Claudia Cardinale: Filming with Whitebait in Málaga and the Contract That Prevented Her from Marrying

Last week we said goodbye to Robert Redford, and now headlines are bidding farewell to another film legend, Claudia Cardinale. ... There wasn't an actor from the golden age who didn't pass through Málaga in the 60s, and the Italian actress of Tunisian origin was no exception. A year before Redford retreated from the hustle and bustle of Sunset Boulevard to a villa in Mijas, the star of 'Once Upon a Time in the West' caused a stir at the doors of the Hotel Pez Espada in Torremolinos similar to what happens at the Málaga Palacio during each film festival. But without a red carpet at her feet. She didn't need one, her films with Alain Delon and her recent Hollywood debut with Burt Lancaster preceded her, and reporters jostled for a smile and a portrait at the doors of the no less legendary hotel.

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I learned about this illustrious visit from my father, Eugenio Griñán, one of those Málaga photographers who shot the star. He made his way to the 'kitchen' of Pez Espada, called out "Claudia," and she turned just as she was picking up the key to her suite. There's the photo in glorious black and white, though by then cinema was already shining in Technicolor. In the background of the snapshot, the receptionist, in pristine uniform, couldn't take his eyes off the face of the seductive Cardinale, wearing a headband and very dark round sunglasses with black frames, which she didn't remove even for a moment. The glamour was all hers.

The actress arrived alongside George Segal, who also had a reservation with Anthony Quinn and Maurice Ronet. To complete the cast, only Alain Delon was missing, Claudia Cardinale's unforgettable partner in 'Rocco and His Brothers' and 'The Leopard', who swapped the hotel for the anonymity of a chalet in Rancho Domingo in Benalmádena. All of them made up the cast of 'Lost Command', a war movie by Mark Robson set during the French occupation of Algeria. The Italian actress, at the peak of her career, played a brave woman, an infiltrated Algerian spy who ends up falling in love with the soldier played by Delon. And vice versa.

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Málaga played the role of Algeria, shared with Almería. With memorable scenes in the Salamanca Market, where Claudia and Alain have a coffee interrupted by an independence demonstration, and on the beach of Bil-Bil Castle in Benalmádena, where they star in a shore-side idyll in the style of 'From Here to Eternity'. The American director of 'Lost Command' wanted to capture the undeniable erotic chemistry of the 'The Leopard' pair, although, when "cut" was called, each went their own way. Delon was nowhere to be seen. Unlike Cardinale, who was photographed in restaurants and flamenco clubs on the Costa del Sol.

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In one of them, the Taberna Gitana in Málaga, a journalist from 'Ideal' approached her for an impromptu interview. The reporter was doubly surprised. She responded in perfect Spanish and agreed to the vis-à-vis with one condition: "Ask, but no personal questions." Cardinale, who had already filmed with John Wayne in Madrid in 'Circus World', confessed that she had "a lot of fun" in the flamenco clubs and that she had enjoyed the performance of the singer Antonio 'El Chaqueta' and his group of dancers, with whom she took a photo on stage at the end of the show—where might that snapshot be? She also mentioned that by then, she had lost count of the movies she had made because she had surpassed twenty; that she worked 14 hours a day because "besides filming, I consider working out, makeup, studying, and reviewing the script as part of the job," and that although she watched her diet, she couldn't resist the "exquisite" chanquetes. As a good journalist, the interviewer ended up breaking the dams of privacy and ended up asking the forbidden question. And she, far from being upset, answered to make it clear that she was the master of her own destiny:

-Is it true that you cannot marry due to a clause in your contract with the production company?

-Such an impediment is untrue. There is no such clause. I will be able to marry, when the time comes, the man my heart chooses.

-What should your ideal man be like?

-I don't know yet. Certainly, he must be a simple, affectionate man... and his masculine beauty and age are indifferent to me.

-Do you believe in love?

-Sincerely, yes.

Looking back, the conversation has more depth than it seems. We now know that the actress had a tough life and career. At 17, she was a victim of a rape, an assault from which her eldest son, Patrick, was born. A trauma she kept secret for decades, and even her own son grew up believing Claudia was his older sister. A drama that undoubtedly marked this independent woman and actress who always preferred the freedom and fierceness of the female roles with Federico Fellini ('8½') and Visconti ('Rocco and His Brothers') over the popularity and enslavement of Hollywood.

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She discussed this in her next visit to Málaga, 45 years after the filming of 'Lost Command', when she opened the brief International Gay Film Festival Costa del Sol in 2010 with her latest movie, 'Le fil', a committed film about homosexuality in the Arab world. Used to being a symbol, Cardinale proudly added her claim as an icon of the gay community, while shaking off the "nostalgia" that any past time was better. Although without giving it up, confessing herself a "fanatic" of her time filming in Málaga and Almería. And she talked about contracts again to make it clear that she married no one but herself. "I made many movies in America, but they offered me a very important contract there and I rejected it because I feel deeply European." And in the old world, near Paris, this star who preferred to be Claudia rather than a diva has passed away.