Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale | |
|---|---|
 in Lost Command (1966) | |
| Born | Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale |
| Occupation | actress |
| Years active | 1958 - present |
| Spouse | Franco Cristaldi (1966-1975) |
| Awards | Nastro d'Argento Best Actress 1965 La ragazza di Bube 1985 Claretta David di Donatello for Best Actress 1968 Il giorno della civetta 1972 Bello, onesto, emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata 1993 Honorary Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival) 2002 Honorary Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival) |
Claudia Cardinale (born 15 April 1938, Tunis, Tunisia) is an Italian actress. She had starring roles in 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.
Early life
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette (an italian tunisian neighborough of Tunis). Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her father was an Italian railway worker, born in Gela. Her native language is French, she had to learn Italian once she pursued her career. She did not speak Italian well (only the Sicilian language learned from her parents, like many Italian Tunisians) until the age of sixteen.[1]
Career
In 1957, Cardinale won the 'Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia' contest of the Italian embassy, which brought her to the traditional Venice Film Festival. Her feature film debut was Goha (1957), a French-Tunisian co-production. 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 to from 1966 until 1975.
Throughout the 1960s, she appeared in some of the most acclaimed Italian and European films of the period, including Luchino Visconti's Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963) and Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers 1960), Philippe de Broca's Cartouche (1963), Federico Fellini's Otto e mezzo (8½ 1963), and Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). In her early Italian films, another actor dubbed for Cardinale, because her naturally rather deep voice contrasted with her frail and youthful appearance. 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. 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 (1966), but because it was used without Cardinale's permission, the photo was removed from the cover art in later pressings.[3][4]
Her performance in Visconti's Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa (known as Sandra in the United States and Of A Thousand Delights, 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).
Personal life
Claudia Cardinale was married to Italian film producer Franco Cristaldi from 1966 until their divorce in 1975, and now lives with Pasquale Squitieri, an Italian film director who has been her companion since 1975.[5]
She has two children: Patrizio, who was born out of wedlock to a 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. 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 issues, and has frequently stated her pride in her Tunisian and Arab roots - as evidenced by her book 'Ma Tunisie' and 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.
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, and previously in 1993 she was awarded even an honorary Golden Lion at the Venice 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.
