“I was helping my mother and people from the Italian government organize an Italian film festival in Tunisia. I was looking at the girls on the stage and I wasn’t supposed to be there. Someone pushed me out on the stage and I was named the Most Beautiful Girl in Tunisia,” she said.
The prize was a trip to the Venice film festival, a foretelling adventure for the young woman, who received many offers from producers.
Initially turning down the offers, Cardinale explained in an interview, “It’s like a man. When he’s going after you, if you say yes immediately, after a little time he goes away. If you say no, he desires you for a long time.”
The reason she rejected most offers, was because she was pregnant.
But there was one producer whom she couldn’t refuse. Franco Cristaldi, a prominent Italian producer, credited with feature films from the 1950s to the 1990s, captured the interest of the young Cardinale and signed her under an 18-year contract.
