Gillo of Ladies and Knights, of Loves and Arms

original title:

Gillo, le donne, i cavalier, l' armi, gli amori

cast:

Irene Bignardi, Chiara valentini Roth, Francesco Maselli, Giuliano Montaldo, Ennio Morricone, Yacef Saadi

cinematography:

production:

world sales:

country:

Italy

year:

2007

film run:

90'

format:

colour

status:

Ready (02/04/2007)

festivals & awards:

Gillo Pontecorvo was perhaps one of the least prolific authors of Italian Cinema. What is strange is that despite making only five and a half films, Pontecorvo made a huge impression on world cinema. Not only for the numerous awards he received, of great importance and prestige, but also because of how he was: irreverent, with a jolly Tuscan nature, incredibly petty, full of humanity and with the capacity of experiencing enormous passion for his interests. Gillo Pontecorvo and ‘The Battle of Algiers”, the Golden Lion and his Oscar nominations, Gillo and his plants, always with his pencil in his hand, perhaps to write down the thoughts his forgetful nature would have lost... Gillo partisan commander, aged just twenty, leading the Curiel Brigade with the same intensity with which he leads, many years later, his group of Venetian selectors and assistants. Gillo and his passions: music, women, fishing... and life. A happy and full life, with moments of great enthusiasm but also moments of rage which however never lasted more than five minutes and were always resolved with a ironic one-liner, in true Tuscan style. Gillo, according to himself, also “had a special way with women”. So we would like to remember him with the women who accompanied him throughout his life: his wife Picci and his sister Laura, who were there for great part of it, and the ‘girls’ who accompanied him for shorter periods, during his Venetian adventure. Women who made a lasting impression on his life and whom he left a lasting impression on. Bringing together comments by Pontecorvo, combining them with the stories told by “Gillo’s women" and his friends, we want to tell the story of a man who was a protagonist of our history, the history of cinema but most importantly of the history of our culture and Italian politics.