Claudia Cardinale, icon actress of Italian cinema, dies at 87

Claudia Cardinale, a glamorous symbol of postwar Italian cinema, which had a long and varied career as a movie and theater actress, died at 87, according to AFP and other French vehicles.

Created in Tunisia in a family of Sicilian origin, Cardinale was presented 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 family where the Sicilian dialect was spoken and was educated in a French -speaking school.

The beginning of his career was also complicated by a secret pregnancy that, according to her, was the result of an abusive relationship. She gave birth to a son, Patrick, in London, in 1958, and made him pass a younger brother for several years while he was raised by his parents.

After a series of smaller roles, she reached international fame in 1963, when she participated in Federico Fellini’s movie “8-1/2”, and also starred alongside Burt Lancaster in “The Leopard” in the same year.

The filming of two films at the same time brought complications, with cardinale remembering that it had to use different hair colors for both papers.

In an interview with the British newspaper Guardian in 2013, Cardinale compared the approaches of directors Fellini and Luchino Visconti, who directed “The Leopard”.

“He (Fellini) couldn’t shoot without noise. With Visconti, it was the opposite, how to do theater. We couldn’t say a word. Very serious,” she said.

Her growing profile opened the doors to Hollywood productions and she appeared in the comedy “The Pink Panther,” directed by Blake Edwards, and “Once Upon a West” by Sergio Leone in 1968.

Ostracism

Cardinale’s career suffered a blow in the 1970s, after she separated from film producer Franco Cristaldi to start a lasting relationship with filmmaker Pasquale Squitieri, with whom she had a daughter, also named Claudia.

Annoyed for being exchanged by another man, Cristaldi asked friends and associates from the Italian film industry to condemn Cardinale to ostracism, which resulted, for example, in the refusal of Visconti for his last movie, “The Innocent” (1976).

“It was a very delicate moment. I found that I had no money on my bank account,” Cardinale said about this period.

Franco Zeffirelli eventually helped her by climbing her to the 1977 television “Jesus de Nazaré” television miniseries. She continued to work with other European directors, including Werner Herzog and Marco Bellocchio.

Cardinale, with a hoarse voice and inveterate smoker, had a reputation for being a fiercely independent woman with a free spirit, who once challenged the Vatican’s protocol by attending a meeting with Pope Paul 6th of miniskirt.

A 2022 book that celebrated his life was called “Claudia Cardinale. The Indomitable” (“Claudia Cardinale. The Indomitable”, in free translation).

Living much of his time in France and friend of presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, Cardinale turned to the theater at the turn of this century, receiving praise for their appearances on stage.

She continued to make movies in several European languages ​​by the end of her life, appearing in the Swiss TV series Bulle in 2020.

Awarded with a recognition for the whole work at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002, she said that acting was a great career.

“I lived more than 150 lives, prostitute, holy, romantic, all kinds of women, and it’s wonderful to have this opportunity to change yourself,” she said.

“I worked with the most important directors. They gave me everything.”