Louis Garrel or the art of robbery in the family (score 8½)- Corriere.it

To be a good and handsome actor you risk not being considered at the right level when you measure yourself even with directing. That’s what happened to Louis Garrelcertainly one of the best known and most successful performers in post-Depardieu French cinema, but also a sensitive director and innovative, capable of not being imprisoned by rules like that (even if they were those of the «author’s film») in the name of one creative freedom that knows how to surprise and amuse. She had already demonstrated this with her previous directorial efforts — “Two friends» (2015), “The Faithful Man” (2018) e “The Crusade” (2021) — but it really rips the applause with the latter “The Innocent”.

The notice that as a director he does not want to limit himself to the simple account of reality he gives it from the first scene where what seems like a dramatic confession turns out to be one ironic demonstration acting challenge: we are in a prison and Michel (Roschdy Zem) is rehearsing a monologue under the eyes of other inmates and those, much more involved, of Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg), a former actress who teaches theater to the prisoners. And that in the following scene she marries him — really — among the prison barspending the coveted provisional release.

It is now that Garrel the actor enters the field, oceanographer who explains the beauties of the Lyon aquarium to visitors and who doesn’t seem to give up on the head shots of her mother, not new – we discover – to fall in love of his student-inmates. This then even married him and when Michel can finally be free again, the couple decides to open a restaurant flower shop. Not for this reassuring Abel, who begins to spy on the ex-convict, convinced that he is hiding who knows what secrets, and involving Clémence (Noémie Merlant), a work colleague but above all, in the tailings best friend of his wife, who died prematurely.

Those who have seen Garrel’s previous works will also find here i distinctive characters of his character (who is called Abel in all films): a frail male And neuroticdoomed to unhappiness, a little bewildered and very messy, whose insecurities they stand out even more in comparison with Clémence’s somewhat irresponsible decision-making. But what might have looked like a family comedy (with some autobiographical reminiscences: Garrel’s mother, Brigitte Sy, had given courses to prisoners for twenty years and had married one), suddenly changes gears and becomes a noir with unprecedented melodramatic nuances.

Abel discovers that Michel is “forced” to participate in a last shot — a wholesale theft of caviar — and ends up with get involved with Clémence: together the two will have to pretend to be a couple in love in crisis to distract the driver of the lorry to be burgled (Yaniusse Kebbab) and allow Michel and his partner (Jean-Claude Pautot, a real ex-con) to make the blow. But we are sure that the perfectly studied plan will not turn into something unexpected?

Slipping from costume portrait to genre film to love games, from Truffaut to Philippe De Broca (remember “The man from Rio?») up to Marivaux, and always with one lightness it’s a’elegance princely, without ever wanting to underline his skill but almost concerned not to let it be noticed (a procedure that requires twice as much skill and that many directors of our house should learn), Garrel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet , accompanies the film through continuous twists underlined by a soundtrack that passes from Nannini to Catherine Lara to the Adagio of «Anonimo Venezian» or with a freshness of inventions and one delicacy direction that enhance the pleasure of the viewer.

And for not spoil the surprise I won’t say anything else about the subtle exchange between reality and fiction, between feelings and passions that Abel and Clémence will have to deal with during the theft. “Une comedie jubilatoire» it was said in France, and it is the feeling with which one comes out of this projection, happy to have seen an amazing moviefunny and smart.