Offscreen Notes
Carlo Ponti: 1912-2007
Venerable Italian producer of approximately 150 films died at the ripe age of 95 on January 10, 2007. Perhaps being married to Sophia Loren had something to do with his longevity, but Ponti started his career in 1941, producing Piccolo mondo antico and never looked back, producing his final film in 1998 (Liv). Along the way Ponti produced a range of important art films and popular genre (filone in Italian) films. Highlights include Senza pietà (1948, Alberto Lattuada), Il Mulino del Po (1949, Lattuada), several films with Totò, La Strada (1954, Federico Fellini), Il Ferroviere (1956, Pietro Germi), Matrimonio all’italiana (1964, Vittorio De Sica), and such non-Italian films as Heller in Pink Tights (US, 1960, George Cukor, starring his wife Loren), Cléo de 5 à 7 (France, 1961, Agnès Varda), Le Mépris (France, 1963, Jean-Luc Godard), and Michelangelo Antonioni’s American films, Blow-Up (1966), Zabriske Point (1970) and Professione: Reporter (1975).
