Louis Garrel

0:11Hello and welcome to the special episode of the Monaco Weekly. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco, and for today's show I speak with French actor and director Louis Garrel. We discuss his most recent film, The Celebrated The Innocent. Garrel explains why the film feels personal to him.

0:44Louis Garel, welcome to Monaco Radio. Pleasure talking to you. I really enjoyed watching The Innocent. What a great film. I mean, we're going to talk more about the film, but first of all, you know, I've read a little bit about your story, your mom. It's kind of, would you say this is a personal film or there's some kind of autobiographical elements to it as well? Yeah, I started the movie because I wanted to make a film noir in the beginning. And then I realized that in my souvenir, in my memories, I have this experience with my mother because she was working in jail for a long time. And then when I was like 12 or 13 years old.

1:23And then one day she told me that she's going to marry a guy in jail. and okay so i took that and i built the film around this idea from this event you know who appears in the life of the character that i play and so i get also inspiration from the my mother's character also the way the way she is her wildness and everything and but after because the movie is very full of adventure i mean obviously i invented a lot of stuff and this is not an autobiographical film totally, but there are parts of them who are close to me that I know very well. And the character of the mother in the film played by Anouk Greenback, she's incredible.

2:12I mean, she's full of life, exciting. I mean, would you say that this also applies to your mother as well? And by the way, Anouk, she was fantastic in the film. Yeah, yeah, no. I mean, the actress, Anouk, she's very, I don't know, she was completely crazy. about her character because i could see that for the first time of her life this is what she told me that she could play without too many dramatic mood you know even if the character is very tragic because she's married a guy and this is maybe her last wedding because she's 60 years old in the movie but she is also excited like a teenager and anook i don't know it's it's beautiful to see an actress playing with this kind of joyness, the love, like it was the first love of her life.

2:59And also she was acting and doing like a teenager. You know, she was like a jeune première, as we say in France. It was beautiful to see. And this is also what I wanted to see, like a woman of her age, not full of bitterness and regrets and melancholy. No, I wanted to see like a young woman. I mean, an energy of a young woman because she's at least also Anouk, you know, the actress. And you mentioned that, you know, at the beginning you wanted to do a noir film. There are elements of this, but there's also a lightness in spirit in the film. Of course, it's a comedy. It feels quite light, as you say, you know, there's kind of almost this teenage excitement in the film.

3:43Was that kind of when you start making the film, you said, you know what? actually that's more the direction the film is going no but also me i love to mix elements who are not used to be mixed and for example comedy and rom-com and noir i i didn't see that a lot you know because of obviously i wanted to be original and and also entertaining and and and also like surprising and also you know the lightness in general when you are more light people are more open to receive the story because people, you know, they love to laugh also. I mean, and to see even if the elements are tragic in the film, it's taken, I mean, not lightly, but it's telling with lightness.

4:29And I remember that my friend Jean-Claude Carrière, I said that all the time, that one day he told me that when you make people laugh, you open more doors into them. and like this, they are more comfortable to see a movie. It's better for them. And also because the story was also autobiographical, I didn't want to be boring and to be egomaniac with my own story. So I needed the film to be the more entertaining possible. Well, and it was entertaining. One of my favorite films, which is kind of before a little bit the action sequence, when you and the character of Clemence, you are in this kind of French diner and you're pretending you're a couple having a fight.

5:11But in a way, that was kind of funny, but also very emotional. Tell us about your, how did you do an action scene? Because I've read one interview of yours that you were not trying just to repeat kind of, you know, an American blockbuster one, but it was quite clever the way it's being done. Yeah, yeah, obviously, because, you know, because the risk when you do an action scene, it's to enter in competition with the American industry or something like this. and suddenly to lose your identity. And then I said, okay, we have a heist scene and an action scene. Let's add some elements to render the scene more original.

5:50And so we have this mix of love, rom-com, surprising love, rom-com into a restaurant during a heist film. And I think that I never saw that before. Because you always, when you're doing a movie, obviously I'm trying to be classic. I mean, I'm not a modern director. I'm not trying to do modern form and to experience. This is not very my type. I'm more like a narrator. I'm more like a guy who is telling a story. But obviously, I want to try to create like a story who never happened before. And then you can feel emotions in a way very, very also surprising. and to see like a love scene where people are making a trap for another character and they fall themselves into the trap of their own trap, into a heist film, and it becomes also like a love, suddenly a love scene.

