Christophe Honoré's tender comedy is a fantasy about Chiara Mastroianni, actress and daughter of legendary actors. The film premiered in the main competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Chiara Mastroianni plays herself starring in a movie strangely reminiscent of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita: the Trevi Fountain, Anita Ekberg’s dress and hairstyle, loud instructions from a jovial female director backstage. Over half a century ago, the role in this movie made Chiara’s father, Marcello Mastroianni, famous, and his daughter has to live in the shadow of his greatness. During rehearsals, her acting is directly compared to Mastroianni’s manner, and Chiara decides to deal with her father’s legacy as an actress: she puts on Marcello’s costume and impersonates him.
Marcello Mio is far from an accurate study of psychological motivations and biographies, even though the story is based on the images and lives of real people. Honoré’s liberal mixing of the real and the fictional was possible thanks to years of collaborations and friendship with Chiara Mastroianni. This film is their seventh joint project and features people close to Chiara in real life, including her mother, Catherine Deneuve, and her friends Melville Poupaud, Benjamin Biolay, and Fabrice Luchini. All of them play themselves, although their relationships onscreen are nothing but the director’s fantasy. However, the touching friendship that permeates the movie is genuine.
The film will screened in French, Italian, and English with Russian subtitles.
Marcello Mio
Director: Christophe Honoré
France, Italy, 2024. 120 min. 18+