Claudia wouldn’t reveal this secret until many years later in 1967. Cristaldi also made the decision to send her infant son away to live with her family. Arguably her greatest indignity came when she was forced by Cristaldi to tell the world’s media that her son Patrick, which she gave birth to in her late teens after a terrible relationship with a mysteries older Frenchman, was her younger brother. She was forbiddenher to cut her hair, she wasn’t allowed to put on weight and all her movies were specifically chosen by Cristaldi. She was linked in the late 1950s to her producer and later husband, Franco Cristaldi (fourteen years her senior), who placed many restrictions upon Claudia. Her first significant contract strictly controlled her career and life. It was a minor role which led to a string of supporting roles throughout the late 50s. Cardinale first made her screen debut in Goha, a beautifully made French film, shot in Tunisia in 1958. Once considered Italy’s answer to Brigitte Bardot, she has survived 60 years in an industry that wasn’t always kind to women. Of her co-star Niven she said: “David Niven, when he saw me, said, ‘Claudia, spaghetti, you’re the best invention of Italy.” For instance, Cardinale has very fond memories of making The Pink Panther (1963) along side Peter Sellers and David Niven. It’s not to say she wasn’t flattered by the attention. Everyone just simply wanted be around her, including actors like Marlon Brando, who seemingly tried to seduce her, but was politely told to “get lost”. She also bumped shoulders with many of the greats. Apparently, she was pushed out onto the stage and the rest they say is history.įrom very early on in her career she was surrounded by some of Europe’s great film makers such as Fellini, Leone and Visconti. She was discovered after she unintentionally won a beauty contest in Tunisa in 1957 and the prize was a trip to the Venice film festival.
The last two films mentioned above are sentimental to me, not only because they are award winning classics, but because they introduced me to one of my favourite International actresses, the Italian screen goddess Claudia Cardinale.īorn in Tunisia on April 15, 1938, to French and Silican parents, Claudia Cardinale was destined to be someone else ( a school teacher) and never set out to become an actress.
Among them are some of the greats Ameile, Cinema Paradiso, 8 ½, and II Gattopardo (The Leopard). Foreign films are a guilty pleasure in my household.
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