“I don’t like the system of celebrities. I am a normal human being. I
like living in Europe. I visit Hollywood often, but I never wanted to
sign a contract and work there for a long period of time,” states the
world famous Italian actress.

The legendary actress arrives in
Sofia as a special guest of the 15th jubilee edition of the Sofia
International Film Festival. A gala screening of Luchino Visconti’s film
The Leopard will take place on the 11th of March in Hall 1 of
the National Palace of Culture and Claudia Cardinale will be honoured
with the Sofia Municipality Award for a Lifetime Achievement in Cinema. 

Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale known as Claudia Cardinale, was
born on April 15th, 1938 in Tunisia. At the age of 17 she wins a beauty
pageant for the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia and travels to
Venice, in time for the film festival. This victory makes her smile, as
she remembers that she barely spoke Italian at that time. Her Sicilian
parents give her a French education and for a long time she considers
herself a French-Tunisian rather than Italian.

During her stay in
Venice the young Claudia draws the eyes of the Italian film industry.
At first she refuses to take part in films, as she wants to pursue a
career as a primary school teacher, but as things turn out she soon
finds herself knee-deep in the business. After spending two months in
the experimental film center in Rome, she signs a 7-year contract with
the Vides Company.

In 1958 she makes her feature film debut wit Goha,
a French-Tunisian co-production starring Omar Sharif. Her filmography
quickly grows, but she does not restrict herself to just a typical
good-looking actress. Il bell'Antonio (1960) directed by Mauro Bolognini and La ragazza con la valigia
(1961) directed by Valerio Zurlini reveal her talent. In the first film
she works together with Marcello Mastroianni and this proves to be the
beginning of wonderful acting partnership. 1960 also marks the release
of Rocco and his Brothers by Luchino Visconti, although Cardinale’s role is a small one, the director gives her an amazing opportunity in The Leopard (1963), where she works with Alain Delon and meets Burt Lancaster.

That same year Federico Fellini invites her to star in 8 ½.
The film highlights another one her qualities – her voice, which was
subsequently, considered very delicately alluring. The truth was that
Cardinale has always been dubbed as her Italian was never considered
good enough. Fellini relies on her French accent, strange and exotic for
some parts of the audience, but extremely feminine according to the
director himself.

Nevertheless, when she acts in French films
there is no need to dub her. She teams up with Jean-Paul Belmondo and
they share the fame of Cartouche in 1962 and once again in 1972 for La Scoumoune.
The peak in her Hollywood
‘period’ comes with the western genre in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, which, despite the presence of Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson and Jason Robards, remains an Italian production.

In
the 6o’s Cardinale works with directors such as Abel
Gance, Henri Verneuil, Philippe De Broca, Luigi Comencini, Henry
Hathaway and in the next decades they are joined in this list by Damiano
Damiani, Marco Belochio, Marco Fereri, Liliana Cavani, Jose Geovani, 
Jerzy Skolimowski and Mikhail Kalatozov.

In the 70’s the actress moves from one role to the next. In Les pétroleuses
C.C. meets B.B. and Brigitte Bardot does not hesitate to admit: “I
already know who is going to by my heiress. There is only one possible
choice. After B.B. comes C.C., right?!” In 1982 Cardinale takes part in
various international projects, the most memorable of which are Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinsky and Le ruffian, with Lino Ventura.

In
the next decade Cardinale devotes herself to writing and theatre and
receives plenty of honours: in Venice, Paris and Berlin. Her appearances
on screen become more infrequent. Outside the world of cinema however,
she is a very busy woman, who fights for women’s and homosexual people’s
rights and in 1999 is chosen as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

“I became a star when I was too young. I have no merit
in this, fate decided it...” confesses the wonderful Claudia Cardinale
in her autobiography ‘My Stars’ (published in Bulgarian in 2007 by
Kolibri publishing).

www.siff.bg, 17 February 2011