22 Facts About Gillo Pontecorvo

Gilberto Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker associated with the political cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Gillo Pontecorvo is best known for directing the landmark war docudrama The Battle of Algiers, which won the Golden Lion at the 21st Venice Film Festival, and earned him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Gillo Pontecorvo, born in Pisa, was the son of a wealthy secular Italian Jewish family.

Gillo Pontecorvo studied chemistry at the University of Pisa, but dropped out after passing just two exams.

In Paris, Gillo Pontecorvo became involved in the film world, and began by making a few short documentaries.

Gillo Pontecorvo became an assistant to Joris Ivens, a Dutch documentary filmmaker and well-known Marxist, whose films include Regen and The Bridge.

Gillo Pontecorvo assisted Yves Allegret, a French director known for his work in the film noir genre, whose films include Une si jolie petite plage and Les Orgueilleux.

Gillo Pontecorvo was moved when many of his friends in Paris packed up to go and fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

Gillo Pontecorvo traveled to northern Italy to help organize Anti-Fascist partisans.

Gillo Pontecorvo coedited the weekly communist magazine, Pattuglia, with Dario Volari between 1948 and 1950.

Gillo Pontecorvo broke ties with the Communist party in 1956 after the Soviet intervention to suppress the Hungarian uprising.

Gillo Pontecorvo did not renounce his dedication to Marxism.

Gillo Pontecorvo bought a 16mm camera and shot several documentaries, mostly self-funded, beginning with Missione Timiriazev in 1953.

Gillo Pontecorvo directed Giovanna, which was one episode of La rosa dei venti, a film made of episodes by several directors.

Gillo Pontecorvo spent months, and sometimes years, researching the material for his films in order to accurately represent the social situations he explored.

Gillo Pontecorvo is best known for his 1966 masterpiece The Battle of Algiers.

Gillo Pontecorvo focused primarily on the native Algerians, a disenfranchised population who were seldom featured in the general media.

Gillo Pontecorvo was nominated for two Academy Awards for direction and screenplay.

Gillo Pontecorvo continued his series of highly political films with Ogro, which addresses the occurrence of Basque terrorism at the end of Francisco Franco's dwindling dictatorship in Spain.

Gillo Pontecorvo continued making short films into the early 1990s and directed a follow-up documentary to The Battle of Algiers entitled Ritorno ad Algeri.

In 1992, Gillo Pontecorvo replaced Guglielmo Biraghi as the director of the Venice Film Festival and was responsible for the festivals of 1992,1993 and 1994.

Gillo Pontecorvo stated that he had rejected many other movies.