Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

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Pontecorvo, Gillo (Gilberto)

b. 19 November 1919, Pisa

Film director

After studying chemistry at the University of Pisa, Pontecorvo turned to journalism and

became a left-wing correspondent in Paris. In 1941 he returned to Italy, joined the PCI

and fought as a partisan. After the war he spent several years as assistant to Mario

Monicelli. His first feature film, La grande strada azzurra (The Long Blue Road) (1957)

was an adaptation of a novel by Franco Solinas, who collaborated on many scripts of

Pontecorvo’s later films. La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) (1966),

Pontecorvo’s most famous film, was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film

Festival in 1966. Financed by Algerian government money and starring actual members

of the liberation movement, it adopts a semidocumentary style to meticulously recreate

historical events. The international success of this film—except in France, where it was

banned for many years—paved the way for Pontecorvo’s move to Hollywood where he

made Queimada/Burn! (1969), a film about the self-destructive nature of colonialism

starring Marlon Brando. This was followed by Ogro (The Tunnel) (1979) dealing with

Basque terrorism. In 1992 Pontecorvo was appointed Director of the Venice Film

Festival, and set about engineering its return to world significance.

LAURENCE SIMMONS

Ponti, Giò (Giovanni)

b. 18 November 1891, Milan; d. 16 September 1979, Milan

Architect

An ‘architect-artist’ true to his name, Ponti created connections between architecture,

culture and industry, both inside and outside Italy. In bridging various expressive

tendencies, Ponti assumed a number of roles for himself: architect, industrial designer, set

designer, painter, editor, academic and organizer of the Milan Trienniale exhibitions.

Ponti’s autonomy allowed him to make such connections effortlessly. Although he

developed a sympathetic rapport with creative individuals like Mollino and de Chirico,

he distanced himself from exclusive membership of any artistic or political group.

Consequently, Ponti’s expression, freely drawn from far-reaching sources, was personal,

pluralistic and poetic.

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For over forty years, Ponti was editorial director of Domus, the journal he founded in

Milan in 1928. In writing for Domus, Ponti and his contributors sought the means to

realize the quintessential ‘home’. Also founded in the same city, in the same year, was

the journal Casabella. These two Milanese journals served as the expressive vehicles for

two opposing but not mutually exclusive attitudes within Italian architecture: the artful,

inclusive and international attitude of Domus and the polemical, self-reflective stance of

Casabella.

The inclusive attitude forged by Ponti in Domus was made evident in his Milanese

works, buildings that were both light and dynamic. For the early SIVEM/Torre project

(1933–4), Ponti designed two dissimilar buildings for one site—one in the decorative

‘novecento’ (twentieth-century) style, the other according to the ‘rationalist’ tenets

advocated by Casabella—not to endorse either of the two competing Milanese tendencies

but rather to suggest the legitimacy of both. For the Pirelli tower (Milan, 1956–61),

Ponti, together with engineers Nervi and Danusso, artfully combined building form and

structure to craft an expressive prism that reflected the international fashion for glass

towers. The counterpart to the ‘light’ Pirelli tower was the ‘weighty’ Velasca tower,

realized in Milan at the same time. Unlike the outwardlooking Pirelli—a physical

articulation of Ponti’s postwar Domus—the Velasca tower designed by Belgiojoso,

Peressuti and Rogers was meant to bear the cultural history of its city, a position

advocated by Rogers, then editor of Casabella. The coexistence of two different

architectural expressions was once again facilitated by Ponti.

While completing the design of the Pirelli tower, Ponti also published Amate

l’Architettura, a plea to architects, patrons and the wider public to ‘love architecture’.

Ponti defined this collection of personal reflections, thoughts and aphorisms concerning

architecture as an ‘autobiography’ and in it, in his typical way, he characterized

architecture as a ‘precise fantasy’ that itself reveals the ‘fantasy of precision’.

Ponti’s most exemplary achievement remains, perhaps, his butterfly-like residence for

the Planchart family (Caracas, 1955). Ponti envisioned this house to be like his life: an

encompassing artistic project containing and transforming fundamental life-lessons.

Architecture nevertheless remained for Ponti an unrequited love, an unfinished house, a

dream yet to be realized.

