Christophe Honore on Film, Nepo Babies and His Latest, ‘Marcello Mio’

For more than two decades, French auteur Christophe Honoré has made provocative features, frequently exploring romantic entanglements or focusing on gay characters that reflect his sexuality. His third Palme d’Or-nominated film premiering May 21, “Marcello Mio,” is a comic change of pace that may be his most commercial and entertaining project to date. After Honoré’s longtime collaborator Chiara Mastroianni, playing a version of herself, gets compared to her movie star father, Marcello Mastroianni, she decides to adopt his look and personality, creating chaos with her mother, Catherine Deneuve, and co-stars like Melvil Poupaud, who also play themselves. With help from a French translator, Variety spoke to Honoré about his work.

You’ve written and directed a wide range of projects, including the Palme d’Or contenders “Love Songs” and “Sorry Angel.” Which are you proudest of?

The one that I made before this one, “Le lycéen (Winter Boy).” It has to do with my adolescence and the death of my father. It’s a more painful version of “Marcello,” which is also about a sense of loss and mourning.

What inspires your work?

When I don’t make a film, I think about future films, watch other people’s or struggle to find the money to make one. I always look for subjects close to my own sensitivities and experiences, so I felt the desire to make a fictional film on cinema actors who are part of my life.

The film mentions nepo babies. What are your thoughts on them?

I don’t think being the child of famous actors is privilege enough to explain how one is able to build a career in filmmaking. This is my seventh time working with Chiara, I think, and it has nothing to do with that. My interest is understanding what that’s like for people like Chiara. What does it mean for her to roll together the memory of her family and the narration of that history?

Did this idea come out of any discussions with her?

She had nothing to do with the development of the story — otherwise, this film wouldn’t have any interest to me. When I had the idea of an actress going through an identity crisis who tends to identify with her father, I asked for her permission to develop it around her, and she granted it because of the trust we’ve built. But the story doesn’t disclose anything about the private Chiara or any other actor in the film. It’s the result of my own imagination. Before sending her and Catherine the script, I was a bit anxious. If they said no, I would have to start writing it all over again. But thanks to their trust, and them sharing my joyful view of the story, I had the green light.

How did the actors react to playing themselves?

Catherine was a bit puzzled in the beginning. She said, “It’s the least exotic performance I could dream of.” But then she was game and had fun during the shoot. She played with her persona with a lot of self-irony. Chiara is somehow the embodiment of her late father — she’s possessed by his spirit. She joked, “If I was ever to get an award for this film, I’d like it to be for best actor and not best actress!”

I’m fully aware of the fact that cinema is becoming extinct, or at least it no longer has the essential, valuable and symbolic role it’s had for more than a century. That’s possibly the reason I made this. Watching a film or remembering a scene can conjure up the spirit of dead people, [which shows] what an essential role cinema plays in our lives.