Carlo Ponti, film producer, husband of Sophia Loren

ITALIAN producer Carlo Ponti (94), whose movies include ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and ‘La Strada’, and who discovered Sophia Loren, launched the movie icon’s career and married her despite threats of bigamy charges and excommunication, has died.

“I have done everything for love of Sophia,” he said in a newspaper interview shortly before his 90th birthday in 2002. “I have always believed in her.”Born near Milan in 1912, Ponti worked as a lawyer before moving into films in the late 1930s.In 1956, the Federico Fellini film ‘La Strada’, which he co-produced, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, as did ‘Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’ in 1964.He produced more than 100 films, including ‘Doctor Zhivago’, ‘The Firemen’s Ball’, and ‘The Great Day’, which were nominated for Oscars.Other major films included ‘Blow-Up’, ‘The Cassandra Crossing’, ‘Zabriskie Point’ and ‘The Squeeze’.Ponti was “brilliant, intuitive and brave – but with his feet on the ground because the books had to be balanced,” said Tullio Kezich, a film critic for the Milan daily Corriere della Sera who knew Ponti.”These people were artists: people who had great sensitivity and he understood what the public likes.”But it was his affair with the young ingenue Loren that captivated the public rather than his behind-the-scenes work with the world’s top filmmakers.Ponti was married to his first wife, Giuliana, when he met Loren – then Sofia Lazzaro – in 1950.At the time she was 15-25 years younger than Ponti.They tried to keep their relationship a secret in spite of the huge media interest, while Ponti’s lawyers went to Mexico to obtain a divorce from his first wife.Divorce was not yet legal in Italy.While Ponti worked with legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis and directors such as Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lean and Roman Polanski, his career was to become inextricably tied to that of Loren, who had roles in 34 of the more than 151 movies he produced or co-produced.Ponti and Loren were married by proxy in Mexico in 1957 – two male attorneys took their place and the happy couple only found out when the news was broken by a society columnist.But they were unable to beat stringent Italian laws and the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church.Ponti was charged with bigamy and Loren with being a concubine.”I was being threatened with excommunication, with the everlasting fire, and for what reason? I had fallen in love with a man whose own marriage had ended long before,” Loren has said.”I wanted to be his wife and have his children.We had done the best the law would allow to make it official, but they were calling us public sinners,” she said.”We should have been taking a honeymoon, but all I remember is weeping for hours.”The couple first lived in exile and then, after the annulment of their Mexican marriage, in secret in Italy.During this period, Ponti produced the film ‘La Ciociara’ – known in English as ‘Two Women’ – for which Loren won an Oscar in 1962, In those years, Ponti contributed significantly to the development of French New Wave cinema in his collaboration with Godard.Ponti and Loren finally beat Italian law by becoming French citizens – the approval was signed personally by French President Georges Pompidou – and they married for a second time in Paris in 1966.Ponti had several other brushes with the law.He was briefly imprisoned by the Fascist government in Italy during World War II for producing ‘Piccolo Mondo Antico’, which was considered anti-German.An Italian court later gave Ponti a six-month suspended sentence for his 1973 film ‘Massacre in Rome’, which claimed Pope Pius XII did nothing to stop the execution of Italian hostages by the Germans.The charges were eventually dropped on appeal.Ponti discovered many of the great Italian leading ladies, including Gina Lollobrigida, and had affairs with several of them.”I don’t like actors.I prefer women,” he said at the time.Ponti, who was born in the small town of Magenta on December 11 1912, had two sons with Loren – Carlo Jr, a celebrated conductor, and Edoardo, a film producer.He also had two children from his first marriage, Guendolina and Alexander.Nampa-AP”I have always believed in her.”Born near Milan in 1912, Ponti worked as a lawyer before moving into films in the late 1930s.In 1956, the Federico Fellini film ‘La Strada’, which he co-produced, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, as did ‘Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’ in 1964.He produced more than 100 films, including ‘Doctor Zhivago’, ‘The Firemen’s Ball’, and ‘The Great Day’, which were nominated for Oscars.Other major films included ‘Blow-Up’, ‘The Cassandra Crossing’, ‘Zabriskie Point’ and ‘The Squeeze’.Ponti was “brilliant, intuitive and brave – but with his feet on the ground because the books had to be balanced,” said Tullio Kezich, a film critic for the Milan daily Corriere della Sera who knew Ponti.”These people were artists: people who had great sensitivity and he understood what the public likes.”But it was his affair with the young ingenue Loren that captivated the public rather than his behind-the-scenes work with the world’s top filmmakers.Ponti was married to his first wife, Giuliana, when he met Loren – then Sofia Lazzaro – in 1950.At the time she was 15-25 years younger than Ponti.They tried to keep their relationship a secret in spite of the huge media interest, while Ponti’s lawyers went to Mexico to obtain a divorce from his first wife.Divorce was not yet legal in Italy.While Ponti worked with legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis and directors such as Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lean and Roman Polanski, his career was to become inextricably tied to that of Loren, who had roles in 34 of the more than 151 movies he produced or co-produced.Ponti and Loren were married by proxy in Mexico in 1957 – two male attorneys took their place and the happy couple only found out when the news was broken by a society columnist.But they were unable to beat stringent Italian laws and the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church.Ponti was charged with bigamy and Loren with being a concubine.”I was being threatened with excommunication, with the everlasting fire, and for what reason? I had fallen in love with a man whose own marriage had ended long before,” Loren has said.”I wanted to be his wife and have his children.We had done the best the law would allow to make it official, but they were calling us public sinners,” she said.”We should have been taking a honeymoon, but all I remember is weeping for hours.”The couple first lived in exile and then, after the annulment of their Mexican marriage, in secret in Italy.During this period, Ponti produced the film ‘La Ciociara’ – known in English as ‘Two Women’ – for which Loren won an Oscar in 1962, In those years, Ponti contributed significantly to the development of French New Wave cinema in his collaboration with Godard.Ponti and Loren finally beat Italian law by becoming French citizens – the approval was signed personally by French President Georges Pompidou – and they married for a second time in Paris in 1966.Ponti had several other brushes with the law.He was briefly imprisoned by the Fascist government in Italy during World War II for producing ‘Piccolo Mondo Antico’, which was considered anti-German.An Italian court later gave Ponti a six-month suspended sentence for his 1973 film ‘Massacre in Rome’, which claimed Pope Pius XII did nothing to stop the execution of Italian hostages by the Germans.The charges were eventually dropped on appeal.Ponti discovered many of the great Italian leading ladies, including Gina Lollobrigida, and had affairs with several of them.”I don’t like actors.I prefer women,” he said at the time.Ponti, who was born in the small town of Magenta on December 11 1912, had two sons with Loren – Carlo Jr, a celebrated conductor, and Edoardo, a film producer.He also had two children from his first marriage, Guendolina and Alexander.Nampa-AP

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