by James Mottram

Just a few months shy of his 40th birthday, Louis Garrel remains one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation in France. The son of filmmaker Philippe Garrel, who has directed him on several occasions, Garrel Jr. has been there, done it all.

After his international breakthrough in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, he’s played Nouvelle Vague icon Jean-Luc Godard in Redoubtable and Karl Lagerfeld’s lover Jacques de Bascher in fashion bio Saint Laurent, and also worked with Woody Allen (in Rifkin’s Festival) and Roman Polanski (An Officer and a Spy).

He’s also a director in his own right, with his fourth film, The Innocent, inspired by Garrel’s own mother, actor/writer/director Brigitte Sy. The genre-hopping comedy sees Garrel play Abel, a widowed ichthyologist who discovers his mother Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg) is about to marry Michel (Roschdy Zem), a criminal she met while teaching theatre in prison.

Speaking exclusively in Cannes with FilmInk, Garrel talks about personal catharsis, acting on screen and getting over his fear of flying.

You drew from your mother’s experiences to make this. What made you want to go back to that?

“Because it was a good source, a good starting point for a detective movie. I wanted to go beyond the love intrigue and to have a more sophisticated structure in terms of story, as the story develops. And it was a good starting point.”

Your mother had a prison wedding. Is that correct?

“Yes. She had a wedding in prison. I was 17 years old. So, I was not allowed to go into the prison, because I was not 18. I missed the wedding of my mother! So [the film was] to put me in the wedding of my mother – fictionally!”

When you do mine your own personal biography like this, what does it give you? Is it a cathartic experience?

“Not at all. Maybe unconsciously, but maybe my unconscious is working at the same time. Because also, the subject was autobiographical, I didn’t want to make a chronicle. It would be boring. I needed to fictionalise a lot. I based it with something very solid in my private life. And like this, I could make so many inventions. A romantic comedy. And also, a thriller…”

Was it fun to mix all these genres?

“Fantastic. What I fear the most in the world is annoying the viewer and boring them! I was traumatised by a book by Peter Brook, which is called Boredom is the Devil. Since I was 12, I had this book on my table. I remember because I have a lot of admiration for Peter Brook. To switch genre like this during the film was also a promise for the spectator to never get bored. It’s very entertaining, to mix the different genres.”

Did you ever talk to your father about not boring audiences?

“I haven’t talked to him about this. And I know that it’s not his way of reasoning. He has a different way of working and he makes more existential films in a way, more Bresson-like. I’m not saying that he’s not scared of being boring. Probably he is and he thinks about it. But he’s not as scared as I am.”

Is it true that you finished shooting the film just three months before it came to Cannes? How did you manage this?

“Yes. I wrote the script a long time ago. I was prepared to shoot the film because I knew it. I mean, the movie had to be very well prepared. I had to be very precise in shooting it. It is not a naturalistic film. It’s a genre film. My editor was working in parallel. So, every day he was editing, and I corrected it. And so, the editing was accomplished. I came to just change and fix and cut.”

Did you feel it needed that kind of burst of energy, to get it done quickly?

“I think my desire to make the film was strong, and also because I was completely crazy about my actors. Every night, when I came back to the hotel, I was so happy because I felt that the chemistry between Anouk [Grinberg] and Roschdy [Zem] was working. It’s the magic of chemistry. And the DOP also, his work was really fantastic. And the city of Lyon, I never experienced shooting a movie in Lyon – it was in a city that I didn’t know. So, I was completely uninhibited when I was shooting.”

This is your fourth film as director. Every time you step behind the camera, do you feel more assured?

“Like I say, I felt completely uninhibited on this one. I felt more free than in the others and I had more pleasure in making it. Also, as an actor, when I saw myself in the editing room acting, myself – the director – congratulated me as an actor saying, ‘You haven’t been too bad!’”

You were happier?

“For the first time, as an actor, I said I worked well during the movie. This one, my character is existing. I can feel my character is existing more than the other ones.”

You’ve made a couple of films in English with Woody Allen on Rifkin’s Festival and Greta Gerwig on Little Women. Were they good experiences?

“American cinema is based on actors, much more than French cinema. When I think about my experiences in American films, American cinema is much more relying on the actors’ performances than our cinema. And so, I’ve had the impression of working with great actors and it was a delight. It was very pleasant.”

But will you pursue more, do you think?

“If they call me and they want me over there, I’ll go. I was hating traveling when I was younger because I was very scared of flying. But now I will take the opportunity and go if they call me.”

Are you better at flying now then?

“Much better. I relax by singling out people that are scared of flying on board. And I reassure them and that calms me down.”

How do you tell who’s scared?

“You can tell! Somebody who is reading a book and then when you hear a sound, they go like this [jolting]! It means they’re super scared.”

There’s a film in there somewhere…

“One time, an Italian guy…we were doing Rome-Paris, and I was super scared. And then the Italian guy said, ‘What’s the problem?’ I said, ‘I’m afraid!’ He said, ‘Are you fucking kidding? Are you kidding me? A plane is very secure. Don’t be fucking afraid.’ Then I said, ‘You’re right, Mr. Italian.’ And then suddenly, the plane started [lurching] like this. And I turned my head, and the same guy was like this [making the Catholic sign of the cross]. It’s a very funny place a plane. Because everybody’s neurotic.”

The Innocent is in cinemas April 13, 2023

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