The Innocent – REVIEW
Image: Louis Garrel, Roschdy Zem in THE INNOCENT. Image: film still
By MARTIN FABINYI
The Innocent is at once a crime caper and a rom-com, a French film that satisfies on every level.
The story begins when widowed Abel (played by writer/director Louis Garrel) reluctantly attends the wedding of his mother Sylvie to a bank robber she’s been teaching drama to in gaol. His worst fears are confirmed when, despite his mother’s protestations, Abel begins to suspect that the now-released Michel hasn’t changed his ways as he claims. So begins a cloak-and-dagger operation where Abel and best-friend Clémence tail Michel across Lyons to prove to his mother the flower shop he and Sylvie have opened has been financed by Michel’s crim connections.
So far, things are looking far from promising. Michel outwits the amateur sleuths, until everything changes and Abel and Clémence join Michel as less part of the problem and more part of the solution.
Inspired by events in the director’s real life (his mother conducted theatre workshops in prison and directed a feature film based on this), Garrel’s film is a homage to the French New Wave and a well-crafted, brilliantly acted film full of curvy plotlines and a rewarding ending.
The Innocent was selected as the special Gala Screening to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, and received, quite rightly, a great reception. As well as a writer and director, Louis Garrel is well-known in France as an actor, best known for his starring role in The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 2003.
He has also appeared in his own films and won the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2005 for Regular Lovers.
He said of The Innocent:
“It’s a story of (his mother’s) marriage from the point of view of the son. A little bit like a reverse shot. However, when my mother got married in prison, I was 18 and I wasn’t there. So, I gate-crashed her wedding through this film!”
Joining Garrel is Roschdy Zem as Michel, a French actor and filmmaker who shared the award for Best Actor for his role in the film Days of Glory at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Anouk Grinberg as Sylvie, who won The Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1996 for her role in the film Mon Homme, and Noémie Merlant as Clémence, who was nominated for the César Awards for her breakout role in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, winning in 2022 for The Innocent.
★★★★★
In cinemas 13 April 2023 (NSW / VIC / ACT / WA / TAS), 20 April 2023 (QLD) 27 April 2023 (SA)
