18/08/2023 - Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini, Nicole Garcia, Melvil Poupaud and Benjamin Biolay star in this Les Films Pelléas production sold by mk2

The first clapperboard is set to slam on Monday 21 August for Marcello Mio (working title: Actor’s Studio), the 15th fiction feature film from Christophe Honoré who has presented 6 films in Cannes (including Love Songs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Sorry Angel [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: Christophe Honoré
film profile] in competition in 2007 and 2018) as well as Winter Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Honoré
film profile] last year in Toronto and in competition in San Sebastián, winning an acting award.

The cast includes Chiara Mastroianni (winner of a Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard section in 2019 for Christophe Honoré’s On a Magical Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Honoré
film profile], for which she was also nominated for the 2020 Best Actress César award; appreciated recently in Cannes in Eureka [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Lisandro Alonso
film profile]), her mother, the iconic Catherine Deneuve (soon in cinemas in Bernadette [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Fabrice Luchini (a highlight this year in The Crime is Mine [+see also:
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interview: François Ozon
film profile], in French cinemas on 20 September in La Petite and on 13 March 2024 in L’Empire), Nicole Garcia (seen last year in One Fine Morning [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Melvil Poupaud (nominated for the 2020 César award for Best Actor for By the Grace of God [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: François Ozon
film profile], appreciated recently in Just the Two of Us [+see also:
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interview: Valérie Donzelli
film profile] and Jeanne du Barry [+see also:
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film profile], and soon in Venice in Coup de chance [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]) and Benjamin Biolay (nominated for the 2009 Best Supporting Actor César award, a highlight in Cannes in Rosalie [+see also:
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film profile]).

Written by the director, the script centres on Chiara Mastroianni who, pressured from all sides by the figure of her father, decides to bring him back to life through her own self. She goes by the name of Marcello, dresses like him and asks to now be considered an actor, not an actress. The people around her believe this to be a temporary joke, but Chiara is determined not to give up her new identity…

Produced by Philippe Martin and David Thion for Les Films Pelléas, Marcello Mio is co-produced by France 2 Cinéma and by Italy’s BiBi Film and Lucky Red. Pre-bought by Canal+, Ciné+ and France Télévisions, the feature film benefits from the French-Italian co-production support (led by the CNC and the DGCA-MIC) and from the support of the Cofinova and Indéfilms Soficas. The eight weeks of filming will take place until 13 October in Paris and Rome with Rémy Chevrin (his 8th film with the filmmaker) as director of photography. The release in French cinemas will be handled by Ad Vitam and the sales by mk2 Films.

(Translated from French)