Gillo Pontecorvo

During the WWII, while living in Paris, Pontecorvo met his future wife Henrietta. Once the Germans captured Paris, Pontecorvo and Henrietta escaped to St Tropez, where they got married. Later they parted their ways.

Thereafter, Pontecorvo married Teresa Ricci, with whom he had three sons; Ludovico, Marco and Simone. Among them, Marco Pontecorvo followed his father’s footstep and became a film-maker.

In later years, Pontecorvo spent most of his spare hours making commercials, tending his plants, composing music and playing tennis. He also took to scuba diving and began collecting glass paintings.

Gillo Pontecorvo was born on 19 November 1919, in Pisa, Italy, into a distinguished family. His father, Massimo Pontecorvo, was a Jewish industrialist and owned three textile factories employing over 1,000 people. His mother, Maria née Maroni, was a Protestant and a member of the Chiesa Evangelica Valdese.

Gillo was the fifth of his parents’ eight children. His eldest brother, Guido, later became an eminent geneticist, second brother, Paolo, an engineer who worked on radar during World War II and his third brother, Bruno, was a renowned nuclear physicist. He also had an elder sister named Guiliana, one younger brother, Giovanni, and two younger sisters, Laura and Anna.

After graduating from school, Gillo too entered University of Pisa with chemistry; but gave up his studies after two examinations. It was during this period that he first became aware of the conflict between political forces and came under the influence of communist ideology.

In 1938, with the introduction of Mussolini's race laws and a growing anti-Semitic sentiment in Italy, Gillo shifted to Paris, where his brother Bruno was already established. Here he took up the job of a journalist

When Paris came under German rule, he and his future wife Henrietta escaped to St Tropez. Here he began to provide tennis lessons to its rich residents. Here he met musician René Leibowitz, also living in exile and started learning piano from him.

In 1946, Pontecorvo found a new direction. That was the year, he saw ‘Paisà’ by Roberto Rossellini and began to consider film making as part of his political activities. Subsequently, he gave up journalism and started shooting anything that interested him with a 16mm camera, using his own money.

In 1947, he became the third assistant director of Aldo Vergano in ‘Il Sole Sorge Ancora’, doubling up as an actor portraying a small part of a peasant. Other assistantships followed and in 1950, he became an assistant director to Yves Allegret on ‘I Miracoli Non Si Ripetono’ (Miracles Only Happen Once).

Slowly, he began making socially relevant short documentaries, for which he received funds from the Government of Italy. His first major documentary was made in 1953. Titled ‘Missione Timiriazev’, it recorded Soviet assistance to the flood victims in Po Valley in Northern Italy. The shooting was done with a 35mm camera.

Next in 1954, he made two documentaries. Among them, ‘Porta Portese’ was on the famous flea market at the ancient city gate of Porta Portese at the southern edge of Rome and ‘Festa a Castelluccio’ (Dogs behind the Bar) was on municipal dog pound.

Pontecorvo spent the 1955 making number of documentaries. Among them, ‘Uomini del marmo’‘Cani dietro le sbarre’ and ‘Festa a Castellucio’ are most significant. So was his 1956 documentary ‘Pane e Zolfo’, which was about the decline of community feeling in the closed sulfur mine in Marche region.

Pontecorvo is best remembered for his 1966 movie ‘La Battaglia di Algeri’. The film tries to reconstruct what happened between November 1954 and December 1957 in the capital city of French Algeria during the county’s War of Independence.