Italian actress Claudia Cardinale (1938-2025) passed away last week. You might think you don’t know her, but you do — she’s the dark-haired lead from The Leopard! She grew up in Tunisia, made the leap to Italy to become an actress, starred in some big-budget Hollywood films, and then went back to Italian cinema. She acted in a surprising number of frock flicks, so let’s take a moment to honor her passing.
There’s a few films for which I can’t find images of Cardinale:
- Donna Assunta in Li chiamarono… briganti! (1999)
- Duchessa in Nobili bugie (2017)
- zia Rosa in Rudy Valentino (2017)
Otherwise, here’s her very long oeuvre!
Pauline Bonaparte in The Battle of Austerlitz (1960)
A film focused on Napoleon’s 1805 victory against the Russian and Austrian armies. Pauline was Napoleon’s sister; he appointed her sovereign Duchess of Guastalla, and princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano.
Bianca in La Viaccia (1961)
Aka The Lovemakers. In 1880s Italy, following a family inheritance struggle, a man moves to “the city” where he becomes enmeshed with a prostitute.
Angiolina Zarri in Careless (1962)
Set in the 1920s, a man falls in love with a fickle, beautiful young woman.
Vénus in Cartouche (1962)
Rival gangs in the 18th century; one of them hooks up with Cardinale’s character, a Romani woman.
Angelica Sedara/Bastiana in The Leopard (1963)
I can’t summarize, go read Trystan’s post! An Italian prince, the unification of Italy, surprisingly accurate costumes for the period.
Toni Alfredo in Circus World (1964)
A film about a turn-of-the-century circus going on tour, lead by a Buffalo Bill type performer (played by John Wayne).
Maria in The Professionals (1966)
“An arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit” (IMDB). Set at the end of the Mexican Revolution, so 1920s?
Jill McBain in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Another Western: “A mysterious stranger with a harmonica teams up with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow and her land from a ruthless assassin in the employ of a railroad tycoon” (IMDB).
Giuditta Di Castro in Nell’anno del Signore (1969)
Aka The Conspirators. Set during an 1825 rebellion in Rome (the plot is very “TL;DR”).
Valeria in The Red Tent (1969)
“Torn by personal guilt, Italian General Umberto Nobile reminisces about his failed 1928 Arctic expedition aboard the airship Italia” (IMDB).
Teresa, Countess of Morales in The Adventures of Gerard (1970)
“A French brigadier serving during the Napoleonic Wars … thinks he’s the best soldier and lover that ever lived and intends to prove it” (IMDB).
Marie Sarrazin in The Legend of Frenchie King (1971)
In 1888 Texas, Outlaw sisters inherit a ranch.
Georgia Saratov in Scoumoune (1972)
Set in 1930s Marseille, rival gangs rival.
Anya in One Russian Summer (1973)
“Set in Russia during the 1700s … chronicles the battle between a vengeful, anarchic peasant and the tyrannical landowner who killed his mother and father” (IMDB).
Lucia Esposito in I guappi (1974)
Aka Blood Brothers. A man discovers some of his relations are high-ranking mafiosos.
Libera Valente in Libera, My Love (1975)
A couple resists fascism in 1930s Italy.
The Adulteress in Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
A TV miniseries biopic of the Biblical prophet.
Anna Torrini in Il prefetto di ferro (1977)
Aka I Am the Law. A biopic about a real-life Italian fascist.
Eleana in Escape to Athena (1979)
“A World War II adventure involving a group of Allied P.O.W.s, Nazis, black market priceless art treasures, Greek resistance, a Greek monastery, and a secret German rocket base” (IMDB).
Principessa Consuelo Caracciolo in The Skin (1981)
Focused on Italian women trying to navigate the Allied liberation of Naples (1943).
Molly in Fitzcarraldo (1982)
A man is determined to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle. Set in the early 20th c.
Matilda in Henry IV (1984)
An Italian adaptation of an early-20th-century play, about a 12th-century man who believes himself to the Holy Roman Emperor.
Ida Mancuso in History (1986)
A half-Jewish woman lives during and after World War II.
La Duchesse de Polignac in The French Revolution (1989)
A chronicle of the French Revolution from 1789-94. Polignac was one of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s closest friends.
Roxelane in La batalla de los Tres Reyes (1990)
Aka The Battle of the Three Kings. A Soviet-Italian-Spanish-Moroccan film about the real-life Sultan of Morocco Abd el Malek I, who fights the Spanish inquisition, participates in the Battle of Lepanto (1571), and helps conquer Tunis.
Araxi (Mayrig) in Mother (1991)
The story of an Armenian family who, at the end of the Ottoman Empire, move to France.
Teresa Viola in Nostromo (1996)
An adaptation of a Joseph Conrad story about “political upheaval, greed and romance in turn-of-the-20th-century South America” (Wikipedia).
Constance of Aragon in Stupor mundi (1997)
A film about Frederick II, King of Sicily, Germany, Italy, and Jerusalem, as well as Holy Roman Emperor, in the 13th century. Constance was a Spanish princess who married Frederick.
Doroteia in Gebo and the Shadow (2012)
“Set in the late 19th century, about a honored but poor patriarch who sacrifices himself to protect his fugitive son” (IMDB).
Léa in The Artist and the Model (2012)
“In 1943, a sculptor is inspired by a young woman who has escaped from a refugee camp” (IMDB).
Nuria Calzolari in The Silent Mountain (2014)
“A young Austrian soldier in World War I fights his way through the Alps to rescue his first love and escape the impending explosion that will rock the mountain” (IMDB).
Viscountess in Effie Gray (2014)
The 1840s marriage of Effie Gray to art critic and Pre-Raphaelite John Ruskin.
Which is your favorite of Claudia Cardinale’s historical performances?
She was an absolute gem on screen! Love her work.
As far as The Adventures of Gerard (1970)… I’ve seen it. I would advise against it – or at least put it at the very, very bottom of your watch list haha. There’s next to nothing to recommend it; not even Ms. Cardinale being her lovely self. The humor’s not funny, the action is listless and unexciting, the intrigue eye-rolling, and on top of that it’s a general eyesore. They went out of their way to pick the ugliest dyes they could find to make the whole film feel like a cheap made-for-TV Western.
You might, however, enjoy the original short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – yes, he did quite a lot of things that were not Sherlock Holmes and was forever cross about the fact too few paid proper attention to them.
THE ADVENTURES OF BRIGADIER GERARD are quite, quite amusing in a THREE MUSKETEERS (1970s) sort of way.
…
Also, I’m not the only one who saw that Claudia Cardinale/Oliver Reed picture and immediately thought about reaching for a bucket of cold water, am I?
I mean seriously, whether it was mutual or Oliver Reed really needs somebody to tell him “BE NICE, she’s a lady” there is some serious sizzle in that picture.
I suppose that “Once upon a time in the West” maybe was here most epic role in maybe the most epic Western. The movie is just stunning and Claudia Cardinale’s journey from a prostitute from New Orleans to the heroine of the story is just one of the most interesting topics of Leone’s excellent movie with Morricone’s greatest score ever. The costumes were all over the place and Leone tried later in “My name is Nobody” to finally be more historical (set in 1899). We can argue that her performance in “The Leopard” was excellent too – but Leone’s movie is too stunning…