Producers quickly took notice of the radiant newcomer, but behind Claudia Cardinale’s poised image was a painful secret—she was pregnant after a violent assault by an older man. She declined most roles until producer Franco Cristaldi offered her fame and protection, In 2017,Cardinale spoke candidly about the sexual assault she had endured as a teenager. Rather than being broken by the experience, she chose to raise her child and pursue her career,even while being silenced by an industry that preferred its stars flawless and uncomplicated. “It was terrible,” she said,“but the most beautiful thing is that my wonderful Patrick was born from that violence.
Who is Claudia Cardinale?
Claudia Cardinale is a timeless icon of cinema. Recognized worldwide for her exceptional career, she has starred in many masterpieces of world cinema. Having worked for the greatest directors of her time, she has embodied dozens of characters and played roles that all correspond in a certain way to her multiple facets. If we have chosen her as the muse of THE CAPRICIOUS QUEEN, it is because she perfectly embodies the authenticity, simplicity and exceptional strength of self-affirmation that have allowed her to reach heights in the field she had chosen.
Her biography
Claudia Cardinale was born on April 15, 1938 in Tunis, Tunisia. Coming from a modest background, she is the eldest of four children (Blanche, Bruno and Adrien). Her mother tongue is Sicilian because her paternal and maternal grandparents are from Sicily. If Sicilian is the language that Claudia speaks at home, she quickly learns French during her schooling. Thus, although of Italian nationality, she only learns to speak Italian at the age of twenty when she begins to act in films.
A tomboy, often called “Claude” rather than Claudia, she was fascinated during her adolescence by the women’s liberation movement led by idols like Brigitte Bardot, four years her senior.
Her life changed when she became a mother at the age of 20, following a tragedy whose violence would haunt her for the rest of her life. She gave birth to her first child, Patrick, on October 19, 1958, in London. Her producer at the time, Franco Cristaldi, advised her to pass her son off as her little brother so as not to harm her reputation and career. It was only seven years later that she revealed this heavy secret to a journalist.
After a first marriage with Franco Cristaldi, her producer, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, the director Pasquale Squitieri became her companion. Pasquale was the great love of her life, with whom she would have a second child, her daughter Claudia.
A large part of her biography obviously concerns her passion for cinema, which she quickly made her profession by becoming an actress. Her dazzling career began at the intersection of modeling and cinema. Indeed, she entered the world of cinema for the first time in 1955. She was then 17 years old and went to Venice, during the Biennale, on the occasion of a trip offered as a reward for her first prize in the election of a beauty contest organized by the Italian film office, where she won the prize for “the most beautiful Italian in Tunis”. However, she initially refused all the role offers made to her, making only one appearance in the short film by René Vautier, Gold rings (1956).
