Claudia Cardinale, a glamorous symbol of post-war Italian cinema who had a long and varied acting career in film and theater, has died aged 87, according to AFP and other French media.
Raised in Tunisia in a family of Sicilian origin, Cardinale was introduced to the world of cinema in 1957, after winning a beauty contest in Tunis and being rewarded with a trip to the Venice film festival.
Her voice had to be dubbed in her first roles on the Italian screen because she grew up in a Sicilian-speaking family and was educated in a French-language school.
Her early career was also complicated by a secret pregnancy that she claimed was the result of an abusive relationship. She gave birth to a son, Patrick, in London in 1958, and passed him off as a younger brother for several years while he was raised by her parents.
After a series of minor roles, she achieved international fame in 1963 when she appeared in Federico Fellini’s film “8-1/2” and also starred opposite Burt Lancaster in “The Leopard” that same year.
Filming two movies at the same time brought complications, with Cardinale recalling having to wear different hair colors for the two roles.
In a 2013 interview with the British newspaper Guardian, Cardinale compared the approaches of directors Fellini and Luchino Visconti, who directed “The Leopard.”
“He (Fellini) couldn’t film without noise. With Visconti, it was the opposite, like doing theater. We couldn’t say a word. Very serious,” she said.
Her rising profile opened doors to Hollywood productions and she appeared in the Blake Edwards comedy “The Pink Panther” and Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” in 1968.
Ostracism
Cardinale’s career took a hit in the 1970s after she split from film producer Franco Cristaldi to begin a long-term relationship with filmmaker Pasquale Squitieri, with whom she had a daughter, also named Claudia.
Angered at being dumped for another man, Cristaldi urged friends and associates in the Italian film industry to ostracize Cardinale, which resulted, for example, in Visconti’s rejection of his last film, “The Innocent” (1976).
“It was a very delicate moment. I discovered that I had no money in my bank account,” Cardinale said about that period.
Franco Zeffirelli eventually helped her, casting her in the 1977 television miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth.” She then continued working with other European directors, including Werner Herzog and Marco Bellocchio.
The husky-voiced, chain-smoking cardinal had a reputation as a fiercely independent and free-spirited woman who once defied Vatican protocol by appearing at a meeting with Pope Paul VI in a miniskirt.
A 2022 book celebrating her life was called “Claudia Cardinale. The Indomitable.”
Living largely in France and a friend of Presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, Cardinale turned to theater at the turn of this century, receiving praise for her stage appearances.
She continued to make films in several European languages until the end of her life, appearing in the Swiss TV series Bulle in 2020.
Awarded a lifetime achievement award at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, she said acting was a great career.
“I’ve lived over 150 lives, prostitute, saint, romantic, every kind of woman, and it’s wonderful to have this opportunity to change yourself,” she said.
“I worked with the most important directors. They gave me everything.”
Source: www.brasil247.com