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29-619: His other films include Kapò (1960), a Holocaust drama; Burn! (1969), a period film about a fictional slave revolt in the Lesser Antilles ; and Ogro (1979), a dramatization of the assassination of Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco by Basque separatists . He also directed several documentaries and short films. In 2000, he received the Pietro Bianchi Award at the Venice Film Festival . The same year, he

58-568: A prisoner functionary in the Nazi concentration camps. The film premiered at the 21st Venice International Film Festival , and was released to Italian theatres on September 29, 1960. It received mixed reviews from critics. While some praised the filmmaking, others, particularly Jacques Rivette , criticized Pontecorvo's decision to dramatize the Holocaust, unprecedented at the time. In the United States,

87-401: A French director known for his work in the film noir genre, whose films include Une si jolie petite plage and Les Orgueilleux . In addition to these influences, Pontecorvo began meeting people who broadened his perspectives, among them artist Pablo Picasso , composer Igor Stravinsky and political thinker Jean-Paul Sartre . During this time Pontecorvo developed his political ideals. He

116-487: A fictional Portuguese colony. Pontecorvo continued his series of highly political films with Ogro (1979), which addresses the occurrence of Basque terrorism at the end of Francisco Franco 's dwindling dictatorship in Spain. He continued making short films into the early 1990s. He also directed a follow-up documentary to The Battle of Algiers , entitled Ritorno ad Algeri ( Return to Algiers , 1992). In 1992, Pontecorvo

145-571: A geneticist; Polì [Paul] Pontecorvo, an engineer who worked on radar after World War II; and David Maraoni. Their sisters were Giuliana (m. Talbet); Laura (m. Coppa); and Anna (m. Newton). Pontecorvo studied chemistry at the University of Pisa , but dropped out after passing just two exams. There he first became aware of opposition political forces, and first encountered leftist students and professors. In 1938, faced with growing antisemitism in Italy with

174-488: A nation happens with pain on both sides, although one side has cause and the other not." The Battle of Algiers achieved great success and influence. It was widely screened in the United States, where Pontecorvo received a number of awards. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for direction and screenplay (a collaboration). The film has been used as a training video by revolutionary groups, as well as by military dictatorships dealing with guerrilla resistance (especially in

203-413: A scarcely more insistent shot in the 1959 film " Kapo ." The shot was of the raised hand of actress Emmanuelle Riva , her character Terese electrocuted on the barbed wire of the concentration camp from which she was trying to escape. The criticism hung over Pontecorvo until his dying day. He was ostracized, almost cursed, for a shot, just one. Lévy contrasted this reaction to one shot with what he asserted

232-543: A shift that appears to have been developing for some time. The catalyst was his seeing Roberto Rossellini 's Paisà (1946). He bought a 16mm camera and shot several documentaries, mostly self-funded, beginning with Missione Timiriazev in 1953. He directed Giovanna , which was one episode of La rosa dei venti (1957), a film made of episodes by several directors. In 1957, he directed his first full-length film, La grande strada azzurra ( The Wide Blue Road ), which foreshadowed his mature style of later films. It explores

261-542: Is a 1960 historical war drama film directed and co-written by Gillo Pontecorvo . It was one of the first narrative films to deal explicitly with the subject of the Holocaust , with graphic depictions of concentration camps which made it controversial at the time. A co-production of Italian, French, and Yugoslavian companies, the film stars American actress Susan Strasberg , along with Laurent Terzieff , Emmanuelle Riva , Didi Perego and Gianni Garko . The title refers to

290-576: Is the garish exploitation of Nazi history in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Shutter Island (2010). La grande strada azzurra The Wide Blue Road ( Italian : La grande strada azzurra ) is a 1957 Italian romance drama film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo . The story follows the harsh rugged life of a poor fisherman on La Maddalena . In a desperate effort to improve the lives of his family he begins to fish illegally using bombs instead of relying on nets. However this method invokes

319-592: The Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists awarded Didi Perego a Silver Ribbon for best supporting actress, and the Mar del Plata Film Festival awarded Susan Strasberg for best actress. Pontecorvo is best known for his 1966 masterpiece The Battle of Algiers (released in Italian as La battaglia di Algeri ). It is widely viewed as one of the finest films of its genre: a neorealistic film. Its portrayal of

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348-511: The 1970s during Operation Condor ). It has been and remains extremely popular in Algeria , providing a popular memory of the struggle for independence from France. The semi-documentary style and use of an almost entirely non-professional cast (only one trained actor appears in the film) was a great influence on a number of future filmmakers and films. Its influence can be seen in the few surviving works of West German filmmaker Teod Richter , made from

377-561: The Algerian resistance during the Algerian War uses the neorealist style pioneered by fellow Italian film directors de Santis and Rossellini . He used newsreel -style footage and non-professional actors. He focused primarily on the native Algerians, a disenfranchised population who were seldom featured in the general media. Though very much Italian neorealist in style, Pontecorvo co-produced with an Algerian film company. The script

406-685: The Communist party in 1956 after the Soviet intervention to suppress the Hungarian uprising. He did not, however, renounce his dedication to Marxism . In a 1983 interview with The Guardian , Pontecorvo said, "I am not an out-and-out revolutionary. I am merely a man of the Left, like a lot of Italian Jews ." After the Second World War and his return to Italy, Pontecorvo decided to leave journalism for filmmaking,

435-420: The brutal life. She first sells her body to a German guard in return for food. She becomes fond of another guard, Karl. The fraternization helps her become a kapo , one of those put in charge of the other prisoners. She thrives while the idealistic Sofia grows steadily weaker. When she falls in love with Sascha, a Russian prisoner of war , Edith is persuaded to play a crucial role in a mass escape, turning off

