Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale | |
|---|---|
 Claudia Cardinale in March 2008 | |
| Born | Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale |
| Occupation | actress |
| Years active | 1958 - present |
| Spouse(s) | Franco Cristaldi (1966-1975) Pasquale Squitieri |
| Awards | 2002 Honorary Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival) |
Claudia Cardinale (born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress born in Tunis, Tunisia. The most notable films she has appeared in include 8½ (1963) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). The majority of Cardinale's films have been either of Italian or French origin.
Biography
Early Life
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale. Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia from Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her father was an Italian railway worker. In Tunisia, her native language was French, so had to learn Italian once she got to Italy for her career. She did not speak Italian well until the age of sixteen.[1]
Career
In 1957, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" contest of the Italian embassy, by which she was brought to the traditional Venice Film Festival. This meant her break in cinema. Her feature film debut was Goha (France-Tunisia, 1957). After attending the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome for two months, she signed a 7-year contract with the Vides studios. In 1958, she had a role in the major international success I soliti ignoti. Her early career was largely managed by producer Franco Cristaldi, a studio producer to whom Cardinale was married from 1966 until 1975.
Throughout the 1960s, she appeared in some of the best Italian and European films including Luchino Visconti's Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960), Philippe de Broca's Cartouche (1963), Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), and Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Because she lacked fluency in language, her voice—in the early Italian films—was dubbed by someone else. Not until 8½ was she allowed to dub her own dialogue.[2]
Because Cardinale was not interested in leaving Europe for extended periods of time, she never made a real attempt to break into the American market. In addition to this, it was difficult for her to speak English. Nonetheless, the list of her Hollywood films includes The Pink Panther (1963), in which she was dubbed by an American actress; Circus World (1964); Blindfold (1965); and The Professionals (1966), in which she played opposite Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster.
A photograph of Cardinale was featured in the original gatefold artwork to Bob Dylan's album Blonde on Blonde in 1966. Because the photo was used without Cardinale's permission, the photo was removed from the cover art in later pressings.[3][4]
Her performance in Visconti's "Sandra" (US) / Of A Thousand Delights (UK) (1965) is regarded as mesmerizing, playing a Holocaust survivor with an incestuous relationship with her brother. In Comencini's La storia (from Elsa Morante's novel), in which Cardinale plays a widow raising a son during World War II, she gave another well-received performance. Other memorable performances include Valerio Zurlini's Girl with a Suitcase and Mauro Bolognini's Libera.
Cardinale remains active in European cinema. Her later films include Qui comincia l'avventura (1975), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Un homme amoureux (1987), Mayrig (1991), and And now... Ladies and Gentlemen (2002). In the 1980s, she did a brief stint on the CBS prime time soap opera Falcon Crest.
Personal life
Details of Claudia's private life became available. It turned out that the boy who had always been presented as her brother was her son from a brief relationship in London - presumably from the time of Upstairs And Downstairs, and was not revealed to the child that he was her son, until he was 19 years old. It was also revealed that she was married to Italian producer Franco Cristaldi.[5]
- Franco Cristaldi (1966 - 1975) (divorced)
- Pasquale Squitieri (? - ?)
She has two children: Patrizio, who was born out of wedlock to Frenchman when she was 17 and later adopted by her longtime companion Pasquale Squitieri, and Claudia, whose biological father is Squitieri.[6]
Claudia Cardinale lives in Paris, since 1975 her partner has been the film director Pasquale Squitieri, who lives in Rome. She is also reported to have had an affair with former French President Jacques Chirac.[7]
Claudia Cardinale is a liberal with strong political convictions. She is involved many humanitarian causes, like in pro-women and pro-gay issues, and has frequently stated her pride in her Tunisian and Arab roots - as evidenced by her appearance as herself in the Tunisian film Un été à La Goulette (A Summer in La Goulette).
Cardinale wrote an autobiography, Moi Claudia, Toi Claudia. In 2005, she also published a French-language book, Mes Etoiles, about her personal and professional relationships with many of her directors and co-stars through her nearly 50 years in show-business. Also, Cardinale has been a regular attender at the Academy Awards. In 2002, she was awarded an honorary Golden Bear award of the Berlin Film Festival.
Cardinale has been UNESCO good will ambassador for the Defense of Women's Rights since 1999. In 2006 (World Water Year) she symbolically extended such a role for the Defense of the Rights of the Absolute Woman : Mother Earth while declaring her support for Powerstock, a sustainable electronic music festival that proposes a "water-consciousness" for youth culture and seeks to make sustainability an integral part of mainstream culture.
Filmography
References
- ^ Claudia Cardinale (I) - Biography
- ^ "8½," Criterion Collection DVD, featured commentary track.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://www.lovegoddess.info/Claudia%20Cardinale%20revised.htm
- ^ http://www.biography-center.com/biographies/17759-Cardinale_Claudia.html
- ^ AlloCiné Blogs - LES DÉESSES DU 7 ÈME ART
External links
- Claudia Cardinale at IMDb
- A Tribute to Claudia Cardinale
- Template:Tvtome person
- Claudia Cardinaly profile, at the UNESCO site.
- Claudia Cardinale entry, at the Chickipedia.
