Gillo Pontecorvo: Partisan Film-maker

Behan, Tom (2008) Gillo Pontecorvo: Partisan Film-maker. Film International, vol. 6 (1). pp. 23-30. ISSN 1651-6826. (The full text of this publication is not available from this repository)

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Official URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/fiin.6.1.23

Abstract

One of the great truisms of humanity is that we are strongly influenced by our ‘formative years’. In the case of Gillo Pontecorvo, the years between 19 and 26 were to leave an indelible mark on him. At the end of his teens he moved to Paris as a refugee from a Jewish background; by the age of 26 he was a central leader in a mass resistance movement that overthrew Italian fascism. But for cinema he has left his mark by replaying these events out in various settings. From his early documentaries in the 1950s, to his last full-length feature, Ogro (1980), Pontecorvo debated both themes of power in its purest sense, and oppressive power in a malignant sense. More strikingly and more successfully, he also grappled with how people should organize against oppressive power – this can be seen most famously in The Battle of Algiers (1966), but resonates strongly through Queimada/Burn! (1969) and his first medium-length feature, Giovanna (1955). Apart from describing Pontecorvo’s formative years, this article will concentrate on his first and last major works – Giovanna and Ogro, trying to show the beginning and end of his cinematic engagement with the themes that dominated his emergence into adulthood.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled keywords:	Gillo Pontecorvo, the Italian Resistance, World War Two, Giovanna, Ogro, ‘terrorism’
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Divisions:	Faculties > Humanities > School of European Culture and Languages
Depositing User:	Tom Behan
Date Deposited:	20 Mar 2009 15:49
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2010 14:42
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/10978 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)