Me too, I am Marcello Mastroianni
At night, Chiara Mastroianni often dreams of her father, who died in 1996. During the day, during castings, people continue to compare her to him. Meanwhile, her mother, Catherine Deneuve, bursts into her daughter’s apartment whenever she wants to give her advice. The comedy aims to be zany and a bit hysterical. Christophe Honoré manages to enter the clan that Catherine Deneuve jealously protects from all publicity. He finds the immense actress with whom he had filmed The Beloved (2011).
Marcello, as far as the eye can see
We have a lot of tenderness for Chiara Mastroianni, portrayed as her father, who crosses Paris like in a Marcel Carné or Patrice Leconte film. But Paris will never be Rome. From the first scene, which recreates the famous swim in the Trevi Fountain, everything is heavy in this fable full of quotes. The dialogue is crude, the camera movements bombastic, and the comedy falls flat. The myriad of famous actors in extras is a big waste. And, let’s face it, we don’t even miss Marcello, who is just an excuse. “I wanted to wash away the icon, tenderly scratch the monument, tag it with benevolent humor, draw my loving graffiti on it,” writes Christophe Honoré in the press kit for the film. Unfortunately, there is neither tenderness nor kindness in waking the dead so gratuitously.
