This article is published in number 39 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 28 September 2021
For Louis Garrel, anonymity is the hidden desire of a lifetime. “I have never been able to say whether cinema was really my choice,” says the 38-year-old actor and director who, as a simple man, would prefer to disappear. The clan he belongs to has long allowed it. Because the Garrels are a very committed tribe of filmmakers who remember the families of the circuses, in which the baton is passed from generation to generation. At the age of five, Louis was already on the set with his father Philippe, the luminous star of the Nouvelle Vague, in Kisses of Relief.
Grandfather Maurice, mother Brigitte and his father’s ex-wife (singer Nico) also starred in the same film. Garrel continues to exert a mysterious charm, based on an insecurity that does not lose the figure of narcissism. He wants to speak in Italian and apologizes for not being able to find the right words, words that help him doubt everything. His intelligence, his life as a couple, his abilities. The man who was the disturbing Theo of The Dreamers, the dandy of Saint Laurent, the brooding painter of A burning summer, we will soon see him in three films: The Crusade, third test as a director, involves him and his wife Laetitia Casta with their respective children who, as worthy exponents of the “Greta generation”, push adults to fight for a fairer and greener future. In costume drama The Story of my Wifand, of Ildikó Enyedi, instead, Louis will be the dandy friend of Léa Seydoux in a Paris of the early twentieth century.
Finally, in Our Men at Rachel Lang, set today in a military base in Corsica, he becomes a lieutenant of the Foreign Legion who tries to fight the system from the inside: “I’ve never done anything like this in my life and I don’t know what it means to live with death ahead to itself, as in the case of the military. I don’t even know how to fight and I’ve never done military service. ‘
But the director Rachel Lang chose her.
«The first question I asked her was: ‘But why do you want to make a film about the army?’ I found out that she was in the military at 19 and had a very personal experience of it. He knows what it means to be a soldier and above all he knows the relationships that the military have with girlfriends and wives who stay at home. I had imagined a more documentary work, then when he told me about the history of these two couples I realized it was a more interesting project ».
You did not do military service.
“Contemplating the possibility of killing someone makes me terribly afraid, which I don’t want to feel.”
Does death frighten you?
“There is a philosopher, Pascal, who says that just talking about it is already anguish. Maybe if you have been a Buddhist for forty years you are not afraid of death… ».
Does he prepare himself in some way, does he meditate on the impermanence of things?
“No, I don’t know and I don’t engage in such practices. However, to return to the film, to be credible as a man who joins the army, I went to a gym five times a week for four months ».
Has exercise changed the perception of oneself?
«The perception of me hasn’t changed, the rest has. I need to get away from myself to do my job well, and every means is good ».
Do you like being portrayed by a photographer’s eye?
«It has always bothered me, staging is not for me. Mine is a very narcissistic job, better set a limit ».
Tell me one of your flaws.
“I speak Italian badly, especially in the morning, after being at a party the night before.”
Laetitia says that when she gets ready to shoot a film she goes crazy and says absurd things: doesn’t being born and raised in the cinema environment reassure her?
“Shooting a film makes me feel anxious about not being able to have control over everything. Before shooting, start with an idea; then reality puts you in front of things to sacrifice. The dream you are starting with must often be resized or changed ».
Has the experience improved it?
«I had to understand that the responsibilities, in a team work, must be divided and that everyone has to carry a small piece on their shoulders. Controlling everything worsens the result, let’s say that in this sense, yes, I have improved ».
Speaking of your new movie, The Crusade: How did it go with your wife?
“I have no idea, there are so many things about us that we don’t really know … That’s why we make films, to understand.”
Exactly, how did it go on set?
“At work we are completely different from our private dimension. The set changes everything, Laetitia worries about not being up to my expectations, in the meantime I reach the peak of my anxiety (laughs, ed) ».
His wife told me she would like to have her as an actor in his first film as a director, but she kindly declined the invitation.
“For real?”.
And when I asked her what the reason for her refusal was, she didn’t hesitate for a moment: “Louis is really a snob!”
(Laughs, ed) “That’s not true, I’m not a snob.”
Are you happy with how this film came out, your “green fairy tale”?
“Yes, because the issue was very important, it concerns a change of direction necessary to save the planet. I wanted to lighten it with the tones of comedy and when at the gala evening I heard that everyone in the room was laughing, I was very happy. We need lightness ».
Do you suffer from insomnia?
«Often I can’t sleep, but I like those nocturnal moments, that time when nothing is done, while during the day we are always asked to do something. Among other things, I procrastinate a lot, postpone everything until later, and I feel guilty about it ».
What has he hated most about his world so far?
“Being used to sell, no matter what products, was the reason why I stopped working at some point. When I returned to the cinema, I understood a lot of things. Mine is a useful job, it helps to understand many aspects of life and makes the world more beautiful ».
He had also stopped giving interviews.
“I was confused, I had lost track of what I was doing. Sometimes we get scared when we see ourselves addicted to the Internet, tweets, a cigarette even before coffee. And any kind of crisis brings anxiety, the anxiety of being kicked out, of being out of the game. With the consequent need to demonstrate that you know what you are doing ».
He is currently on the set of Martin Bourboulon’s Three Musketeers as Louis XIII. What vision does he have of a king?
“The king is he who does not wash the dishes after dinner.”
That’s all?
“Not taking care of the dishes is not a small detail, from my point of view.”
Yes, but what is the heart of a king?
“Mine governs a country without having been elected, he must make everyone believe he has power, but deep down he lives a complex of legitimacy. He has to work harder than the others ».
L’Envol is also shooting, with a talented author like Pietro Marcello.
“It’s a fairy tale full of dreams, in which I am a boy who meets a girl. We see them grow up and then lose sight of each other, only to meet again later on. Pietro works as a painter, he changes everything all the time. I simply decided to follow him, giving up understanding everything ».
But in the end what role does an actor really have?
«That of those who sacrifice themselves for others in a kind of catharsis. Acting is contacting something we have inside to make it live in whoever is watching us ».
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