Alberto Moravia, 53, had just published his worldwide success "The Boredom," separated from his wife, and met the young Dacia Maraini. Claudia Cardinale, 23, had been a star since Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers." The interview commissioned by Esquire took place in May 1961 in Moravia's study. The aging writer sat typing at the typewriter and was so fascinated by the situation that the typewriter kept falling to the floor. Moravia opened the interview by stating that he was not interested in Claudia Cardinale's past, present, or future, nor in her opinions on politics, love, art, women, and men, but wanted to question her as an object in the room, as a physical presence through which she alone distinguished herself from all other people. The young, shy actress throws...