by Candida Morvillo
The interview with Claudia Squitieri in the weekly newspaper “F” at the kiosk: “Patrick, son of her rape in Tunisia, was the pivot of her career as an actress”
Claudia Cardinale has made two hundred films, many of which are unforgettable, so much so that the MoMA in New York is dedicating a retrospective to her from February 3rd to 21st, presenting 15 of her films that have just been restored by Cinecittà. Among them: “Rocco and his brothers” and “The Leopard” by Luchino Visconti, “Il bell’Antonio” and “La viaccia” by Mauro Bolognini, “8 and a half” by Federico Fellini, “The girl from the boy” by Luigi Comencini, which will be screened in Rome on January 19 in the presence of the actress. L’Indomabile – The Indomitable, a book full of photos and illustrious articles, edited by her daughter Claudia Squitieri, 43, who has a career in art and cinema, is also coming out these days , says Candida Morvillo about his mother. Here’s a preview.
Why did you choose the title “The Indomitable” for your mother?
It represented career and life well. I found it interesting to talk about a woman who, at least initially when she was signed to Cristaldi Film, was also the opposite of irrepressible.
He had a strange contract called the SuperCardinal: it contained all the things he wanted to do in 45 points.
What to eat, what to wear, what to read, how to talk and move, what manners to have, how to have a conversation, how much exercise and how to learn languages. This is how it was done in court with the courtesans. But you have to put yourself in the shoes of a woman from the late 1950s: mother came from a humble background, she grew up in Tunisia, she still spoke poor Italian, I understand that she thought it lucky that Franco Cristaldi chose her , she had protected . But he joined this project because it was right at that moment. Cristaldi herself writes in a note entitled “Personality”: “Willing to make sacrifices without complaining because she chose them … She divides her life into two parts: as long as she is an actress (others have the right to intervene ) ; then he will stop (and then he will do what he wants)». And Luchino Visconti said of her: «Today she is a bit like a magnificent cat who is scratching the cushions in the living room at the moment, but I have the precise impression that we will recognize that she is a tiger with one paw, will risk killing the trainer”.
And in fact, when he meets his father Pasquale Squitieri and leaves Cristaldi, whom he married in America, his inflexibility explodes.
I grew up knowing that she broke everything for my father. And she’d broken quite a lot: she was the diva of four or five films a year, she worked with the Americans, she lived in a villa.
His father, from a banker, had just become a director and he too had everything to lose.
Mom never had mixed feelings and sentences, she hadn’t even given in to Marcello Mastroianni, not even to Marlon Brando. Despite this, they had a small affair in Naples on the set of Guappi. Then dad said to her: “You have a man, this is where it ends.” And he went to America where he had connections to do films. Mom joined him without warning. He only had a friend’s phone number, he dialed it when he landed at JFK airport. So dad understood that for love she was ready to give up everything. Dino De Laurentiis was with him and tried to dissuade him, saying, “Nobody’s going to make you work anymore.”
As Cristaldi expected, the time had come for her mother to “do whatever she wants.”
The last thing my father said to me before he died was, “We’re from the South.” It was a very powerful moment, made up of whispers, shortness of breath and explanations that couldn’t be asked for. But if you think about it, the “we’re from the south” was referring to the amount of untameability they both had.
After Cristaldi left, cinema wasn’t generous with his mother.
They made scorched earth around them. Then the free spirit Franco Zeffirelli managed to remember it in Jesus of Nazareth. And there was an increase (…).
How much did Patrick’s story weigh in the family born of a rape in Tunisia, who initially passed off his mother as a brother so as not to damage his career?
It’s not a subject that comes up easily, but I think it was the linchpin of Mom’s career. Perhaps she would never have become an actress if she did not have material needs to fulfill.
She said her mother always turned down suitors. Which ones did you hear directly from her?
Su Brando tells a brilliant story. He was a monument then and still a handsome boy. He called her into his room. But she didn’t like those who were cocky. He said to her: “Go.” She went to the door and left.
Others he told you about?
Alain Delon bet he could sleep with her, but he lost. One person she liked but didn’t have an affair with was Jean-Paul Belmondo. Though I found out about Warren Beatty through Silvia D’Amico Bendicò’s book contribution: They’ve all been in New York for a few weeks and he’s followed her everywhere. One day he accompanies her to buy a jacket for Cristaldi and is her model. But he was tall and Cristaldi too short. Mom, in order not to belittle her husband in the eyes of the suitor, bought the jacket of enormous size. It’s a story I found very tender.
Which mother was Claudia Cardinale?
Very present but never anxious or worried. She made sure I was independent: when I was 14, I lived alone on the floor above her; When I was 16 I went to London. Then, now that I was moving, I read the journals she was writing at the time and discovered that there were times when she worried about me. Only today did I understand that he would rather put his trust in me than his concern.
January 11, 2023 (change January 11, 2023 | 09:04)
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