Cardinale Rules: Deep Dive into Claudia Cardinale Films

Let’s explore a few of the films of the great Claudia Cardinale, one of the major stars of Italian’s golden age of film. She appeared in the works of directing giants including Visconti, Bertolucci, and Fellini, who cast her as his ideal woman in 8 ½. She had a reputation as being easy to work with and up for anything. We saw her in Visconti’s The Leopard as part of our Summer of Burt Lancaster and in Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo as a companion to reading Conquest of the Useless. We want to see more!

This selection focuses on the breadth of the first decade of her career.

Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958, Mario Monicelli): Although her role is a small one, this crime comedy put Cardinale on the map. Monicelli was a master of commedia all’Italiana, and this story of a botched burglary planned by Cardinale’s brothers was a huge international hit.

• Stream on Criterion
• Also available on DVD via JeffCo Public Library and through Prospector Interlibrary loans

Il bell’Antonio (1960, Mauro Bolognini) In this Golden Lion-winning film, Bolognini explores masculinity and power. Cardinale plays opposite Mastroianni as a Sicilian man who loves his wife but can’t consummate the marriage. Mastroianni claims to have actually fallen in love with Cardinale during this film, while Cardinale went on to partner with Bolognini in six more films, saying they were the ones she most enjoyed making in her long career.

• Stream on Kanopy or Criterion

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, Sergio Leone) This is a classic for a reason! It opens with one of the longest, slowest shots I’ve ever seen in a Western and builds the tension from there. Cardinale plays Jill McBain, a former prostitute who had just arrived in Flagstone to live with her new husband- only she discovers that he and his children have been murdered. The widow wants answers.

• Stream on Kanopy

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