Claudia Cardinale, the indomitable actress, dies at 87

BarcelonaClaudia Cardinale, the glamorous symbol of Italian cinema, died Tuesday at the age of 87 in Nemours, France, after a long and diverse career in film and theater, according to French media reported by Reuters. Her performances in films such as The Cattopardo, Eight and a half and Until his time came made her worthy of her own chapter in the history of cinema.

Born and raised in Tunisia to a family of Sicilian origin, Claudia Cardinale got her start in acting thanks to a beauty pageant in Tunisia, which included a trip to the Venice Film Festival as a prize. And with another anecdote, since in her first films she had to be dubbed, because she only spoke her familiar Sicilian dialect and the French from the school in Tunisia where she had studied. For example, in the original Italian version ofThe Cattopardo had to be dubbed.

His first feature film was Goha, by Jacques Baratier, in 1958, and began to stand out with Rufufu (1958), by Mario Monicelli. The producer of that film was Franco Cristaldi, whom Cardinale would marry in 1966. Luchino Visconti had already considered her to play Ginetta in Rocco and his brothers (1960), where she starred opposite Alain Delon. These were supporting roles that she knew how to use to strengthen her acting technique, especially her gaze, which was both open and fallen. Her first leading roles soon followed, alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo in two French-Italian productions: Cartouche, by Philippe de Broca, and The Vicia, by Mauro Bolognini, both from 1961.

The industry wanted to lock her into the box of beauty that obsesses men. "It's the best Italian invention since spaghetti," said the actor David Niven, with whom she shared The Pink Panther (1963), by Blake Edwards. In the early sixties, producers promoted her as a sophisticated sexual myth. And that's what her roles were. Even Luchino Visconti, who directed her The Cattopardo (1963), presented her within the stereotype: "She is a splendid cat, lying on the couch, waiting for you to stroke her. But be careful, the cat can turn into a tiger."

Federico Fellini and Sergio Leone

Claudia Cardinale's career took off in the wake of Visconti's film, and she quickly gained star status in both Italian and American cinema. Films such as The magnificent cuckold (1964), by Antonio Pietrangeli, and The professionals (1966), by Richard Brooks, insisted on showing her as a singular object of desire. And it was Federico Fellini who saw Cardinale's potential to represent "the figure of the earth mother," as historian Christopher Frayling explains in the book Sergio Leone. Something to do with deathClaudia's role in Eight and a half This is what made Sergio Leone choose her to play Jill McBain in Until his time came (1968; C'era una vuelta il West (in the original Italian title).

Leone filmed her like no one had ever filmed her before, keeping the close-up so that Cardinale could fill her with depth, past and resilience. She is the indomitable woman who has seen it all and who is why she can hold her own against the gaze of the character played by Henry Fonda, surely the most detestable villain in the history of cinema. western. Her Jill, a prostitute who comes to embody the possibility of a kinder life, is the "earth mother" that Fellini had seen and who here relieves the thirsty and repairs those affected by brutality. She is the axis of the film, and that is how she saw it: "Jill is tough and determined. She knows what she wants and acts on it until she gets it. You don't find many roles for women like that in the westerns".

When it was released Until his time came, Claudia Cardinale had already achieved several milestones, such as starring in the tragic drama Sandra (1965), again with Visconti; and triumph in comedies such as Don't make waves (1967), by Alexander Mackendrick, and in war dramas such as The heroes are dead (1968), by Joseph Sargent. He maintained his star status in international productions such as The Red Tent (1969), an Arctic adventure with Sean Connery and directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, and, in the early seventies, in films such as The Marseillais clan (1972), by José Giovanni, in which she shared the lead role with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Michel Constantin. At that time she was nicknamed "the indomitable" because she defied Vatican protocol by attending a reception with Pope Paul VI in a miniskirt.

However, she also suffered some disappointments, such as when Visconti discarded her for The innocent (1976). And she wasn't the only one: Sergio Leone didn't count on her for the role of Carol in Once upon a time in America (1984). According to the Italian director, Claudia Cardinale didn't fit in with a film with "New York-style" characters.

In the second half of the 1970s, and after her divorce from Cristaldi, she experienced a certain amount of ostracism. "I ran out of money," she later explained. Franco Zeffirelli rescued her in 1977 for a television series. Jesus of Nazareth, in which she shared the cast with Robert Powell, Olivia Husey, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Anne Bancroft, Anthony Queen, Ian McShane and Fernando Rey. The relative ostracism did not affect the acting effectiveness of Claudia Cardinale, who in the early eighties played two very special and risky characters: Molly de Fitzcarraldo (1982), by Werner Herzog, and Clara Petacci in Mussolini's lover (1984), by Pasquale Squitieri, for which he won an Italian Golden Globe. Other times he took on supporting roles, such as in The skin (1981) by Liliana Cavani, and A man in love (1987), by Diane Kurys, but she often recovered the larger letters on the poster, as in Atto di dolore (1990), by Squitieri, also awarded an Italian Golden Globe.

Living in France since 1989, she had a period dedicated to theater, with performances in works by Luigi Pirandello, Tennessee Williams and Alberto Moravia, some directed by Squitieri. However, she never abandoned cinema, and in 2012 she accepted Fernando Trueba's proposal to participate in the film The artist and the model (2012), with Jean Rochefort and Aida Folch.