See also: architectural and design magazines

Further reading

Ponti, L.L. (1990) Giò Ponti: The Complete Works 1923 1978, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

KEITH EVAN GREEN

Pontiggia, Giuseppe

b. 25 September 1934, Como

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Writer and critic

Pontiggia’s career as a writer began in 1959 with the publication of the novel La morte in

banca (Death in the Bank), in which the influence of prestigious models such as Svevo

and Kafka is traceable not only at the level of plot, but also in the polished literariness

and the balanced style of the book. Pontiggia’s work is also generally characterized by a

preference for a ‘classical’ type of literature, that is, not only a passion for Latin writers

such as Sallust and Lucan, but a writing which is itself pondered and extremely attentive

to its formal and stylistic aspects. The other pole of his poetics is an experimental and

innovative tension, one which took him close to the neoavantgarde (see for example his

L’arte della fuga (The Art of Escape), 1969). His later novels successfully manage to

merge the ‘classical’ and the ‘experimental’ into a relaxed and affable narrative. His

critical essays similarly range effortlessly and widely across both classical and modern

authors.

Further reading

Pontiggia, G. (1984) Il Giardino delle Esperidi (The Garden of Hesperides), Milan: Adelphi (a

collection of critical essays on authors as varied as Lucan, Plutarch, Gadda and Borges).

— (1989) La grande sera (The Great Evening), Milan: Mondadori (winner of the Strega prize).

ENRICO CESARETTI

pop and rock music

Italian pop music may be taken to begin at the Sanremo Festival of 1958 with perhaps

the most famous Italian song of all time, ‘Volare, nel blu dipinto di blu’. Written and

performed by Domenico Modugno, a young singer-songwriter from Puglia, the song

marked a definite line of separation from the older melodic tradition represented by

singers like Nilla Pizzi and Claudio Villa. In spite of its novelty, however, ‘Volare’ was

indebted, at least in part, to young American music, in particular to the sounds of the

Platters, and Italian pop music in the postwar period would continue to be a fusion of

certain native elements and imported British and American influences.

The more swinging style of the so-called urlatori (screamers) followed in the early

1960s with singers like Peppino Di Capri, together with the more aggressive

rock’n’rollers like Adriano Celentano, who scandalized the Sanremo audience in 1961

by turning his back as he sang his ‘24 mila baci’ (24 Thousand Kisses).

The ‘beat’ period, from 1963 to 1970, can be divided into three major strands. The

first two, the individual pop singers and then the development of groups, were variously

influenced by the new music coming mostly from Britain, especially that of the Beatles

(who appeared live in Rome in 1965) and the Rolling Stones. These included singers like

Gianni Morandi and Rita Pavone, and bands like Equipe 84, I Camaleonti (The

Chameleons), The Dik Dik and The New Trolls. Young and angry, Morandi and Pavone

captivated their audience with a style which was both aggressive and soft. ‘Datemi un

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martello’ (Gimme a Hammer), sang the ‘yeah-yeah girl’ Rita, but also ‘Come te non c’è

nessuno’ (There’s Nobody Like You). With his baby face, Morandi conquered both

teenagers and their parents, and his songs were also immediately made into successful

movies. In the same style, Caterina Caselli, with her characteristic blonde hairdo,

recorded songs like ‘Nessuno mi può giudicare’ (Nobody Can Judge Me) and ‘Perdono’

(Forgive Me). Radio programmes like Bandiera Gialla and clubs like The Piper in Rome

became the sanctuaries for this type of music. The Piper was the birthplace of many

future Italian legends including Patty Pravo, another blonde singer who was to make an

indelible mark on Italian Pop. Inevitably, there was also a crowd of Elvis Presley

imitators such as Bobby Solo (‘Una lacrima sul viso’ (A Tear On Your Face)) and Little

Tony (‘Riderà’ (She Will Laugh)).

The first rock bands were formed in the wake of the success of the Beatles, using the

classic voice, guitar, bass and drums line-up. Equipe 84, from Modena, followed the

model closely, with both original songs and translated covers of British groups (like

‘Blackberry Way’ from The Small Faces). Similar bands were I Nomadi (The Nomads)

with their leader Augusto Daolio, and the Dik Dik who covered the anthem ‘California

Dreamin’ by the American Mamas and Papas. The New Trolls, from Genoa, introduced a

more guitar-driven, Hendrix style. There were also British pop singers who achieved

success in Italy using an odd linguistic mix such as Mal of The Primitives and Shel

Shapiro, from The Rokes; Shapiro also acted in Mario Monicelli’s film Brancaleone alle

Crociate (The Crusader Brancaleone).

