Marcello Mio

As the daughter of not one but two acting legends (Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve), Chiara Mastroianni finds it difficult to make her own mark as an actress. She feels especially taunted when directors ask of her to play a part in the manner one of her parents. Her inner struggles start to externalise when she looks in the mirror and she sees her father’s characteristics in her own face. Eventually, Chiara decides to embrace this conflation and henceforth, assumes her father’s identity.

Marcello Mio is somewhat of a hybrid film: the depicted persons and their relation to each other are real. However, the story itself is scripted. Apart from Mastroianni and Deneuve, the movie co-stars various other people of Chiara’s life, including her former partners Melvil Poupard and Benjamin Biolay.

Director Christophe Honoré manages to turn the tables on current “nepo baby” discussions, touching upon the appeal this proximity to myth seems to provide to an outsider, but delving deeper into the burden this places on the children, who have to fight to be been seen as individual beings.

However, instead of a dark and heavy psychodrama, Marcello Mio tackles the situation with humour and creates a rather absurd journey of self-discovery. Sporting a wig and her father’s clothing, some of her companions are more understanding about this change than others, making for a number of bizarre encounters. Unfortunately, once the set-up is fully established and the events become less about her exploration of her father and more about potentially weird circumstances she could find herself in, the feature starts to drag – no pun intended.

Because of its quirky approach, the film also holds an appeal to anyone who may not be familiar with Marcello Mastroianni’s work, as Chiara has her own way of luring an audience to her story, but the feature’s main audience will likely be his fans, and those who want to see the less apparent parts of the legacy he left behind.

Selina Sondermann

Marcello Mio does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.