MARCELLO: OLDER, BUT SELDOM A WISER FELLOW

“I work all the time,” said Marcello Mastroianni. “It gives me the illusion that I am younger and will not die. And what else can I do? I am ignoramus. I don’t like music, I don’t like reading, I don’t like to work in the garden, I don’t like to take trips. So I act.”

The Italian star, in Los Angeles as part of a national tour to promote “Macaroni,” his new film with Jack Lemmon that opened Friday, sat back and lit a cigarette.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I need money. I spend everything I make. To me, my career is a sort of dream, one that will end someday. Someone will tap my shoulder and say, ‘It’s over. Give us back what we’ve given you.’ When that day comes, I want to be able to say, ‘Aha, there is nothing left; I spent it all.’ ”

Mastroianni treats interviews, particularly those with people he has known for a long time, as part confessionals, part psychiatric sessions. He opens his heart instantly. He will tell you anything. “I am not such a great lover,” he told one startled interviewer. And so he makes actors like Newman and Redford and De Niro seem wary and up-tight.

“Oh, yes,” he will say at one point, sighing, “I was so miserable then; that was after Faye left me (a reference to the time when his great romance with Faye Dunaway foundered).

“Macaroni,” directed by Ettore Scola, is part of an Italian attempt to try once again to conquer the American market. Mastroianni, who has worked with Scola six times before, has high hopes for it. In it, he plays a Neapolitan with whose sister Lemmon dallied during the invasion of Italy 40 years before. When Lemmon, now rich and cynical, returns to Naples on business, Mastroianni, still warm and caring, renews the friendship.

Mastroianni formed a strong bond with Lemmon during filming. “He is so sweet and kind, that man,” he said. “And I know how difficult it is to act with a unit speaking another language. I did it once, you know, in London (making “Leo the Last” for John Boorman). I spoke not one word of English.”

Mastroianni had met Lemmon years before when Levine first brought him to Hollywood on a promotion tour. Lemmon was then making “Irma La Douce” and Mastroianni went on the set to say, “Hello. I like you very much.”

“So I enjoyed making ‘Macaroni’ with Jack. We had dinner many nights and much laughter. Anyway, I like Naples. I know it very well. When I would walk the streets people would come up and say, ‘Ah, Marcellino. What happened? You got older (he is 61).’ Then, to try to make me feel better, they would perhaps add, ‘Would you like a coffee?’ ”

It has been a busy time for him. Since he first began acting, he has made more than 100 movies. This year alone he made three. “Macaroni,” “Ginger and Fred” for Federico Fellini (the man who made him an international star with “La Dolce Vita” in 1960) and a sequel to “Big Deal on Madonna Street.”

And last year he appeared on the Paris stage in “Chin Chin,” directed by Peter Brook.

“The French were surprised to see me in the theater, I think,” he said. “And it was nice for me. I could see a lot of my daughter Chiara (by his liaison with Catherine Deneuve). She is almost 14 now; she starts to be a little lady.”

He sipped his coffee, lit another cigarette.

“Fourteen already,” he mused. “Incredible. And I just spent a week with my other daughter Barbara in New York. She is 34.” He repeated it, shaking his head. “Thirty-four. Still she is not married; she lives with a journalist in Rome. She says she doesn’t want to get married. I tell her, ‘You are right.’ ” He laughed.

Mastroianni lives in a magnificent villa in Rome with his wife of many years, actress Flora Carabella. He also has a farm in the countryside. And houses all over the place.

“I did stupid things when I was a young actor. I was always buying things. Wherever I went to make a film, I would buy a house. I thought, ‘If I keep an electric shaver there and some clothes I will have no need to have the baggage.’ So stupid.

“In London, I have had a little mews house for years, since I knew Faye. I have not used it since. What a caprice. And I bought them expensively, so to sell I must find another imbecile like myself. How could I have been so stupid? But I am not a good administrator of my money, as I said.”

There had been a time, years ago, when he had been urged to come to Hollywood, a town that both repelled and fascinated him. He never came. And it was a wise decision. He belongs completely to the land of Lancias and linguine.

“Anyway, if I had come here, I do not think I would have worked so much. And I like to work. Here I would have had to be more selective, no? An actor is a bit like a prostitute, after all. To be successful and desired he must not have too many clients. If he does, the day will come when they will not ask him anymore. And for me to go for a year without working would be unthinkable. I would become so neurotic.”

So happy is Mastroianni when he is working that he cannot remember when he last took a vacation. “What would I do? Where would I go?”

An expressive shrug.

“For me, the best vacation is to go on location with people I like. What could be better--to be with friends in a nice place and be paid for it? Like ‘Macaroni.’ We stayed at the Grand Hotel; at night we had happy dinners with much singing. Who can have more than that? For me each time, it is like being with a family. And it is a good excuse to put things off. ‘I’m so sorry,’ you say. ‘But I have to go and work. Perhaps tomorrow.’ ”

Mastroianni, whose love affairs with Dunaway and Deneuve were well-chronicled, used to say: “For me, life without love is meaningless.” Is he still romantic?

“Oh, yes. But more careful now. It is like crossing the street, I think. Once I should race across without bothering to look both ways and there I would be on the other walk. Now I look to the right and to the left. I am not yet feeble, but I am careful.

“You know what I tell young women now?” He chuckled to himself. “I say, ‘Ah, if only I had met you last week. Then you would have been in such danger. But now it is too late. Sadly, you are safe.’ ”