The third strand in those early years was represented by artists who wrote their own

songs in the French ‘chansonnier’ tradition. Luigi Tenco, with a troubled personal life

which would tragically end in suicide (see cantautori, was a sort of founder of this style,

and his melancholic songs effected a whole generation of Italian young people. Gino

Paoli contributed a romantic touch (‘Il cielo in una stanza’ (The Sky In a Room)), while

Fabrizio De Andrè took more intellectual detours (‘La canzone di Marinella’ (The Song

of Marinella)). Special mention should be made of Mina, an excellent interpreter of all

genres, from melodic to rock style, from samba to jazz, and Lucio Battisti who together

with the lyricist Mogol created some of the most memorable songs of the period, such as

‘Acqua azzurra, acqua chiara’ (Blue Water, Clear Water) and ‘I giardini di marzo’ (The

Gardens In March).

At the beginning of the 1970s, new influences from the United States (the hippie

movement) and the birth of ‘progressive rock’ brought changes to the Italian music scene.

The more ‘classic’ individual singers like Morandi declined in popularity while the rock

bands drew greater public interest, encouraged by music magazines like Ciao 2001.

Groups such as Le Orme (The Footprints) or Premiata Forneria Marconi, inspired by Pink

Floyd and King Crimson, mixed rock and classical music. With a taste for a carefully

crafted pop sound, the Pooh topped the charts and extended their success during the

1970s. The band Area occupied a unique position: linked to the political movement of the

1970s and present at the Re Nudo (Naked King) mass gathering at Parco Lambro in

Milan, the Area was led by its Greek-born singer Demetrio Stratos and played a special

fusion of free jazz and progressive rock. Politics also inspired bands that were closer to

the folk tradition, like the Stormy Six who sang about workers strikes or historical events

like the Battle of Stalingrad. This was also the time of garages, and groups would join

together to play in dark cellars as much as on the Sanremo stage. Matia Bazar became the

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most famous group of the late 1970s, with pop anthems like ‘Solo tu’ (Only You) and

sophisticated but oldfashioned songs like ‘Vacanze romane’ (Roman Holidays).

The punk era also exerted its influence, and in Bologna after 1977 a new generation of

aggressive bands made their noisy debut. Skiantos, led by oddball Freak Antoni, mixed

ironic lyrics with devastating guitar riffs, and Gaznevada anticipated the new wave

revolution. In Florence at the beginning of the 1980s, a darker sound began to emerge

with bands like Litfiba, led by powerful singer Piero Pelù, and Diaframma, with its

obscure, poetic lyrics. In the middle of Emilia, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti created CCCP, a

strange ensemble of musicians and dancers, celebrating in an electronic and sarcastic way

the alienation of modern life and the orthodox communist ideal (‘Fedeli alla linea’

(Faithful to the Line), 1985). Predictably, the group changed its name to CSI after the

dissolution of the Soviet Empire, and became producers helping young emerging bands.

The 1990s witnessed the rap music revolution, born from a political context in the

urban centres with combos like 99 Posse, Onda Rossa Posse and Sangue Misto as well as

a varied underground scene, influenced by different currents, from grunge to British pop

revenge. Marlene Kuntz were the Italian Sonic Youth (‘Catartica’, 1994), while the

Massimo Volume (Maximum Volume) from Bologna worked with a peculiar conception

of musical poetry (‘Lungo i bordi’ (On the Borders), 1994) and Casino Royale from

Milan explored techno (‘CRX’, 1997). The linguistic dialectal tradition, mixed with dub

influences inspired bands like Almamegretta, from Naples (‘Sanacore’, 1995) while a

more theatrical experience led Avion Travel to original and refined songwriting. Neri per

Caso (Black by Chance) revived the tradition of ‘vocal only’ groups while Afterhours

and Negrita repeated the rock lesson of Rolling Stones.

Further reading

Falconi, C. (1967) The Popes in the Twentieth Century: From Pius X to John XXIII, London:

Weidenfeld & Nicolson (excellent biographical essays; see especially last chapter).

Hebblethwaite, P. (1984) John XXIII: Pope of the Council, London: Geoffrey Chapman (the

definitive biography in English).

