At Cafebabel.com, there's a curious chat with screen legend Claudia Cardinale and French newcomer Alexandre Styker. Here's a brief quote from the piece:
"'I would have liked to have worked with Visconti too,' the young man [Styker] continues to discuss his unrealised dreams. ‘Of course,’ Claudia replies, ‘the man was a genius! I made four films with him, he took me all over the world and showered me with gifts.’ So he was a real character, the legendary Italian director? ‘He used to say that I was a kitten that could be stroked, but a kitten with claws. Visconti was a man of the theatre, you couldn’t move a muscle if he didn’t want you too, your eyes had to say what eyes cannot say. At the same time I was filming Eight and a Half (1963) with Federico Fellini and it was completely the opposite – there was no script, it was complete improvisation.’ Alexandre agrees: ‘It’s true, in the end result you can see the rigour of Visconti’s films and the complete chaos in Fellini’s!’"
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For the record, the four Cardinale-Visconti collaborations were those in Rocco and His Brothers (1960), The Leopard (1963, top photo, with Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon), Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa… (1965), and Conversation Piece (1974).
Cardinale, who will turn 71 next April 15, has appeared in more than 100 films and television productions in the last half century.
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Claudia should have given more details about Visconti.