Country: Italy, France
Year: 1969
Duration: 132'
The 19th century, the imaginary island Queimada in the Antilles, which for centuries has been under Portuguese dominion. The British Crown is interested in broadening its commercial activities and sends the undercover agent William Walker (Brando) to stir up a revolution in the middle class. The mission is successful but Walker, a member of western society but with a clear-eyed political bent that leans toward Marxist philosophy, is forced to suffocate the very same revolt he helped incite. At the height of his fame after The Battle of Algiers, Pontocorvo tries to explain colonialism and remain within the current of great adventure stories, starring a majestic Brando in the role of an ambiguous hero.
Biography
film director
Gillo Pontecorvo
(Pisa, Italy, 1919 - Rome, Italy, 2006) started his career with a few documentaries in the early 1950s. He made his feature debut with La grande strada azzurra (1957). Pane e zolfo received the Best Documentary Award at the Karlovy Vary Festival in 1959. He followed it up with Kapò (1961). His most famous film, The Battle of Algiers (1966), received three Academy nominations, a Golden Lion and the FIPRESCI Prize in Venice. He received an award for Best Director at the David di Donatello for Queimada (1969), and again for Ogro (1979). He became one of the curators of the Venice Film Festival in 1992, and directed it in 1996 and 1997. During that time, he also participated to the Torino Film Festival in 1995 with the ensemble short Roma dodici novembre 1994, receiving a Special Mention.
FILMOGRAFIA
Missione Timiriazev (doc, 1953), Porta Portese (doc, 1954), Festa a Castelluccio (doc, 1954), Uomini del marmo (doc, 1955), Pane e zolfo (doc, 1956), La rosa dei venti (ep. Giovanna, mm, 1956), La grande strada azzurra (1957), Cani dietro le sbarre (doc, 1958), Kapò (1960), La battaglia di Algeri (1966), Queimada (1969), Ogro (1979), L’addio a Enrico Berlinguer (aa. vv., doc, 1984), Udine, episodio di 12 registi per 12 città (doc, 1989), Danza della fata confetto (cm, doc, 1996), I corti italiani (ep. Nostalgia di protezione, cm, 1997), Un altro mondo è possibile (doc, 2001), Firenze, il nostro domani (doc, 2003).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Gillo Pontecorvo. SCREENPLAY: Franco Solinas, Giorgio Arlorio. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Giuseppe Ruzzolini, Marcello Gatti. EDITING: Mario Morra. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Sergio Canevari. COSTUMES: Marilù Carteny. MUSIC: Ennio Morricone. CAST: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Renato Salvatori, Dana Ghia, Valeria Ferran Wanani, Giampiero Albertini, Carlo Palmucci, Norman Hill, Thomas Lyons, Joseph Patrick, Alvaro Medrano, Alejandro Obregon, Enrico Cesaretti. PRODUCTION: Alberto Grimaldi per PEA - Produzioni Europee Associate.
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