From the BBC:

Italian film-maker Gillo Pontecorvo, who directed The Battle Of Algiers, has died at the age of 86.

Pontecorvo's film depicted the brutality of both sides during the guerrilla uprising against French colonial rule in 1950s Algeria.

Shot like a documentary, the highly influential film was banned in France for some time, while its scenes of torture were cut in the US and Britain.

Twice an Oscar nominee, Pontecorvo also directed Marlon Brando in Queimada.

Later in life, he was director of the Venice Film Festival.

Pontecorvo was a Jew, a communist and an Italian partisan against the fascists in the Second World War, so he had some experience of his own with guerrilla wars.

That may be one reason why The Battle of Algiers is an absolute masterpiece. It's one of the few DVDs I own (the Criterion Collection, no less! :) ).

Here's an earlier blog posting on the film. If you're a serious film fan, you really must see this movie once in your life.

Finally, a snippet from the NYT piece (the whole thing is worth a read):

Mr. Pontecorvo was to lie in wake at City Hall in Rome until Saturday morning. The Italian news agency ANSA said that the government of Algeria had sent a crown in his honor to be placed near the bier.