Claudia Cardinale | Iowa life

Claudia Cardinale answers the question: Are French or Italian women the most beautiful? Yes. She’s both. Italian father, French mother. I put her IMDB bio at the end of her pictures. As noted by one of the more famous cinematographers to have filmed her, “There is not much you can do wrong in photographing her.” Understatement of the year. I find her fascinating for a couple of reasons. From what I can tell, she never made a “Hollywood” movie. I couldn’t have told you what she looked like until recently when TCM showed the 1963 classic 8 1/2. Looking through her credits the only other thing I might have seen her in was Pink Panther or Once Upon A Time In the West. She made both Pink Panther and 8 1/2 in 1963 (released that year, probably made in 1962) when she was 25. Why on God’s green earth hadn’t Hollywood moved heaven and earth to get her here in 1956 when she was 18? At 2 films a year she could have made 12 films by the time she was 25. I have to assume Hollywood is run by the dumbest people on earth. The other thing I’d like to know/not know: Is she as screwed up as a lot of beautiful women? My guess is no. Europeans on average don’t seem to be as screwed up about sex as Americans.

My favorite. Not so heavily made-up, not the ‘bod’ shot. Just “CC”

Normally I despise celebrity “event” photos, but this works

A horrible shot in most respects, I like the background

Yeah…

She was born in 1938 thank God, when photographers still knew what they were doing

I mean look at that

Looks like an honest expression

The glamour goddess

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale’s entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy interpretations of Sicilian women got her noticed by Italian producers, and the combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. After Careless (1962) she rose to the front ranks of Italian cinema, and became an international star in Federico Fellini‘s classic 8½ (1963) with Marcello Mastroianni. American audiences may best remember her from her starring role in Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

At the Italian Embassy in Tunis, she was voted the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia. Her prize was a trip to Venice during the Venice Film Festival. After the festival she was offered movie roles, but refused them and returned to Tunis. However, six months later, a producer sold her on a career in movies, and she went to Rome with her parents, two brothers and a sister, taking a home in Castel Giubileo, a small town outside the city (1957). – IMDB

[There are 3.2 million other great photos of her, feel free to look them up. Flawless.]

I had the perfect 10 photos, then I saw this one. A completely unscientific observation is that she is photographed mostly from her left side or head on. Which is strange as her right side is every bit as wonderful as her left. And to be fair, from what little I’ve seen, Italy churns out women like this without even trying.

GARA (general aviation revitalization act) had the effect of keeping foreign competition out of the small aircraft business, thus assuring prices in America would remain jacked up for all eternity. Private ownership plummeted. Hollywood’s monopoly control of the movie industry in America assures them the same thing. Let’s see, does competition make things stronger or weaker?

America may be good at basketball and baseball, but they are horrible at automobile design and movies. Foreign competition killed our automotive industry. If the movie industry suffered a similar fate it would be more than timely. Long overdue as a matter of fact. TCM this morning happened to be playing this classic from nearly 60 years ago, 8 1/2. Federico Fellini’s masterpiece along with La Dolce Vita.

The IMDB page on it revealed a couple of interesting stats on it. 107,758 people gave it an aggregate score of 8.0 out of 10. Yeah? Okay, can’t argue with the wisdom of the crowd. The one I actually let out a laugh on was the worldwide gross: $188,000. The crap factory known as Hollywood regularly churns out pictures that pull in $100 million dollars plus!

The reviews on the film (at the IMDB page) are absolutely wonderful! What a gamut! One I really liked was from a Howard Schumann. He explains the psychological aspects of the film I wouldn’t have figured out in a million years. I fall in love with the visual aspects of film. I look at cinema for its eye appeal. In the scene at the moment a circus troupe is playing a bizarre tune while marching on the beach at dusk! I love it!

And I think that is where half the reviewers missed it. “Boring”, “Self-indulgent!”, “A waste of time”, “An artist with nothing to say”. All true, if you are unable to see film for what it is. Its not a book. Its not a machine. Its not an oil painting. It can’t be everything for everyone. Its a motion picture. Its a collection of words and images for that specific 2 hours of history. My point is that Italian, French, Indian, Japanese and other directors have done it much, much better than Hollywood. They keep out foreign competition for a reason. Survival.