Review of ‘Marcello mio’: self-esteem in spades

Chiara Mastroianni is the daughter of none other than Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. And despite having achieved a reasonable amount of success throughout her career, for most of her life she has lived trapped under the shadow that her father in particular cast over her, not only because of the treatment she received from her colleagues on the set but also because every time she looked in the mirror it was his face that she saw, and not only because of the astonishing physical resemblance between them. That, at least, is what she suggests. ‘Marcello Mio’, a comedy directed by his friend and close collaborator Christophe Honoréin which she embodies a reflection of herself.

Throughout the film, supposedly to examine her father’s legacy and the influence he has had on her, the actress walks from one scene to the next dressed as the version of her father immortalized in titles such as ‘La dolce vita’ and ‘8 1/2’. At times she interacts with people with whom she shares a profession or who are part of her emotional history – her mother, actors Fabrice Luchini and Melvil Poupaud, singer-songwriter Benjamin Biolay – and at times she does so with a young soldier or a dog. And in the meantime, while she tries without much conviction to make the viewer laugh, the movie It doesn’t say much about the power structures that prevail in the film industry, nor about the weight of inherited expectations.not about the nature of celebrity or, really, about anything in particular. It is content to lavish absolute adoration on its leading lady, and to try to convince us how much she deserves such homage.