464-516: The debasement and regeneration of his heroine to a sadly inept actress. The result is an overheated melodrama which does a grave disservice to the enormity of its subject, although the horrors of the camps are realistically portrayed". In an article for The Wall Street Journal , philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote: Pontecorvo earned "the deepest contempt" of French director Jacques Rivette in an article in Cahiers du cinéma nearly 50 years ago for

493-534: The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film . Edith, a naïve 14-year-old French Jew living in Paris , and her parents are sent to a concentration camp , where the latter are killed. Sofia, an older political prisoner, and a kindly camp doctor save her from a similar fate by giving her a new, non-Jewish identity, that of the newly dead Nicole Niepas. As time goes by, she becomes hardened to

522-508: The late 1960s up to his disappearance, and presumed death, in 1986. In addition, more recent commercial American films, such as the Blair Witch Project , Paranormal Activity and others draw from these techniques for less lofty purposes. Pontecorvo's next major work, Queimada! ( Burn! , 1969), deals with a fictional slave revolt , set in the Lesser Antilles . This film (starring Marlon Brando ) depicts an attempted revolution in

551-590: The lead role before Susan Strasberg , who was known for playing Anne Frank in the Broadway play The Diary of Anne Frank , was cast. This later caused problem on set, because the American actress did not speak Italian, and Pontecorvo had to communicate with her through an interpreter. Filming took place at Jadran Studios in Zagreb . The culture clash between the Italian and Yugoslavian crews also caused problems. Pontecorvo

580-551: The life of a fisherman and his family on a small island in the Adriatic Sea . Because of the scarcity of fish in nearby waters, the fisherman, Squarciò, has to sail out to the open sea, where he fishes illegally with bombs. The film won a prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival . Pontecorvo spent months, and sometimes years, researching the material for his films in order to accurately represent

609-408: The power. Most of the would-be escapees are killed, but some get away. Edith is not one of them. As she lies dying, she tells Karl, "They betrayed us, Karl, they betrayed both of us." She dies saying the traditional Jewish prayer Shema Yisrael . Pontecorvo and his screenwriter Franco Solinas were inspired to make the film after reading Primo Levi 's memoir If This Is a Man . The writing process

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638-409: The rise of Fascists, he followed his elder brother Bruno to Paris, where he found work in journalism and as a tennis instructor. In Paris, Pontecorvo became involved in the film world, and began by making a few short documentaries. He became an assistant to Joris Ivens , a Dutch documentary filmmaker and well-known Marxist, whose films include Regen and The Bridge . He also assisted Yves Allégret ,

667-419: The social situations he explored. In the next two years, Pontecorvo directed Kapò (1960), a drama set in a Nazi death camp. The plot of the film is about an escape attempt from a concentration camp by a young Jewish girl. In 1961 it was the Italian candidate for the United States' Academy Awards , and it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film . In this same year, the film won two awards:

696-410: Was a tense one, as Pontecorvo and Solinas had contrasting ideas on what the film should be - Pontecorvo believed Solinas' script was too melodramatic and nearly broke off their partnership before the intervention of producer Franco Cristaldi . Pontecorvo also disliked the ending, having preferred Edith survive and contemplate her solitude and sense of complicity. Claudia Cardinale was considered for

725-630: Was ascended as a Knight's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic . Pontecorvo, born in Pisa , was the son of a wealthy secular Italian Jewish family. His father was a businessman. Gillo's siblings included brothers Bruno Pontecorvo , later an internationally acclaimed nuclear physicist and one of the so-called Via Panisperna boys , who defected to the Soviet Union in 1950; Guido Pontecorvo ,

754-614: Was forced to worked with a Yugoslavian cinematographer, Aleksandar Sekulović , whose smooth, "Hollywood-style" photography he found inappropriate for the subject matter, much preferring the vérité -style photography by the Italian second unit cameramen. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 60% of 5 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10. In their book Foreign Film Guide , authors Ronald Bergan and Robyn Karney wrote: What does one say about this effort? Pontecorvo has jam-packed his film with every kind of tear-jerking cliché on offer and entrusted

783-827: Was moved when many of his friends in Paris packed up to go and fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War . In 1941, Pontecorvo joined the Italian Communist Party . He traveled to northern Italy to help organize Anti-Fascist partisans. Going by the pseudonym Barnaba , he became a leader of the Resistance in Milan from 1943 until 1945. After the war, he coedited the weekly communist magazine, Pattuglia , with Dario Volari between 1948 and 1950. Pontecorvo broke ties with

812-820: Was selected to replace Guglielmo Biraghi as the director of the Venice Film Festival; he was responsible for the festivals of 1992, 1993 and 1994. In 1991, he was a member of the jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival . In an interview that Pontecorvo gave in 1991, when asked why he had directed so few feature films, his response was that he could only make one with which he is totally in love. He also said that he had rejected many other film concepts for lack of interest. In 2006, Pontecorvo died from congestive heart failure in Rome at age 86. Kap%C3%B2 Kapò ( Italian: [kaˈpɔ] )

841-462: Was written with intention that Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) leaders would act in it. (For example, the character Djafar was played by an FLN leader, Yacef Saadi .) Pontecorvo's theme was clearly anti-imperialist. He later described the film as a "hymn ... in homage to the people who must struggle for their independence, not only in Algeria, but everywhere in the third world" and said, "the birth of

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