The enigmatic Claudia Cardinale mesmerized viewers with her incredible presence on television over the course of her more than 60-year career.
With no intention of being among the greatest performers of the golden age, Cardinale chose the often tortured path to fame.
She says, “Movie saved my life,” having outlived the now-deceased Hollywood titans she shared a screen with and still going strong at 86 years old.
Continue reading to learn more about this actress’s recent and ongoing projects!
Claudia Cardinale is a great actress who will always be recognized for her contributions to international and Italian film. Her skill, beauty, and adaptability allowed her to play a variety of challenging and unforgettable roles over the course of her career.
The Tunisian-born Italian actor was eighteen years old and earning her teaching degree. When she emerged from the crowd as the Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia, the young woman with shining hair and a French accent was mesmerized by the grandeur of an Italian film festival.
I was helping the Italian government officials and my mother organize an Italian film festival in Tunisia. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but I couldn’t resist glancing at the women performing. The girl said, “I got called the Most Beautiful Girl in Tunisia after someone pushed me out onto the platform.”
Following her win of a trip to the Venice film festival, which she viewed as a prophetic journey, the young woman received multiple offers from producers.
At first, Cardinale turned down the offers because “it’s like a man,” he stated in an interview. He’ll ultimately move on if you greet him with positivity when he approaches. If you tell him no, he will yearn to have you.
Because she was expecting a kid, she declined the majority of the offers.
But one producer she was unable to turn down. Franco Cristaldi, an Italian producer well-known for his work on feature films from the 1950s to the 1990s, saw potential in the young Cardinale and signed her to an 18-year contract.
There was also a personal contract in place; after they were married, Cristaldi had total control over her, transforming her into an Italian Brigitte Bardot and making decisions about her social life, weight, and preferred films.
Cristaldi insisted on keeping her pregnancy a secret.
Her son turned out to be her younger brother.
Cardinale worked with Cristaldi on a few tiny roles in Italian films, earning her the nickname “Italy’s sweetheart” for her performances.
In 1958, she made her breakout role in the romantic comedy Three Strangers in Rome. Cardinale went into a melancholy state seven months into her pregnancy—which she kept a secret at Cristaldi’s insistence—and considered suicide. She then begged her management to terminate the arrangement.
Instead, in order to escape media attention, Cristaldi transported her to London, where she made up a tale about her temporary absence in order to learn English.
She claimed that the child’s father, an unidentified person, had sexually assaulted her before Patrick was born in 1975. Patrick, her kid, didn’t know who he was until he turned nineteen.
“The violent truth”
“A man I didn’t know, much older than me, forced me to go up to car and raped me,” Cardinale confided in Italian writer Enzo Biagi in 2017, revealing the gory circumstances of her pregnancy. Although the violence was horrifying, the most beautiful thing is that it gave birth to my magnificent Patrick. It was a tremendously challenging situation for a single mother, but in the end, I decided against having an abortion.
“After learning that I was pregnant, that man returned and insisted on having an abortion,” she continued. Forget about getting rid of my creature for even a moment!
“I didn’t even call him by name, just by surname: with him I was practically an employee, a subordinate who was paid a month for the four films I made a year,” Cardinale said of Cristaldi, the man who ran her life. Both my parents and I felt like slaves.I wasn’t in love, therefore he was the one with me. In conclusion, it’s preferable to overlook Cristaldi’s personal life even though he was unquestionably an excellent producer.
She ended her unhappy marriage to Cristaldi in 1975, but it had no effect on her career.
After costarring with Omar Sharif in the French-Tunisian film Goha, the natural beauty quickly made a name for herself as one of Italy’s leading actors. Subsequently, she secured significant roles in Rocco and his Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), where she costarred alongside Burt Lancaster and shared an Oscar. She also acted in the movie 8½ directed by Marcello Mastroianni. Two of the films in which she played an apparently unreachable object of desire are included in the top 12 lists of award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
Brigitte Bardot is an Italian.
She began to make a name for herself in Hollywood, appearing with David Nivens in The Pink Panther and later on screen with icons such as Rita Hayworth and John Wayne in Circus World (1964).
Cardinale, who starred among the likes of Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda in the 1968 American-Italian film Once Upon a Time in the West, was praised for her portrayal as a prostitute.
But audiences enjoyed seeing Cardinale, or the Italian Brigitte Bardot, with her rival and friend, the real Bardot, in 1971’s The Legend of Frenchie King. What made her different from Bardot? She denied ever appearing nude in a film, saying instead that she always felt it was more sensual to leave some room for interpretation and to hint at things rather than reveal all.
The Hollywood industry paid well, but it was hard work. According to a Life story, Cardinale is “the most admired international film star since Sophia Loren,” yet she has expressed her desire to escape the patriarchal Hollywood system. Regarding the lower salary in Europe, Cardinale said, “If I have to give up the money, I give it up.” I do not want to sound corny.
“Time is something you cannot stop”
Even if her career has slowed down, Cardinale said she is happy to have left the sexualized spotlight behind.
Traveling the world was my boyhood dream. And I was able to pull it off. I never changed how I looked, and I never went nude. I’m not really into that. Cardinale said, “I prefer to be who I am because time cannot be stopped.”
Cardinale married Italian director Pasquale Squitieri in 1975, and the two stayed together until his death in 2017. The couple’s only daughter is named Claudia.
In 2022, there were reports that Cardinale had been hospitalized without her will. To this, she reacted. She said she was living next to her family in France and was in good condition. I also hope everyone has a wonderful summer.
These days, Cardinale works closely with the Defense of Women’s Rights at UNESCO as its goodwill ambassador.
Claudia Cardinale had an amazing life as well as a horrible one. We sincerely hope that she continues to feel well and that her story will inspire other women. Which Cardinale film is your favorite?
