Marco Ponti

Marco Ponti (born 25 July 1967, in Avigliana, Piedmont) is a prominent Italian film director,^[1][2] whose work includes strange characters who move in a world more like a comic book than a movie screen, in elliptical conversations.

Life and career

He graduated in Modern Letters at the University of Turin and started working as a copywriter. After two years he worked as an assistant at the Faculty of Semiotics at the University of Turin. In 1995 he attended a script writing course the Holden School in Turin; the following year he worked at the same place under the direction of Alessandro Baricco. In 1997 he attended a course for movie writers at the RAI Cinema Fiction School; in the same year he published a book dedicated to Quentin Tarantino.

He wrote a sitcom for RadioRai and four pieces for the Gruppo della Rocca di Torino's theatre.

After writing and directing some award winning shorts (Benevenuto a San Salvario won the European Film Award in 1998; Amsterdam won an award for the best short feature and for the best actor at the Saint Vincent Festival in 1999), his debut feature film as a writer / director, Santa Maradona, in 2001 has been one of the smash hits of the year.

Starring Stefano Accorsi, Libero De Rienzo, Anita Caprioli e Mandala Tayde, the movie won two David di Donatello Awards (the award given by the Italian Academy of Motion Pictures) in 2002 for Best New Director and Best Supporting Actor, the Ciak d'Oro Award 2002 (given by the most influential movie magazine, Ciak) and, always in the same year, the Critics Award and Best Actor in the International Film Festival of Mar del Plata (Argentina).

The movie repeated his success in the DVD edition, reaching number 1 in the charts, and achieving the cult status between Italian moviegoers (same happened for the soundtrack CD). Now, it is considered the movie who defined the post-gen X in Italy. Santa Maradona became as well a popular movie in the film festivals circuit (from Toronto to Cuba, from Burkina Faso to Japan, from Berkeley to Sydney) and has been broadcast in several countries all around the five continents, and was chosen by Wim Wenders in 2003 as a case study in new film-making in the Berlin Film Festival.

In 2005, Marco Ponti writes and direct his sophomore movie: A/R Andata + Ritorno (Round Trip) starring again Libero De Rienzo with Spanish beauty Vanessa Incontrada and the Indian star Kabir Bedi. The movie was in top ten charts both in theaters and DVD sells and was screened, between others, in the Mill Valley Film Festival, Honolulu, New Zealand and Australia.

In addition to his career as director, Marco Ponti co-wrote some movies: Se Fossi In Te di Giulio Manfredonia (Cattleya, 2001), L'uomo perfetto (Cattleya/Warner, 2005—nominee as Best Story in the Nastri D'Argento del Cinema Italiano 2006, the critics award), Cardiofitness (2007). He also co-wrote and story edited the Italian adaptation of the famous sit-com The Odd Couple, in 2007.

Marco Ponti also worked in theatre since 1997, his last work are the translations / adaptations for the stage of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (2005) and Coleridge's The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner (2008).

In 2007-2008 he teamed with Italian rockstars Jovanotti and Vasco Rossi for the documentary film La Luna di Giorno - Un ritratto in Movimento (The Moon by Day - A Portrait in Movement, edited in DVD and number one in the charts in January—March 2008) and the music video Il Mondo Che Vorrei. Both are filmed in Los Angeles directed by Ponti and produced by Gianfilippo Pedrotti through their LA based company Wonderland Ent.

He is currently writing for Sky Television a bio-pic of the late and (in)famous pornstar - turned politician - turned icon Moana Pozzi.

Filmography

Feature films

• Santa Maradona (2001)
• A/R Andata e Ritorno (2004)
• Passione Sinistra (2013)

Scripts

• Benvenuto in San Salvario short (1998)
• Kissing Paul Newman short (2001)
• Se fossi in te (2001)
• Playgirl short (2002)
• L’uomo perfetto (2005)
• Cardiofitness (2007)

Short features

• Amsterdam (1999)

Various

• "Novecento" live broadcasting of Alessandro Baricco's play (2003)
• "TIM Mobile" commercial with Joaquin Cortez (2003)
• "Romeo & Juliet" play adaptation and translation (2005)
• "La strana coppia" TV show, Italia Uno (2007)
• "La Luna di giorno" documentary, released on DVD (2008)
• "Colazione da Tiffany" Radio show, regular guest (2007–2008)
• Music video for Vasco Rossi (2008)
• Music video for Elisa (2009)

References