Christophe Honoré On Enlisting Chiara Mastroianni & Catherine Deneuve For ‘Marcello Mio’ Hybrid Roles & Shelved Henry James ‘The Ambassadors’ Project
21.05.2024 - 08:57
/ deadline.com
French director Christophe Honoré returns to Cannes Competition for a third time on Tuesday with comedy Mio Marcello, reuniting him with long time collaborator Chiara Mastroianni.
The comedy taps into the actress’ real-life complex reality of being the daughter of cinema icons Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.
In a fantasy scenario, Mastroianni hits a crisis point in her life and decides to adopt the look and persona of her late father, much to the surprise of her family and friends, as well as those who knew the legendary actor when he was alive.
Mastroianni is joined in the cast by her mother Deneuve, former partners Benjamin Biolay and Mevil Poupaud as well as Fabrice Luchini, Nicole Garcia, UK actor Hugh Skinner and Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli, who famously starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 classic Divorce Italian Style.
Deadline talked to Honoré ahead of the world premiere.
DEADLINE: What was the starting point for this film?
HONORÉ: This is the seventh film I’ve made with Chiara Mastroianni, so I’ve done a lot of interviews with her. Whatever the story we were telling in our films, from Beloved and Making Plans For Lena to On A Magical Night, the second question, if it wasn’t the first, was always related to her mother or father.
I felt there was a kind of cruelty in the way her identity was reduced to her parentage, even if it’s perfectly legitimate because Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni are more than just famous actors, they’re cinema myths.
When people see Chiara, they have this sense that they’re somehow touching this myth. I could see she was being constantly treated like some sort of intermediary, between a fantasized, mythological, dream reality and this idea