'I'm addicted to the laughs' - Louis Garrel on writing, directing and acting in his genre-bender 'The Innocent'

Record ID: 1739320

  • Title: 'I'm addicted to the laughs' - Louis Garrel on writing, directing and acting in his genre-bender 'The Innocent'
  • Date: 24th August 2023
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 24, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR AND FILMMAKER, LOUIS GARREL, SPEAKING ABOUT ACTRESS NOEMIE MERLANT, SAYING: "At the beginning, I was a little bit anxious because I felt very responsible for her during the shooting because she was confident with me. And she said, 'okay, I'm going to play at this level'. I said, 'don't
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2023 18:16
  • Keywords: L'Innocent Louis Garrel Louis Garrel films Louis Garrel movies The Innocent The Innocent film The Innocent movie
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA006653523082023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Louis Garrel is on a mission to make people laugh.
    The French actor and filmmaker says his film "The Innocent", a romantic comedy heist drama he co-wrote, directed, and stars in got him "a little bit addicted to the laugh of an audience".
    In the film, Garrel plays anxious aquarium tour guide Abel, who is struggling to get his life back on track after losing his wife to illness at a young age. When his mother, Sylvie (played by Anouk Grinberg), a volunteer drama teacher at a local prison, marries one of her students, Abel is exasperated. As his new stepfather (Roschdy Zem) is released and starts building a new life with his mother, Abel refuses to let his guard down. He enlists his best friend, Clemence (Noemie Merlant), to help him prove his suspicions right and protect his mother.
    Garrel said he set out to make a film noir and drew inspiration from Italian tragicomedies - and his personal life. His mother is actor and filmmaker Brigitte Sy, who remarried a prisoner after her divorce from Garrel's father, renowned French filmmaker Philippe Garrel.
    Injecting comedy into the story, the 40-year-old said he wanted to take audiences on a raucous adventure.
    "The movie has to be fun and playful and light. Even if the characters are living tragic moments," he said in an interview in London ahead of the UK release of the film.
    To make the crime elements of the movie more realistic, Garrel sought advice from Jean-Claude Pautot, who served time for a bank robbery and eventually ended up casting him in the movie as its only non-professional cast member.
    "He passed like maybe 15 years in jail and he escaped the jail. And then policemen or the European police were following him for ten years, he was in Germany and everything. So he had like an adventurous life and I needed him, to have some advice when I was writing the film," Garrel said.
    "The Innocent", which had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, screening out of competition, picked up several Cesar Award nominations. Garrel and his co-writers won the best original screenplay prize while Merlant was awarded the best supporting actress trophy at the ceremony earlier this year.
    Getting recognition for his writing was a proud moment and made the long writing process feel justified, said Garrel. He was especially pleased for Merlant, known for her work in dramatic films such as "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" and "Tar", whom he said he pushed to show her comedic side in "The Innocent".
    Asked what his mother made of the movie, Garrel said the subject had never come up.
    "I don't know, because we never talked about it, actually. She just told me that she saw it like six times or seven times, something like that. So I guess, I presume that she liked it."
    "The Innocent" will be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Friday (August 25).
    (Production: Natalie Thomas, Hanna Rantala)
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