24 May 2024.
By Neptune
MARCELLO MIO ***1/2 (vo French, Italian, English)
This charming nostalgia piece is a real cinephile’s delight. But that is also its one drawback – for it’s a celebratory gift mostly to those who can recognise all the references to the film classics of the legendary, debonair Marcello Mastroianni: for instance, the scene at the Trevi fountain that harks back to his and Fellini’s 1960 “La Dolce Vita”. It’s also for those who are familiar with and can fully appreciate the stature of the ensemble cast made up of some of France’s finest actors – Ciara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini, Nicole Garcia, the singer/actor Benjamin Biolay and Melville Poupaud.
Written and directed by the esteemed Christophe Honoré, the film imagines a transformative moment in the life of Marcello’s real-life daughter, Ciara, playing herself. In fact everyone in the cast is playing themselves, including of course Deneuve, who is Ciara’s real-life mother. Are you following me?
Anyway, at one point in her acting career Ciara begins to tire of being compared to her famous parents and has recurrent dreams of becoming her famous father (who died in 1996 at age 72) to whom she has an uncanny resemblance.
Honoré creates a beautiful, dreamlike atmosphere as Ciara literally transforms herself into Marcello, to the varied reactions of her mother, her ex-husband (Biolay), her colleagues and her close friends. The surprising sequences meld perfectly into one another – from a quiet musical moment at home and singing at a concert with Biolay, meetings with her stunned but supportive mother, her new best friend (Luchini) whom she meets at a casting call with Garcia as director of a future film, and a late-night encounter with a lonely young English soldier stationed in Paris. It’s fantasy, it’s partial reality and it’s poetic.
A trip to Rome for a TV interview shows not only Ciara’s fragile state, but the callousness of mass media. All of this is done with love and admiration for Ciara’s talent, her self-doubt and a stubborn insistence on finding herself while she is incarnating Marcello. But there’s also a fond tip of the hat to the flair of these exceptional personalities in French cinema, along with the music that is another entity in the story.
This is an intimate love letter to filmdom and therefore quite fitting that it should be in the prestigious lineup at the ongoing Cannes film festival, for Honoré’s sixth time there.
FURIOSA – A MAD MAX SAGA **
Completely different from the above, this post-apocalyptic blockbuster is for the testosterone crowd. The visionary Australian director George Miller created the first (and best) “Mad Max” in 1979 with Mel Gibson as the tragic, unforgettable hero. This is the fifth instalment, with a completely new cast, including an almost unrecognisable Chris Hemsworth as the evil but charismatic warlord Dementus, and Anya Taylor-Joy of the huge eyes as the wily, vengeful Furiosa.
There’s survival of the fittest, mammoth motorised chases in the Australian wilderness and too many battles that finally become tiresome. The action is fun and energising in the beginning, but it palls with too much repetition. Its predecessor, “Mad Max: Fury Road” with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron was more thrilling, but this one will also satisfy those craving ever more action.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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