JOHN POLLARD

Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani)

b. 17 October 1912, Forno di Canale, Belluno; d. 28/29 September 1978, the Vatican

Pope, 1978

The pontificate of John Paul I was one of the shortest in history, just thirty-three days.

Educated in his diocesan seminary, Luciani was ordained priest on 7 July 1935. Acting

Vicar-general of Belluno in 1948, he was appointed Bishop of neighbouring Vittorio

Veneto ten years later and in 1969 he was promoted Patriarch of Venice. He was elected

pope on the opening day of the conclave which followed the death of Paul VI in August

1978. It is still unclear whether he was the compromise candidate between the ‘serious

contenders’, cardinals Benelli and Siri, or was chosen as a ‘pastoral’ pope after the

intensely ‘political’ Paul VI. His humility and simplicity led him to abolish the papal

coronation and change his title from ‘Supreme Pontiff’ to ‘Supreme Pastor’.

Further reading

Cornwell, J. (1989) Like a Thief in the Night: The Death of Pope John Paul I, London: Corgi

(convincingly debunks the theory of Yallop, below).

Yallop, D. (1984) In God’s name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I, London:

Viking (argues that John Paul was murdered because he was about to clean up various messes

left by his predecessor, and thus upset powerful figures inside and outside the Vatican).

JOHN POLLARD

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Pope John Paul II (Karel Jozef Wojtyla)

b. 18 May 1920, Wadowice, Poland

Pope, 1978-

John Paul II is the first Slav pope and the first nonItalian since Pope Hadrian VI (1522–

3). The pontificate of this former actor has been characterized by a mixture of

conservatism and charisma. Born into a poor family, Karel Wojtyla was educated at the

Jagellionian University and the Archbishop’s Seminary in Cracow, clandestinely in the

latter case due to the Nazi occupation. He was ordained in 1946 and after a period at the

Angelicum University in Rome, he served as parish priest and university chaplain. In

1958 he was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Cracow, archbishop in 1964 and cardinal in

1967. He became known outside of Poland thanks to his participation in the Second

Vatican Council and a number of lecture tours in the USA.

He was elected pope after the death of John Paul 1 on 16 October 1978, a compromise

candidate between the strongly conservative Cardinal Siri and his liberal opponents.

Since his election, he has carried forward the implementation of Vatican II in a

conservative key. International synods of bishops have been held under tightly controlled

conditions, and national ones have been used to ‘tame’ hierarchies regarded as too liberal,

such as the Dutch and the Americans.

Wojtyla has also held the line firmly on doctrinal and disciplinary matters. The

appointment of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine

of the Faith has led to a crackdown on radical Catholic theologians and publications, and

a denunciation of liberation theology. In his public pronouncements, Wojtyla has firmly

rejected married priests and the ordination of women, and he has followed an

uncompromising line in continuing to oppose contraception, abortion and homosexuality.

In 1994, the Vatican made itself extremely unpopular at the Cairo Conference on

Population and Development for its stand on these issues, and a year later it took an

equally intransigent stand on ‘female reproductive rights’ at the Beijing conference.

His encyclical Veritatis Splendor (The Splendour of Truth) and the Catechism of the

Catholic Church, both in 1993, epitomize his conservatism in matters of theology and

morals. But there can be no doubt about the powerful effects on Catholics of his own

personal warmth and charm, typified by the blessing which he gave to the crowds in St

Peter’s Square early in January, 1979: ‘God bless you; and your umbrellas.’

Under a Polish pope, the Vatican’s ‘Ostpolitik’ (relations with the Eastern bloc)

changed somewhat, but its architect, Cardinal Casaroli, remained John Paul’s Secretary

of State from 1979 to 1991. Wojtyla is regarded as having played a significant role in the

downfall of communism, and there are allegations of Soviet involvement in the attempt

on his life in 1981. On the other hand, the Pope has repeatedly attacked the decadence of

Western capitalist materialism, most notably in his encyclical Centesimus Annus (1991).

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During John Paul’s reign, Vatican diplomacy has expanded enormously in both numbers

and prestige, even if it ultimately proved to be ineffective in avoiding the 1991 Gulf War,

or in intervening in the troubled affairs of the former Yugoslavia.

John Paul II’s impact upon Italy has not been substantially different from that on other

countries, the most momentous events in his pontificate being the signing of the new

Concordat in 1983 (see church, state and society) and his direct intervention in politics

at the birth of the PPI.

