MARCELLO MIO © Les Films Pelléas
Marcello Mio, Christophe Honoré’s tribute to Chiara Mastroianni
In Marcello Mio, his seventh film with Chiara Mastroianni since Les Chansons d’amour (2007), Christophe Honoré gathers her close entourage to pay tribute to the actress, with a comedy fantasy in which she dons her father’s suit.
How did the direction of Marcello Mio come about?
Through the bond I’ve built up with Chiara Mastroianni over quite a few years. From one film to another, Chiara and I became allies. In spite of the years, we always want to work together and to surprise each other. If I hadn’t shot so many films with her, I would never have dared suggest this crazy idea to her of playing herself in the role of an actress who decides to become her father, Marcello Mastroianni, by dressing and living like him. And to do it in the most spontaneous way in the world.
What did you want to find out?
The film tries to examine what it means for an actress like Chiara, to exist, and not to forbid herself from existing, alongside the legendary personalities of her parents.
It also pays tribute to actors…
Yes, particularly in the relationship between identities, and the loss of identity they can be plunged into when they are asked to play imaginary characters. I wanted to explore how they find themselves again at the end of a shoot. Making Marcello Mio also allowed me to work around memory and the cinema, with this question: how do our memories of films shape our lives?
In what way have films shaped yours?
I feel as though my life is very much influenced by the films I’ve seen. My ideas about love, friendship, the ideal man and the ideal woman were built from cinematic visions.
“ Marcello Mio had as its discipline the constant objective of the joy of filmmaking ”
For this feature film you asked Catherine Deneuve, Melvil Poupaud and even Benjamin Biolay to play themselves…
That gives the film its basis in real life. Having said that, it is very much a work of fiction with no commitment to authenticity. The way Catherine reacts to what Chiara does is not a cut-and-paste version of their real-life reactions. The film is purely a fantasy that has, as a starting point, an actress who decides to identify as someone else and to impose her dream on everyone.
What consequences did this almost family-style setup have for the shoot?
During the shoot, I had more of an impression that I had brought together a troupe of closely bonded actors. But if I had gone to see Catherine Deneuve to tell her that she would not react like that in real life, she would have laughed in my face! It forced me to get rid of all the clichés and all the screenplay psychology when directing the actors. I had to make sure the set was a place of absolute trust, so that the tenderness and friendship there was between them could be captured on camera.
What can you tell us about directing the film?
The relationship to actresses and to identity, or even to age and to parent-child relationships, can be quite cruel. But Marcello Mio kept that desire to have as its discipline the constant objective of the joy of filmmaking and of what a place of bonding that is. The film follows the rhythm of a fantasy and a comedy about Chiara’s life, while allowing free rein to an imagination completely unbridled by reality. I hope the film is tender. Its aim is to convey my tenderness towards the actors and my wish to showcase them in that way.