6:47And I never said that before. Yeah, it is. It becomes a love scene, you're right. And the film feels to me there's a lot of love. I mean, even the love towards the stepfather in the film,

7:16It's quite sweet, quite heartwarming as well, you know, probably thinking about the mother, right, as well. Yeah, the film is full of love for all of the characters because this is also my way of doing a movie. to be super close to the characters because I understand them. The tragedy of their situation is that sometimes what they want, they can't have it, you know. But most of the time, you know, I'm a big fan of John Casavetes, for example. In Casavetes, I think the key of his entire cinema is the question of affection and love for the characters and also for, obviously, the actors that he's filming and that he's working with.

7:59And I think that I wanted the movie to be the more full of affection and feelings for all of them. You know, this is why sometimes, you know, the movie that I prefer is the movie where I fall in love for the characters and for the actors. And this is, I mean, I can love different kind of movies and obviously movies who are more dry and everything because formally they add something to the cinema. But the movie I fall in love with is the movie where I'm crazy about the characters and the actors. And when the actors are full of charm, which is, I think, it's the case in The Innocent for Anouk, Rojdi and Noemi.

8:37I mean, they are super charming and I can understand them. I can touch their emotions. I can touch their contradictions. I can touch their problems. This is what I wanted for the film. Louis, a question who were your influences as a director? Because you said you're a traditional director for example, I did see some of Hitchcock in the film as well but I'm sure you have so many different influences towards in this film and in the others one as well that you did I think that, you know, I don't know if it's an influence, it's just a master for me, it's maybe when I'm desperate about the cinema because, you know, the world is now full of images on the telephone and you don't exactly understand why our civilization are making so much images.

9:25It's very strange to prefer the virtual sometimes. You know, when I'm disgusted about the cinema, I put a Jean Renoir's film to wash my eyes and to feel that the world is worthwhile to live. So I think Jean Renoir, but he's not my inspiration because he's too big for me. but I think Jean Renoir is maybe the greatest filmmaker in the world because he has a sense of like and love the cinema but at the same time he loves real life and this is included in his films his sensuality for you know, I don't know the food, the nature the people also and then all of this is included in his films he's not just fascinated by the world of cinema because he wants to hide the real world.

10:19I mean, everything is included in his cinema. So I think it's my major influence, but it's not even an influence. It's like a master of everything, Jean Renoir. But when I was doing that film, I don't know, because I re-watched To Be or Not To Be from Lubitsch, and this game with the fact that we are playing a game, and in this game there are also elements of truth, truth, which is also a question in my film. I think that Lubitsch have this sense of irony that I adore, you know, the irony of Lubitsch. And also, you know, I thought, I think a lot while I was doing the film to the Savdy brothers and Unke James, their latest film, because there is also this kind of tragic comedy of the time.

11:09I mean, the character played by Adam Sandler is passing through very tragic moments on his life and then, but you smile all the time because there is this sense of irony that I love in a movie. I love when something is very contrasted in a movie when it's not monotone when you just have the tragedy or you just have the comedy, but when you have the both like the Italians, you know, the Italians of the 60s and the 70s And most of the Italian, I mean, the real Italian people are like this. Everything is super, they are super expressionist telling the stories in general or living their own life. You know, they speak loud and they can make you laugh with a tragic history or something like this.

11:56And I was thinking about the Italian. Do not be afraid of making a stupid and comic scene before a tragic one. I was not afraid to lose the sense of dramatic because I was doing something funny or like a comic scene. I was thinking about the Italian. That's amazing influences. And just my final question to you, Louis, because I'm curious. So was the film set in Lyon? Because I don't know, it gave me such a I really need to visit Lyon now because you made it. The shots were beautifully as well. As I said, it was quite the cinematography was quite special. But that was in Lyon. right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:38I knew that I didn't want to shoot that movie in Paris. And I needed, because I live in Paris, and I already shot many movies in Paris as an actor, as a director, and I needed to escape a little bit of that city that I know so much. So I decided to film, to shoot the film in Lyon, because I didn't know that city. And then I had a very good attraction to that city. And one of my goals when I was shooting the film is that I was also choosing, you know, the set as a tourist. And I said, OK, OK, if the movie succeeds, I think people will love to go to Lyon, will have the desire of visiting Lyon. This was also one of the goals of the film when I was shooting it.

13:26It's also a great pleasure to make a portrait of a city like in the best qualities. And this is how we make the film. That's amazing. Listen, Louis, thank you so much for talking to us and congratulations about the film again. Thank you very much. Merci, bye-bye. Have a good day. Do you really know what I think? Yes, please. It could be extreme violence, what I was saying. You don't like the pants. That was Louis Garel. The Innocent is out now. The show was edited by Sami Suisi I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco.