Of all of the actors with claims to nepo child aristocracy, few, if any, have the identical pedigree as Chiara Mastroianni. An completed performer and profitable star all on her personal, the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni has that uncommon distinction of seeing each of her mother and father grace Cannes Movie Competition posters, leaving a undertaking that playfully interrogates that very heritage a close to shoo-in for the competition highlight. However that vaunted competitors slot does little favors for Christophe Honoré’s slight and sketch-like “Marcello Mio,” which performs as an incisive photo-shoot idea seeking wider justification.
This style shoot idea isn’t hypothetical, as Honoré’s meta-movie doodle opens on the exact same, discovering Mastroianni decked out in full Anita Ekberg garb as she saunters right into a pool earlier than Paris’ Saint-Sulpice church reformatted as an ersatz Trevi Fountain. The visible folds in a number of layers, taking Marcello’s iconic flip in “La Dolce Vita,” then updating it for gender and geography. All through the remainder of its operating time, “Marcello Mio” does a lot of that and little extra, taking part in as a knowing-wink-for-those-in-know that presupposes a sure diploma of tabloid consciousness in an effort to endear by making any and all really feel a part of the prolonged clan.
In different phrases, you don’t have to know that Chiara Mastroianni counts Melvil Poupaud and Benjamin Biolay amongst her previous relationships, or that the actress has been a career-long muse for director Christophe Honoré, however God assist the viewer that goes in unaware. These with buy-in would possibly discover themselves gained over, as, by itself phrases, “Marcello Mio” provides a heartfelt and even sometimes shifting present of creative belief and collaboration, taking part in as an unambiguous love word from a filmmaker to his favourite star. These searching for something extra substantial may most likely do higher than this very Fellini-esque episode of “Name My Agent!”
Mastroianni performs herself (after all), or no less than a model thereof concocted for this movie. The identical goes for outdated flames Poupaud and Biolay, for mama Deneuve, and for French cinema’s most garrulous nudnik Fabrice Luchini, amongst others. Certainly, the primary character resembles her performer in each method however one: Whereas Mastroianni can depend on Honoré for such bespoke roles, poor Chiara nonetheless has to exit and audition. And so she does, studying with Luchini for a component in Nicole Garcia’s newest, adultery-flavored undertaking. Chiara does nicely within the learn, however the director (guess who performs her) needs one thing much less sultry and extra spry. Or in Garcia’s phrases: “Extra Mastroianni than Deneuve.”
Right here is that this burden carried by all second-generation stars, particularly those that bear so a lot of their mother and father’ options. As a working performer, Chiara isn’t simply weighed towards different actors of her cohort however towards the careers and iconographies of two cinema giants – one departed, residing on as a picture and fable, and one very a lot current, residing on in her daughter’s lounge, the place she provides sympathy devoid of understanding. La Deneuve, in any case, hasn’t precisely needed to audition since nicely earlier than Chiara was born.
Feeling indignant and invisible, Chiara binds her chest and dons a well-recognized drag. If the moviemakers need her father, then Marcello she will probably be. And if the lovelorn British soldier (performed by Hugh Skinner of “Fleabag”) that Chiara hopes to draw prefers the corporate of males, then here’s a new position for Marcello to play. Chiara bears an uncanny bodily resemblance to her father even exterior of drag, and he or she cuts a startling picture made-up and in costume, so maybe the disguise addresses a extra private want, widespread throughout all genders, professions and walks of life: The necessity to see a departed love one smile again at you as soon as extra.
If Honoré lays out doable threads of grief, denial, need, or revolt, he by no means pulls at any of them, preferring as a substitute to observe a story path of least resistance that finds Chiara dropping herself in make-believe, refusing to reply to something however “Marcello.” Family and friends reply with requisite concern, and if they’ll ever cease squabbling amongst themselves they may simply assist Chiara get her groove again. Solely, relatively than honoring the lead, this backfired valentine does Chiara a disservice by flattening her to one-dimension, framing her as an only-child of world cinema so rarified that her expertise can don’t have any thematic resonance or be relevant to anybody else.
Frankly, Honoré is so monomaniacally targeted on Chiara’s distinctive place that he whiffs on potentialities he himself tees up. Rarer nonetheless than a Cannes poster and seeing a guardian is trying on the poster and seeing your self, however the movie solely pays lip service to Catherine’s expertise of fame with a throwaway line. “Individuals are so good,” the mama marvels. “Individuals are so good to Catherine Deneuve,” Chiara replies.
All dressed up with nowhere to go, “Marcello Mio ” makes use of the lead as a prop for nostalgia and stand-in for this or that Fellini homage. When it runs out of Parisian landmarks to mine the narrative up and strikes to Rome, welcoming a brand new set of cameos when Chiara turns up as a Marcello imposter on a daytime speak present. One want hardly pressure to see the reference to Fellini’s “Ginger and Fred,” although one can moderately surprise what it’s all for. Honoré offers a half-tepid reply, imagining this break from identification as a part of a film star burnout, nothing too severe and nothing that may’t be resolved by a delegation of French Cinema All-Stars to the Rescue.
“Marcello Mio” performs simply sufficient, providing a fantasy getaway premised on accessibility in lieu of escape. It’s a hangout movie, an Easter egg hunt for a crowd that gained’t bend down too far. Honoré units an additional spot on the desk and invitations you to affix, pretending for a stretch that cinema is nothing however a household affair.
Grade: C
“Marcello Mio” premiered on the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition. It’s at the moment searching for U.S. distribution.