On the centenary of the birth of Marcello Mastroianni (Fontana Liri, 1924), immortal icon of Italian cinema, the Cannes Film Festival pays homage to him in a way as unusual as it is worthy of his legend: with a film competing in the official selection for the Palme d'Or, Marcello Miowhich addresses the myth through some of the people closest to him, such as his ex-partner, Catherine Deneuve (Paris, 1943), e the daughter born from their relationship, Chiara Mastroianni (Paris, 1972), protagonist of the film.
It is a comedy directed by the well-known French director Christophe Honoréin which Chiara plays an imaginary version of herself who, after experiencing an identity crisis, decides to adopt the appearance and personality of her famous deceased father, arousing the disbelief of family, friends and relatives, which however ends to convince her to call her Marcello.
If the premise is already surprising, perhaps even more so is the fact that, in addition to Deneuve, they have been added to the cast two exes of Chiara Mastroianni: the French actor Melvil Poupaudwith whom she had an affair when she was still a teenager, and her ex-husband, the French musician and singer Benjamin Biolay, with whom he had daughter Anna Biolay; as well as the actress Stefania Sandrelliwith which his father was the protagonist in the famous Italian divorce (1961).
The idea for this unclassifiable project came from Honoré, who has a very close relationship with Chiara because he had already directed her in six other films, and from whom he asked for authorization before starting to write the first line of the screenplay (” If you want to make a comedy about my life, I would be very happy,” she replied.)
«I think it's a bit cruel to reduce Chiara's identity to her parentseven if it is perfectly legitimate because Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni are more than famous actors, they are myths of cinema”, explained the director to Deadline a few days ago. «She is like a kind of messenger between today's world and a world that no longer exists… I thought it could be interesting to make a film, which is partly a documentary, about what it means to be the daughter of two cinema legends and a 'actress who works today with all the weight of the cinema of the past.”
Not even Chiara's relationship with her parents was ever subject to traditional canons: «I've never seen them together in my entire life»he admitted to the Guardian in 2012. «They broke up when I was two years old and I have no memory of them as a couple. I've never seen them kiss, except in the movies.”
Deneuve and Mastroianni had a relationship that lasted four years, between 1970 and 1974 (period in which they acted together in films such as Time for love And The bitch). He had separated from his wife, Flora Carabellain 1964, but had refused to formalize the divorce due to his Catholic beliefs (which, as he admitted on many occasions, cost him the relationship with the woman who was the great love of his life, the American actress Faye Dunawaywhich he attended until 1970, when Deneuve entered his life).
She, for her part, found herself in a similar situation, still being married to the photographer David Bailey, even though they had been separated for years (the divorce was signed in 1972, when Chiara was born). After the breakup between the Frenchwoman and the Italian, Carabella offered to adopt her daughter, given the time they spent away from home for work reasons, but Deneuve firmly opposed it.
With parents like that, Chiara soon developed an interest in acting: she made her film debut at just seven years old with a small role in To the two of us (1979), film directed by Claude Lelouch and starring his mother. His real debut, however, occurred at the age of 21 My favorite season (1993)by André Téchiné and again with Deneuve as the protagonist, for which he also received a nomination for a César.
Later, he joined his father and other cinema legends such as Lauren Bacall, Julia Roberts, Sophia Loren and Kim Basinger (whose character he played the assistant) in the ensemble film Ready-to-wear (1994) by Robert Altman. He then acted again with his father in Three lives and only one death (1996) and with her mother in four other films, but over the course of her more than thirty-year career she has flown mostly alone, working with many prestigious directors: in addition to Honoré, Manoel de Oliveira, Gregg Araki, Mike Figgis, Arnaud Desplechin, Sergio Castellitto…
Even more than her parents, the person who encouraged her the most to pursue a career as an actress was Melvil Poupaudwith whom he had a relationship from 16 to 20, and who still remains one of his closest friends: before Marcello Miowhich they will present together at Cannes with Deneuve and Honoré, the two had already starred together in an adaptation of Diary of the seducerin the mid-nineties.
In 1996 Chiara gave birth to her first son, Milo, whose father is the sculptor Pierre Thoretton, whom she never married. In 2002 she got married to singer Benjamin Biolay, although seven years later, in 2009, they divorced. Judging by her participation in Marcello Mio, the actress maintains a good relationship with him too. The two also have a daughter, Anna Biolay, born in 2003.
Last year, just turned 20, Anna has shown that she is ready to follow in her family's footsteps walking the red carpet of the Croisette for the first time at Cannes Film Festival on the arm of his father, with whom he starred in the film Rosaliedirected by Stephanie Di Giusto.
«I would have to be superficial not to realize how lucky I am to be part of this family, who left me many treasures. First of all, culture. But also the passion for art, music and cinema”, he declared on that occasion Madame Figaro the young actress. In fact, she also inherited her passion for music from her father, so much so that she plays in a punk band under the pseudonym Bambi.
Returning to her mother, Chiara has already given some interviews to talk about her new film before walking the red carpet at Cannes and says she is absolutely enthusiastic about the project: «Of all those who have read the script, I'm probably the one who felt less upset… I thought it would be a lot of fun to shoot it,” she told Female Version. «Christophe is giving me an incredible gift with this film! Since physically it's not me, I felt very free, because I disappeared behind the costume and everything became possible.”
Source: Vanity Fair
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