Italian film producer Carlo Ponti has died

Rome/Prague - The career of film producer Carlo Ponti was closely linked to Italian neorealism and the French "New Wave." Ponti significantly contributed to the development and fame of both movements. The Italian-born producer produced several now-classic films by great directors and had a hand in the careers of many film stars. Most notably, he was married to Sophia Loren for half a century until his passing today.
    "Everything I do, I do only for love of Sophia," Ponti said just recently, who likely lived to be 94 years old (according to some data, however, he was born in 1910 or even 1913). He met Loren, then a charming teenager, in 1952 when he was on the jury for the Miss Italy contest. Ponti "made" her a movie star, his secret lover - and eventually, after complex complications, in 1957, also his wife.
    This happened in Mexico, where Ponti first divorced his first wife. However, two lawyers represented Sophia at the ceremony. The wedding caused an uproar in bigoted Catholic Italy, and the authorities did not recognize the divorce. The Vatican excommunicated Ponti, and he faced prison for bigamy. Loren was accused of adultery. The highly watched couple moved to France. They married again in Paris in 1966, when Ponti already had French citizenship.
    Carlo Ponti was born in Magenta near Milan, where he also studied law. He began to focus on film production in 1938 after a client-producer from the law firm where Ponti worked had to leave Italy, and Ponti took over his commitments. In the early 1940s, he worked on comedies, but gradually gained a reputation for the films of neorealist directors Pietro Germi, Alberto Lattuada, and Luigi Zampa. From 1950 to 1957, he partnered with Dino De Laurentiis, which resulted in films like The Road (1954) by Federico Fellini.
    Ponti often said: "I don't make deals; I make films." He preferred quality but associated it with commercial success whenever possible. He produced Blow-Up and Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni, collaborating with the likes of Claude Chabrol, Vittorio De Sica, and Roman Polanski, as well as American masters of the field including George Cukor, Sidney Lumet, and Martin Ritt. Ponti earned an Oscar nomination for producing Doctor Zhivago (1965) directed by David Lean. He also produced The Fairy Tale (1960), for which Loren won an Oscar.
    Ponti also demonstrated an eye for interesting projects in the Czech environment by investing in Miloš Forman's comedy The Firemen's Ball (1967). He co-produced the pilot episode of Mr. Tau directed by Jindřich Polák in 1966, which was never aired. That same year, the Italian millionaire was a guest at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
    In the 1970s, both Ponti's and Loren's careers showed a declining trend, compounded by further issues with the Italian judiciary. Ponti attempted to sell a collection of sculptures and paintings in France, but customs officials confiscated it at the Italian border. He was sentenced to four years, though he never served time in prison. Conversely, Loren served 17 days in 1982 for unpaid taxes from films made abroad. The couple then decided to move to Los Angeles.
    Legal maneuvering drained most of Ponti's time, and from 1977 to 1988, he produced virtually no films. His attempts at television in subsequent years were unsuccessful, and the influential filmmaker who produced around 150 films spent his last years in retirement. With Loren, Ponti had two sons - conductor and pianist Carlo and film director and producer Edoardo.