{"id":524185,"date":"2024-07-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=524185"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:22:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:22:34","slug":"marcello-mio-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/cinema\/films\/marcello-mio-review\/","title":{"rendered":"If I were a man, I'd be Marcello Mastroianni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christophe Honor\u00e9's latest film features actors playing themselves. It's funny, poetic, intelligent and moving. Questioning their identity, Marcello Mio<\/em> is universal: who hasn't dreamed of disguising themselves as someone else?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Cross-dressing as a man, or more precisely as her late father, Marcello Mastroianni, is what Chiara Mastroianni decides to do after being compared to him and her mother, Catherine Deneuve, for the umpteenth time. People think she's crazy and laugh. And yet, this is the reality of cinema. The film makes this clear right from its opening, with an absolutely brilliant absurd scene directly referencing La Dolce Vita<\/em> by Fellini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a shooting<\/em> photo - which turns into a disaster - Chiara Mastroianni is asked to wade into a fountain, blonde wig and black dress, disguised as Anita Ekberg, Marcello Mastroianni's partner in this 1960 film. She plays her father's lover, and everyone thinks it's normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Io sono Marcello<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chiara Mastroianni doesn't really seem to understand why she decides one day to dress up as her father. It's insidious and finely crafted by Christophe Honor\u00e9. It's as if it were vital. She puts on her friend Benjamin Biolay's costume, a hat, a wig, glasses and that's it! People who knew her father immediately recognize the uncanny resemblance. Like an actress, she imitates him, but in her own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiara wants to be called Marcello, because it makes her happy, that's all. Thanks to this incarnation, she becomes a little girl again, delving into her memories with her father and mother. Her mother plays along, even though she seems worried. Catherine Deneuve understands that this is no mere masquerade: her daughter needs her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiara Mastroianni speaks Italian, smokes a lot of cigarettes, wanders the streets of Paris at night and takes in a stray dog. She meets a homosexual, an English soldier who cries on a bridge while waiting for his beloved, recalling White Nights<\/em> in which Marcello Mastroianni starred. She ends up kissing him on a Paris rooftop. We don't know if this soldier knows that she's not really a man, but it doesn't matter, because as throughout the film, Christophe Honor\u00e9 places Chiara, disguised as Marcello, as a unique, genderless being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La verit\u00e0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for Chiara Mastroianni, she has a providential encounter with Fabrice Lucchini. He's always wanted to be Marcello's friend, so he'll be there for her as he would have been for himself. Lucchini is never better than when he's playing himself, when he can quote Nietzsche and be freely moved by a woman. You can see in his eyes his admiration both for Chiara and for the Marcello she plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n