Throughout her more than 60-year career, the enigmatic Claudia Cardinale enthralled viewers with her extraordinary presence on television.
Cardinale did not plan to become one of the greatest performers of the golden age; instead, he chose the often tortured path to fame.
She continues to flourish at the age of 86, outliving the now-deceased Hollywood heavyweights with whom she shared a screen, and says that “cinema saved my life.”
Read on to learn more about this actress and her current projects!
Claudia Cardinale is a great actress whose contributions to Italian and international film will live on forever. Her brilliance, attractiveness, and versatility allowed her to play a broad range of memorable and complicated parts across her career.
The Italian actor, who was born in Tunisia, was eighteen years old and was studying to become a teacher. When the young lady with the glossy hair and the French accent came out of the throng to be crowned the Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia, she was mesmerized by the grandeur of an Italian film festival.
“I was helping my mother and officials from the Italian government organize an Italian film festival in Tunisia. Even though I wasn’t meant to be there, I couldn’t help but look at the women performing. The girl said, “After someone shoved me out onto the platform, I was called the Most Beautiful Girl in Tunisia.”
After earning a trip to the Venice film festival, which she viewed as a portentous journey, the young girl received several offers from producers.
In an interview, Cardinale stated that he first turned down the offers as “it’s like a man.” He will ultimately move on if you react well to him when he approaches. If you say no, he will yearn to be with you.
She was pregnant, therefore she declined the majority of the offers.
Still, she could not refuse one producer. Renowned Italian producer Franco Cristaldi, known for his work on feature films from the 1950s to the 1990s, was drawn to the young Cardinale and offered her an 18-year contract.
Furthermore, a personal contract existed; following their marriage, Cristaldi had total power over her, transforming her into an Italian Brigitte Bardot and making decisions about her social life, weight, and preferred films.
Cristaldi refused to reveal that she was pregnant.
Her younger sibling was identified as her son.
Under Cristaldi’s supervision, Cardinale had a few tiny roles in Italian films that earned her the nickname “Italy’s sweetheart.”
In the 1958 romantic comedy Three Strangers in Rome, she gave a breakout performance. After seven months of being pregnant—which she kept a secret at Cristaldi’s insistence—Cardinale experienced a melancholy episode and considered suicide. She then requested that her management terminate the arrangement.
Instead, Cristaldi moved her to London to escape press attention, making up an excuse for her temporary departure to learn English.
When her son Patrick was born in 1975, she said that she had been raped by the child’s father, a person who remained nameless. The identity of her son Patrick was kept a secret until he turned nineteen.
‘Violent truth’
When Cardinale confided in Italian writer Enzo Biagi in 2017, she disclosed the explicit circumstances of her pregnancy, stating, “A man I didn’t know, much older than me, forced me to go up to car and raped me.” It was horrifying, but the most beautiful thing is that my magnificent Patrick was born out of the carnage. In reality, even though it was a really challenging situation for a single mother, I decided against having an abortion.
She said, “When he found out I was pregnant, that man came back and demanded that I have an abortion.” Forget for a moment about getting rid of my beast!
Cardinale said about Cristaldi, who controlled her life, “With him I was practically an employee, a subordinate who was paid a month for the four films I made a year: I didn’t even call him by name, but by surname.” My parents were furious, and I felt like a slave.Since I wasn’t in love, he was the one who was with me. To sum up, Cristaldi was a great producer, but it’s best to overlook his personal affairs.
Her poisonous marriage to Cristaldi, which she left in 1975, had little impact on her profession.
The natural beauty costarred with Omar Sharif in the French-Tunisian film Goha, which catapulted her into the top ranks of Italian actresses right away. Following that, she was hired in important roles in the Oscar-winning films Rocco and his Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), costarring with Burt Lancaster. She also appeared in the film 8½ directed by Marcello Mastroianni. Award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese counts two of her films in his top 12—both of which featured her as an object of desire that seemed impossible to achieve.
‘Italian Brigitte Bardot’
After becoming well-known in Hollywood, she co-starred with David Nivens in The Pink Panther and later appeared on screen with luminaries like Rita Hayworth and John Wayne in Circus World (1964).
Famous actors Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda costarred alongside Cardinale in the 1968 American-Italian film Once Upon a Time in the West, which earned her praise for her portrayal as a sex worker.
Nevertheless, audiences enjoyed seeing Cardinale, a.k.a. the Italian Brigitte Bardot, with her rival and friend, the real Bardot, in The Legend of Frenchie King from 1971. What set her apart from Bardot? “I always believed it was more sensual to leave some space for interpretation, implying rather than revealing everything,” she asserted, denying that she had ever appeared in a film in her underwear.
Work in Hollywood was both profitable and difficult. As “the most admired international film star since Sophia Loren,” Cardinale declared in a Life story that she wanted to escape the patriarchal Hollywood system. In relation to the lower income in Europe, Cardinale said, “If I have to give up the money, I give it up.” I don’t want to come across as corny.
‘You cannot stop time’
Cardinale declared that she is happy to have left the sexualized limelight behind, despite the fact that her career has slowed down.
I had always wanted to see the globe. And I was able to accomplish it. I never dressed differently and I never went naked. I’m not very drawn to it. I like to be who I am because time cannot be stopped,” Cardinale said.
Italian filmmaker Pasquale Squitieri and Cardinale were married in 1975. They stayed together till Cardinale’s death in 2017. The only daughter of the marriage is Claudia.
In 2022, Cardinale addressed rumors that she had been admitted to the hospital without her choice. She stated that she was living close to her family in France and that her health was fine. I also want to wish everyone a happy summer.
Cardinale is currently actively involved in the Defense of Women’s Rights at UNESCO, where she serves as a goodwill ambassador.
Claudia Cardinale had a very prosperous life and a very bad one. It is extremely commendable that her story will continue to inspire other ladies, and we hope she remains healthy. What is your favorite film about Cardinale?
