Gillo Pontecorvo

Biography

Gillo Pontecorvo, born November 19, 1919 in Pisa and died October 12, 2006 in Rome, is an Italian filmmaker. Of Italian Jewish origin, Gillou Pontecorvo is the brother of Bruno Pontecorvo, a nuclear physicist working for the USSR, and Guido Pontecorvo, an Italian-British geneticist, as well as the grandson of the Jewish industrialist Pellegrino Pontecorvo. He has three sons: Marco (cinematographer and director), Simone (painter) and Ludovico (physicist). A chemist by training, he quickly turned to journalism and became correspondent in Paris for several Italian publications. In 1941, he joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI), and participated in anti-fascist activities in northern Italy. After the Soviet repression of the Budapest uprising in 1956, he broke with the PCI, while continuing to claim Marxism. He started in cinema after the Second World War as assistant to Yves Allégret1 and Mario Monicelli in particular. From 1953, he produced his first documentary essays (Giovanna, MM, 1956). In 1956, he contributed to an episode of Die Windrose, supervised by Alberto Cavalcanti. The following year, he directed his first feature film, A Called Squarcio (La grande strada azzurra, p…

Directed

1. The Battle of Algiers (1966) — Director
2. Burn! (1969) — Director
3. Kapo (1960) — Director
4. Operation Ogre (1979) — Director
5. The Wide Blue Road (1957) — Director
6. 12 Directors for 12 Cities (1989) — Director
7. Return to Algiers (1992) — Director
8. The Wind Rose (1957) — Director
9. Farewell to Enrico Berlinguer (1984) — Director
10. Giovanna (1955) — Director
11. Rome, November 12, 1994 (1995) — Director
12. The Spring of 2002 - Italy Protests, Italy Stops (2002) — Director
13. Sabatoventiquattromarzo (1984) — Director
14. Una storia per I 'energia — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Stupids (1996) — Talk show guest
2. The Wide Blue Road (1957) — (uncredited)
3. Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker (2005) — Self
4. Outcry (1946) — Pietro
5. Marxist Poetry: The Making of The Battle of Algiers (2004) — Self
6. Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth (1992) — Self
7. Return to Algiers (1992) — Himself
8. Farewell to Enrico Berlinguer (1984) — Self
9. La Bataille d'Alger, l'empreinte (2018) — Self (archive footage)
10. Five Directors On The Battle of Algiers (2004) — Self
11. Gillo of Ladies and Knights, of Loves and Arms (2007) — Self
12. Homo Cinematographicus (1998) — Self
13. Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema Paradiso (2009)