in France for years, won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 1966.

Pontecorvo also directed the acclaimed "Queimada" with Marlon Brando about a slave revolt on a Caribbean island.

Two of his films were nominated for an Academy Award.

Pontecorvo was a chemistry student before turning to journalism. He became a member of the underground communist party in the early 1940s during the Mussolini dictatorship and joined the antifascist movement in 1943.


He headed the Venice film festival from 1992 to 1996.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Post Reply

Return to “The People”