Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. (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.
International breakthrough and Sophia Loren
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.
Ponti and de Laurentiis made the epic war film War and Peace (1956). In June 1956, his partnership with De Laurentiis ended after more than eighty films over six years.
Ponti continued to produce smaller movies for the Italian market such as The Railroad Man (1956), and Guendalina (1957), but his focus was increasingly on bigger budgeted films aimed at the international market starring Loren: The Black Orchid (1959) with Anthony Quinn, That Kind of Woman (1959) with Tab Hunter, Heller in Pink Tights (1960) with Quinn again, A Breath of Scandal (1960) with John Gavin. Two Women (1960), starring Loren and directed by Vittorio de Sica, was a huge success, winning Loren the Oscar.
Ponti produced a series of movies in France: Lola (1961) starred Anouk Aimee, A Woman Is a Woman (1961) directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Léon Morin, Priest (1961) from Jean-Pierre Melville starring Jean Paul Belmondo, Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) from Agnès Varda, Le Doulos (1962) with Belmondo, Landru (1962), plus The Carabineers (1963) and Contempt (1963) from Godard.
Ponti continued to make movies in Italy, notably Boccaccio '70 (1962), Redhead (1962), The Empty Canvas (1962), Break Up (1965) and two with Loren, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) and Marriage Italian Style (1964).
Ponti produced his most popular and financially successful film, Doctor Zhivago, in 1965; the movie was directed by David Lean and made by MGM. Also for MGM, Ponti produced Operation Crossbow (1965), a war film with Loren, The Girl and the General (1967) with Rod Steiger, Ghosts – Italian Style (1967), and three notable films with Michelangelo Antonioni, Blowup in 1966, Zabriskie Point in 1970 and The Passenger in 1974.
He made The 10th Victim (1965), and some films for Paramount, Smashing Time (1967) Diamonds for Breakfast (1968).
Ponti's later movies included The Priest's Wife (1970) with Loren; What? (1972) from Roman Polanski; Giordano Bruno (1973), Torso (1973), a giallo with Suzy Kendall; Dirty Weekend (1973) with Oliver Reed; Mr. Hercules Against Karate (1973); Flesh for Frankenstein (1974); The Voyage (1974) with Loren; Sex Pot (1975) with Loren and Mastroinanni; The Sensuous Nurse (1975) with Ursula Andress; and Down and Dirty (1977),
His final credits included The Cassandra Crossing (1977), an international co-production starring Loren, and A Special Day (1977) with Mastroianni and Loren.
In 1946, he married Giuliana Fiastri with whom he had a daughter, Guendalina, in 1951, and a son, Alex, in 1953. While serving as a judge in a beauty contest in 1951, Ponti met a minor actress named Sofia Lazzaro (real name Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone). He subsequently cast her in films such as Anna (1951). In 1952, his friend Goffredo Lombardo, head of production at Titanus, changed Lazzaro's name to Sophia Loren.