Further reading

Bernstein, C. and Politi, M. (1996) His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time,

Auckland and London: Doubleday (particularly concerned with Wojtyla’s alleged collaboration

with Ronald Reagan and with the pope’s role in the victory of the Solidarnosc movement and

the collapse of communism).

Willey D. (1992) God’s Politician, New York: St Martin’s Press (a broad survey of John Paul II’s

policies, by the BBC’s ‘man in Rome’).

Williams, G.H. (1981) The Mind of John Paul II: Origins of His Thought and Action, New York:

Seabury Press.

JOHN POLLARD

Pope Paul VI (Gianbattista Montini)

b. 26 November 1897, Concesio, Brescia; d. 6 August 1978, Castelgandolfo, Rome

Pope, 1963–78

Paul VI was pope during one of the most difficult periods in the recent history of Roman

Catholicism and of Italy Gianbattista Montini was born into a middle-class family; his

father, Giorgio, was heavily involved in the Catholic movement. Delicate health

necessitated a partly private education and exemption from military service in 1916. He

was ordained priest in 1921 and was sent to the Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics as a

prelude to a career in the Vatican diplomatic service. In October 1924 he entered the

Secretariat of State, where he remained for thirty years.

Alongside his curial duties, he carried on a pastoral ministry in FUCI, the Catholic

University Students Federation, and in ML, the graduates’ association, and lived an

intense intellectual life. He immersed himself in French Catholic thought, including the

works of Marc Sangnier and Jacques Maritain, and soon acquired a reputation as an anti-

fascist and as a ‘dissident’ in the Vatican. In 1937 he was appointed Substitute to the

Cardinal Secretary of State, and his role in wartime became very important, especially

after Cardinal Maglione’s death in 1944.

In 1954 he was appointed Archbishop of Milan, a move engineered by his opponents

in order to get him away from the Vatican. Consequently, although head of Italy’s most

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important metropolitan see after Rome, he was not made a cardinal until after the election

of Pope John XXIII in 1958. He became heavily involved in John’s project for a Second

Vatican Council and thus became his ‘designated’ successor. Against strong curial

opposition, he was elected pope in June 1963.

Bringing John’s council to a successful conclusion was probably Montini’s greatest

achievement as pope, but there were others: he reformed the Roman curia, making it

more international and abolishing much of the unnecessary pomp, including the Noble

and Palatine Guards. In his encyclical Octogesima Adveniens (Eightieth Anniversary)

(1971) he developed further John’s social teaching, and put it into practice through his

travels to the Third World (he was the first pope since the early nineteenth century to

travel outside of Italy) and the pursuit of an understanding with the Eastern bloc nations.

In particular, he repeated a condemnation of nuclear war, sought to bring the Vietnam

War to an end and also pushed forward the cause of ecumenism, especially with the

Anglican Communion. Ironically, however, he will probably be most remembered for the

encyclicals Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) (1968), which condemned artificial

methods of birth control, and Personae Humanae (The Human Person) (1975), which

argued that homosexual acts were ‘intrinsically disordered’, a stance strongly resented by

the Italian gay community.

In the Italian context, he will be remembered for his difficult relationship with the

leadership of the Christian Democratic party (see DC), many of whom he had nurtured

during his years with the university student associations. In his declining years he felt the

bitterness of defeat in the divorce referendum of 1974 and, despite his attempts in his

‘Letter to the Red Brigades’, he suffered the pain of being unable to save Aldo Moro

from death at their hands in April 1978.

Futher reading

Hanson, E.O. (1987) The Catholic Church in World Politics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press (see especially the sections on ‘Ostpolitik’ and The Third World).

Hebblethwaite, P. (1993) Paul VI: The First Modern Pope, London: HarperCollins (the definitive

biography in English).

JOHN POLLARD

Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli)

b. 2 March 1876, Rome; d. 9 October 1958, Castelgandolfo, Rome

Pope, 1939–58

Chiefly remembered for his silence over the Holocaust, in postwar Italy Pius XII presided

over, and epitomized, a short-lived but oppressive period of Catholic ‘triumphalism’.

From a family of minor Roman nobility in papal service, Eugenio Pacelli was ordained

priest in 1899 after education at the Collegio Capranica and the Gregorian and Rome

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