ANDhe water reminds me of Tunisia, of my childhood» says the film legend while looking at the Seine through the huge window of the balcony of his house.
Claudia Cardinale turns and lights a long cigarette. “Do you mind if I smoke? Blame it on Visconti. When we shot Sandra, he wanted me to smoke, he had never done it before. Since then I will not stop”.
Claudia was born in Tunisia 84 years ago. “I chose Paris because artists are highly respected here. My heart is African, I have Italian nationality, but French is my mother tongue.” In the living room, the memories decorate the wide spaces: the prizes coexist with photographs of her children. There are photos with Mastroianni -both very young and beautiful-, with Alain Delon, with the designer Giorgio Armani, of whom he has been his muse… On one of the tables, some Tunisian handicrafts arranged together with small and exquisite Russian religious icons, make up a sort of sentimental altar. “I am religious, Christian, but I prefer to go to church when there is no one.” She speaks smiling, sometimes her laugh turns into laughter, and her voice is deep, dense and welcoming, full of eroticism and tobacco.
My Beginnings, The Accidental Beauty
It was an amazing start, but it was an accident. I was 14 years old and I was at the Italian Embassy in Tunisia helping my mother to prepare the contest for the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia. All the girls were on stage. When, suddenly, a man took me by the arm, brought me up on stage and put the band on me. I won the contest, but I hadn’t even applied. The prize was a trip to the Venice Film Festival. And we went. At that time you didn’t usually wear a bikini, but Tunisia was a French protectorate and I was used to it, so I wore it: the bikini and the Arab djellaba. All the paparazzi started taking photos. I went with my mother and everything seemed incredible to me. She was asking me what’s going on. From that moment on, several producers wanted me to make films, but I told them all no. When we left, a newspaper wrote about me: The girl who doesn’t want to make movies. Then they started calling my father, sending him telegrams to Tunis to convince me. I’ve been saying not for a long time. Until I said yes.
«I am religious, Christian, but I prefer to go to church when there is no one. And I believe in the ‘Maktub’, destiny: if you did it, it’s because you had to. I do not regret anything”
I was a terrible girl. When I was very young, I lived in Tunisia and yes, it was terrible, I was always fighting with the boys, I was yelling, I wouldn’t let anyone speak… I think that’s why I have this voice… One day a French film director, Jacques Baratier showed up at school and asked me if I wanted to do movies. I didn’t pay any attention to him. The school principal told them not to try it because I was impossible. But they insisted, they talked to my family and finally I made my first film, Goha, with Omar Sharif, and a documentary that won the Berlin Film Festival. But seriously, I didn’t want to make movies because I thought I was ugly. I couldn’t understand everything that was going on. I had a sister who was a dream for the movies: blonde, blue-eyed, beautiful. I didn’t understand why they wanted me instead of her. Then, over time, I understood it better. With cinema, it happened to me what happens with men: the more you reject them, the more they insist. If you tell them yes from the beginning, then they leave.
The true lover… and the fake ones
The cinema has been like a lover, but I have never had lovers who were actors. I have worked with wonderful men, but as much as they insisted, I never had an affair with any of them. With Marcelo Mastroianni it was a lot of fun. He was very insistent. We started working together with Mario Monicelli on Rufufu, we also did the beautiful Anthony, Eight and a half… The thing is that in that first film, Marcelo insisted a lot and I didn’t pay any attention to him. Until one day the director came up to me during a break and said: “Please, Claudia, smile at her.”
A few years ago, Marcelo had an interview on television here in Paris. His representative called me because they wanted to surprise him at the end of the interview. I went. When I showed up, he kept telling me, “You didn’t believe me, but I really loved you.” I told him: «Marcelo, we are live», «I don’t care!», He shouted. How dare he say that to me live! At that time he was married to Catherine Deneuve.
directors of my life
Me, first I read the script, then I meet with the director. If I don’t like it, I don’t make the movie. The manager is the head waiter of the shooting. I have worked with some of the best: Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone or Federico Fellini… Fellini and Visconti had nothing in common. Any. They were totally opposite. With Visconti it was like doing theater; everything was decided in advance. With Federico, there was no script, everything was improvisation. Marcelo would sit where he was supposed to be and talk to me. I answered him and that was what was left. Meanwhile, do you know what the other actors were doing? They counted. One, two, three… «You smile; you go to the wall; you bend down”, Fellini told them. And then he put the text that he wanted. Federico was a magician.
«I have never wanted to have surgery to look younger. My secret is another. My mother taught me: “Claudia, the way they don’t know you’re getting old is to always be smiling”»
My last discovery: Trueba. Working with him has been a fabulous experience. The film is like a painting, beautiful. Is it true that Trueba was a painter before? For the first time, there is no music, only at the end. He has created a unique atmosphere. We shot it in the French and Spanish Pyrenees, in some very beautiful places. Aida [Folch] she is splendid She spends almost the entire shoot naked. I have never been naked in a movie. But she does it very well. I have met Jean Rochefort again fifty years after shooting with him. It has been a great joy.
The peculiarity of the artist’s work is that you can live hundreds of totally different lives: I’ve been a princess, a whore, a villager… that’s fantastic. But, to do this job, you need to be very strong inside; if not, you lose your identity. You have to be others just in front of the camera. Then you must continue to be you. This job is very dangerous.
I know the men and I have had many friends, although now I live alone. I have never married, perhaps because I have already signed enough contracts. My friends are mostly men. Alain Delon has been a great friend. The terrible thing is time. Two years ago I met Alain at the Cannes Film Festival to present Scorsese’s restoration of the leopard. During the projection, he would hold my hand all the time, squeeze it and tell me: «Claudia, we are the only ones alive, they are all dead». And she was crying. It’s terrible, because when you watch a movie you remember the shooting, the people… Later, she told me: “I didn’t remember that we had been kissing the whole time.” Scorsese had staged scenes that we had never seen before.
love and sex
Love is very important. I am one of those who believe that you cannot have sex without love. But for me, family is the most important thing. We are four brothers: a sister lives in Polynesia, one lives in Rome and the other in Turin, but we keep calling each other. With Pasquale Squitieri, the father of my daughter and with whom I lived for many years, I also talk a lot.
and the passage of time
You can’t stop time, it’s ridiculous to try. I have never wanted cosmetic surgery. People look just as old, but with swollen mouths or crooked faces. My secret is different, my mother taught me, she told me: «Claudia, they will never know that you grow old if you are always smiling».
My young fans. I’ve already said I didn’t think I was pretty. I’ve gotten a lot of fan letters, mostly from Germany and Los Angeles. The funny thing is that I still have very young fans who send me fiery love letters, because they just saw a movie of mine from 40 years ago, and they don’t understand that I’m not like that anymore. Once in Rome, a taxi approached me with a young man inside. The taxi driver told me that this young man had flown from Los Angeles to meet me and that if I was living alone, he would like to live with me.
The most beautiful woman for me was always Brigitte Bardot. We made a movie together. We were BB against CC, the blonde against the brunette. Do you know what we did at the premiere on the Champs Elysées? We did something terrible. She called me the day before and she told me: «Claudia, you have to go very sexy, with a miniskirt, to the premiere». The next day, she showed up dressed as a man; both smoking. The photographers were shocked.
my life balance
I came to the cinema in the sixties, when it was something great. I have shot more than 130 films. I have been everywhere, America, Europe, Australia, and I have seen thousands of beautiful places. As a child I wanted to be an explorer and, in a way, I have been. I don’t regret anything I’ve done. There is a word in Arabic, maktub, destiny’; if you did it, it’s because you had to. I have been lucky.
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