Celebrity Biographies
Gillo pontecorvo
Gillo Pontecorvo, a renowned Italian director, died on October 12, 2006, at the famous Agostino Gemelli polyclinic in Rome. The causes of death of the filmmaker, who was 86 years old, and he had been very ill for a long time, have not been specified.
Born in Pisa on November 19, 1919, Pontecorvo was the son of a wealthy Jewish industrialist. He was slow to become a filmmaker. He studied Chemistry, although when he finished his degree he ended up practicing journalism in various Italian newspapers. During World War II, he was part of the resistance against the Mussolini regime.
In the mid-50s, Pontecorvo was hired as an assistant director by the French filmmaker Yves Allégret. After learning the trade, he debuted as a director with Prisoner of the Sea , a drama influenced by Italian Neorealism, which took place in a small fishing village. In Kapo , he tells the story of a Jewish woman who is forced to collaborate with the Nazis in a concentration camp. The film earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. He competed again in the same category with his best work, The Battle of Algiers, which won the Golden Lion, in Venice, in 1966. It narrates the Algerian independence war, and the fight of the French paratroopers against the National Liberation Front. The work is quite critical of both sides. Pontecorvo once again dealt with the subject of colonialism in Queimada, starring the unrepeatable Marlon Brando .
The filmmaker’s last work was Operación Ogre , which narrated the attack against Carrero Blanco. Married and father of three children, Pontecorvo was director of the Mostra de Venecia, between 1992 and 1996.