“I gave him inspiration”: how Claudia Cardinale became Federico Fellini’s “muse”
Born in Tunisia in the late 1930s, Italian cinema icon Claudia Cardinale started her journey by winning a competition called ‘The Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia’, which earned her a trip to her parents’ homeland.
Upon landing in Italy, she was noticed by prominent producer Franco Cristaldi, who had connections with almost every major director in the country. Her first screen credit came as part of Goha, a French-Tunisian production starring the great Omar Sharif. Roles in various international features followed, including several of the best works by Luchino Visconti. However, there was one director with whom she will forever be associated: Federico Fellini.
She played Claudia, the centrepiece of the director’s 1963 magnum opus 8 ½. In this highly self-referential outing, the leading lady stars as, well, a leading lady, with Claudia (the character) serving as the muse for a creatively stifled director named Guido, played by her rumoured real-life lover Marcello Mastroianni. At first, Guido thinks Claudia is the answer to all his problems, but it quickly becomes clear that his issues run far deeper than the cast list.
It turns out that Cardinale’s character in the film and her real-life persona were actually even closer than the film made out. “Fellini told me I was his muse, that I gave him inspiration,” she told The Guardian in 2011, “What I say in the movie, it’s all improvisation. And it was Federico who was talking to me in those scenes. Marcello was sitting next to him, repeating what he said.”
It wasn’t as if Fellini was suffering a creative drought at this time. His previous movie had been La Dolce Vita, a scandalous taboo comedy that had Italians flocking to cinemas in order to catch a glimpse before it was taken away from them. Unlike Guido, who was struggling with the creative process, Fellini was at the peak of his powers. It’s possible that he was worried that he would be unable to follow up his previous success, and that Cardinale, a rising star with tonnes of appeal, inspired him because he knew she would deliver him another hit.
Considering the affection he had for her, it’s strange that 8 ½ was the only time Fellini worked with his so-called ‘muse’. Cardinale had become an international star off the back of this performance, so it’s entirely possible that their schedules simply didn’t match up. The actor also spoke about how a Fellini set was ruled by chaos and improvisation. This was in stark contrast to Visconti, who lived for law and order. Perhaps the starlet simply couldn’t handle his unorthodox way of working.
Despite their all-too-brief collaboration, Cardinale held Fellini in incredibly high regard for the rest of her life. “I only did one film with Fellini but he made me feel the centre of the Earth, the most beautiful, the most important,” she told Italy magazine in 2012, “I truly miss him, his sweetness, tenderness, his thin voice even.”
