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Carlo Ponti
Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (11 December 1912 – 10 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cinema post-World War II, producing some of the country's most acclaimed and financially-successful films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Ponti worked with many of the most important directors of Italian cinema of the era, including Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Vittorio De Sica, as well as many international directors such as Agnès Varda and David Lean. He helped launch the career of international film star Sophia Loren, whom he married. He won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film for La Strada (1954) and was nominated for Best Picture for producing Doctor Zhivago (1965). In 1996, he was appointed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Ponti was born in Magenta, Lombardy, where his grandfather had been mayor of the city. Ponti studied law at the University of Milan. He joined his father's law firm in Milan and became involved in the film business through negotiating contracts.
Ponti attempted to establish a film industry in Milan in 1940 and produced Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico there, starring Alida Valli, in her first notable role. The film dealt with the Italian struggle against the Austrians for the inclusion of northeastern Italy into the Kingdom of Italy during the Risorgimento. The film was successful, because it was easy to see "the Austrians as Germans" during World War II. As a result, Ponti was briefly jailed for undermining relations with Nazi Germany.
Ponti accepted an offer from Riccardo Gualino's Lux Film in Rome in 1941. He made Giacomo the Idealist (1943), A Yank in Rome (1946), To Live in Peace (1947), The White Primrose (1948), Prelude to Madness (1948) and Hey Boy (1948).
Ponti produced some films starring Gina Lollobrigida: Alarm Bells (1949), The White Line (1950), A Dog's Life (1950). Her Favourite Husband (1950) was a British-Italian co production with Jean Kent. He made a number of comedies including Figaro Here, Figaro There (1950), Toto the Third Man (1951) and Toto in Color (1952), with Totò, plus The Knight Has Arrived! (1951), The Piano Tuner Has Arrived (1952) and The Steamship Owner (1951) with Walter Chiari. Ponti alternated this with more serious material such as Europe '51 (1952) from Roberto Rossellini, Brothers of Italy (1952), Lieutenant Giorgio (1953), and Easy Years (1953). The Unfaithfuls (1953) reunited Ponti with Lollobrigida, while Neapolitan Carousel (1954) won the International Prize at Cannes.
In 1954 Ponti had his greatest artistic success with the production of Federico Fellini's La strada. However, Fellini denied Ponti's role in its success and said that "La Strada was made in spite of Ponti and De Laurentiis". Along with a Toto comedy The Doctor of the Mad (1954) he and de Laurentiis produced an international film, Mambo (1954) directed by Robert Rossen. There was An American in Rome (1955) with Alberto Sordi and The Gold of Naples (1954) with a young Sophia Loren.
Loren was the female lead in Ponti's Attila (1954), a biopic of Attila the Hun with Anthony Quinn that became a big box office success. Loren was in The Miller's Beautiful Wife (1955), a comedy.
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Carlo Ponti
Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (11 December 1912 – 10 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cinema post-World War II, producing some of the country's most acclaimed and financially-successful films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Ponti worked with many of the most important directors of Italian cinema of the era, including Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Vittorio De Sica, as well as many international directors such as Agnès Varda and David Lean. He helped launch the career of international film star Sophia Loren, whom he married. He won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film for La Strada (1954) and was nominated for Best Picture for producing Doctor Zhivago (1965). In 1996, he was appointed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Ponti was born in Magenta, Lombardy, where his grandfather had been mayor of the city. Ponti studied law at the University of Milan. He joined his father's law firm in Milan and became involved in the film business through negotiating contracts.
Ponti attempted to establish a film industry in Milan in 1940 and produced Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico there, starring Alida Valli, in her first notable role. The film dealt with the Italian struggle against the Austrians for the inclusion of northeastern Italy into the Kingdom of Italy during the Risorgimento. The film was successful, because it was easy to see "the Austrians as Germans" during World War II. As a result, Ponti was briefly jailed for undermining relations with Nazi Germany.
Ponti accepted an offer from Riccardo Gualino's Lux Film in Rome in 1941. He made Giacomo the Idealist (1943), A Yank in Rome (1946), To Live in Peace (1947), The White Primrose (1948), Prelude to Madness (1948) and Hey Boy (1948).
Ponti produced some films starring Gina Lollobrigida: Alarm Bells (1949), The White Line (1950), A Dog's Life (1950). Her Favourite Husband (1950) was a British-Italian co production with Jean Kent. He made a number of comedies including Figaro Here, Figaro There (1950), Toto the Third Man (1951) and Toto in Color (1952), with Totò, plus The Knight Has Arrived! (1951), The Piano Tuner Has Arrived (1952) and The Steamship Owner (1951) with Walter Chiari. Ponti alternated this with more serious material such as Europe '51 (1952) from Roberto Rossellini, Brothers of Italy (1952), Lieutenant Giorgio (1953), and Easy Years (1953). The Unfaithfuls (1953) reunited Ponti with Lollobrigida, while Neapolitan Carousel (1954) won the International Prize at Cannes.
In 1954 Ponti had his greatest artistic success with the production of Federico Fellini's La strada. However, Fellini denied Ponti's role in its success and said that "La Strada was made in spite of Ponti and De Laurentiis". Along with a Toto comedy The Doctor of the Mad (1954) he and de Laurentiis produced an international film, Mambo (1954) directed by Robert Rossen. There was An American in Rome (1955) with Alberto Sordi and The Gold of Naples (1954) with a young Sophia Loren.
Loren was the female lead in Ponti's Attila (1954), a biopic of Attila the Hun with Anthony Quinn that became a big box office success. Loren was in The Miller's Beautiful Wife (1955), a comedy.
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