After playing several variations of romantic and dark heroes, Louis Garrel has written a completely entertaining film, the starting point of which is very freely inspired by his own family history. By satisfying his desires as a filmmaker, the actor has offered himself at the same time one of his greatest pleasures as an actor. Interview.
Louis Garrel comes from a family of artists. His grandfather, Maurice, walked his unique look in cinema and theater for more than five decades. His father, Philippe, is a prolific filmmaker, whose films make the heyday of the festival circuit (The big cart, in which Louis plays with his sisters Esther and Lena, won the prize for directing in Berlin last month). His mother, Brigitte Sy, is also an actress and filmmaker. And even if he secretly harbors the dream of perhaps one day staging an opera, Tosca above all, Louis Garrel devotes all his energies to cinema, that of others as much as his own.
Revealed on the international scene 20 years ago thanks to The Dreamers, by Bernardo Bertolucci, Louis Garrel is now making his fourth feature film as a filmmaker. Quoted 11 times at the recent French cinema Césars ceremony, the innocentwhich won its authors the César for best screenplay and Noémie Merlant the trophy for best actress in a supporting role, is a comedy at the center of which is an unbreakable bond between a mother and her son, regardless of the circumstances. .
“Although it has more dramatic moments, the innocent was conceived above all as an entertainment film”, explains Louis Garrel during a telephone interview.
The starting point is a bit autobiographical, but it was very pleasant for me to quickly get out of it and make a novel out of it. I wanted the public to become attached to the characters and take part in the action. For that, it was necessary to jump into fiction and invent incredible situations.
Louis Garrel
A crazy story
A bit like the mother character played – brilliantly – by the all-too-rare Anouk Grinberg in the feature film, the filmmaker’s mother truly married in a prison – she ran acting workshops there – with an inmate whose she fell in love. But there the similarities between life and fiction end. In the company of co-screenwriters Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet, Louis Garrel, who also plays the role of the son in his film, has imagined a completely crazy story, where the latter begins to spy on the slightest deeds and gestures of the new lover (Roschdy Zem) of his mother, whose feelings he doubts.
“I had this project for quite a while, but even if we borrowed from genres that were very well known to the public, everything had to be reinvented. The screenplay took quite a long time to write, because my concern was to come up with a film that hadn’t already been made. »
PHOTO PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
the innocent was presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Louis Garrel walked the red carpet with his team.
Louis Garrel, whose image has often been associated with that of a romantic and dark hero in different universes, whether those of Christophe Honoré, Bertrand Bonello, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Maïwenn, Arnaud Desplechin or that of his father Philippe, this time jumps in with both feet into a frank comedy, a genre of which he claims to have been “a little afraid” over the years.
“I’m not sure what exactly I was afraid of – the perception of a genre not noble enough, perhaps – but the fact is that a lot of contradictory things made the public a certain image of me. How you are revealed then becomes your reputation. And mine was that of a tormented young first. Probably because of the curls! »
A variety film
Also he qualifies the innocent of “variety film”, a category intended to reach the widest audience, in the same sense that a variety show includes its good share of popular songs. To accompany his story, Louis Garrel did not hesitate to choose hits from the past that can be heard on nostalgia radio, from For pleasure from Herbert Leonard to magic night by Catherine Lara…
It’s that there is the game in the game too. As there are a lot of songs taken from the French variety, I told everyone that it was necessary to reflect this spirit in the film, because it brings together a lot of popular genres in cinema. There is comedy, action, thriller, romance. It was therefore necessary to take the meaning of variety to the first degree, as does a song.
Louis Garrel
Having started acting as a child in his father’s films (he was 6 years old when he played his first role in Rescue kisses), the actor also wanted to go behind the camera at a very young age.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MAISON 4:3
Anouk Grinberg was cited for the Césars in the category of best actress in a supporting role thanks to her performance in the innocenta film by Louis Garrel.
“At the Conservatory, I understood very quickly that the view of another on what we do is important. I love acting, but I also like being the one looking at the scene and having access to solutions that the actor cannot see himself right away while acting. At the time, I wanted to direct High surveillance, by Jean Genet, but I was too nervous. »
I never dared to direct in the theatre. However, I secretly dream of being able to put on an opera one day!
Louis Garrel
Always surprising
And how does he explain the public and critical success that the innocent in France after being launched out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival?
“François Truffaut, my idol, used to say that we don’t control the adequacy of a subject with the desires of the public. Obviously, I’m delighted with this success, but it’s always a bit surprising when it happens. I think it comes down to the encounter between the actors. Anouk Grinberg and Roschdy Zem are touching together. Noemie [Merlant] is great. As for me, I hadn’t felt like I was playing such a well-defined character in my other three previous films. the innocent is both a tribute to the profession of actor and an echo of the fascination it exerts. »
the innocent hits theaters March 24.