Loving Gio Ponti
Francesca Molteni
Italy, 2015, 35′
Languages: Italian, English
Subtitles: Italian, English, Arabic
Languages: Italian, English
Subtitles: Italian, English, Arabic
Synopsis
A picture of the man and the architect, aspiring painter, promoter ante litteram of Italian design who, in more than fifty years of activity, has tried it all – arts, occupations, objects, architecture and material – with untiring energy, from small to big, from the design of a handle to the formulation of a town plan. “Architecture is an interpretation of life”, he used to write. A popularizer of the modern who ran the risk of indifference and being completely forgotten. The film seeks to enquire into the reasons for this diffidence, especially from the critics, apart from stereotypes and the masses who “soon relegated him to a divine Olympus of underestimated fathers,” as described by Fulvio Irace. And seeks to advance also the reasons for the new good fortune which saw him, in recent years, re-discovered and re- proposed as a model European and international architect. Why, paraphrasing Ponti, who used to say “art has fallen in love with industry”, has the industry of yesterday and today fallen in love with Gio Ponti?
Director Francesca Molteni
Music Fabrizio Campanelli
Production Company Muse Factory of Projects
In collaborazione with Gio Ponti Archives
With Gillo Dorfles, Vittorio Gregotti, Fulvio Race, Enzo Mari, Salvatore Licitra, Giovanna Mazzocchi, Maria Grazia Mazzocchi, Alessandro Mendini, Mario Neri, Giulio Ponti, Letizia Ponti, Lisa Ponti, Paolo Rosselli, Benedikt Taschen, Nanda Vigo, Bob Wilson