home Thyroid Stars. Men in Power: brooding Frenchman Louis Garrel Louis Garrel and Iranian actress

Stars. Men in Power: brooding Frenchman Louis Garrel Louis Garrel and Iranian actress

The silent, and therefore even more charming hero of the works of Philippe Garrel, the regular actor of Christophe Honoré and, of course, Theo from Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” - a film thanks to which the whole world quickly learned about Louis Garrel.

Not a single text dedicated to the artist can do without the fact that the world of cinema has been waiting for Louis Garrel from the very moment of his birth. It would be really strange to remain silent about this, given that it is difficult to imagine French cinema without his family. Grandfather - actor Maurice Garrel. Father - director Philippe Garrel. Mother - actress Brigitte C. Sister - Esther Garrel - is also an actress. And finally, the godfather is the acting embodiment of the ideas of the French new wave - Jean-Pierre Leaud.

It will be difficult to consider the filmography of Louis Garrel without this biographical information, because he encountered his father on the set more than once and not at all by chance, and his career actually began with a film in the credits of which the names of the whole family were listed. In 1989, when Spare Kisses was released, Louis was only six years old, and he was already riding along the beach on a small bicycle, launching boats in a shell and asking his disputing parents what had happened. He also smiled mysteriously and was silent - this habit Garrel’s heroes will retain and increase, quickly securing for him the image of a thoughtful Frenchman, so successfully replicated by world cinema.

In the films of Philippe Garrel, such characters are found especially often. An independent director who began with avant-garde experiments, he quickly made cinema his accomplice, as if replacing his diary. The topics Garrel talks about are exclusively personal. They do not require special effects or a riot of colors. Their territory is poetic black-and-white observations that often leave questions unanswered. In the director’s works, it sometimes seems as if the actors have forgotten that they are being filmed, and their dialogues are no longer a script, but simply life that accidentally became part of film history. And yet, such plots are based for the most part on the acting, which can not only preserve poetics, but also destroy it. In this regard, the decision repeatedly made by Philippe Garrel to give the main roles to his own son seems quite logical. In 2006, Louis received the Cesar Award for Most Promising Actor for his role in Constant Lovers. Francois - his hero - not only observes the May 1968 events, but becomes part of them. Like Theo from “The Dreamers” by Bernardo Bertolucci, who besieges the walls of the Cinematheque with his sister Isabelle. True, having met the American Matthew, on whose behalf the story is told, they decide to change their protest to getting to know each other. Accustomed to spending time in a dark, smoky cinema, they now easily reproduce scenes from their favorite films and mix their own speech with quotes from them.

For Garrel, 1968 will come up more than once on set. Born much later than the era of rebellion and change, he always dreamed of being in it, like hundreds of teenagers who were inspired by the images of the classics of the French new wave. And although he could not truly return to the entrance of the Cinematheque surrounded by protesters, Garrel grew up in the very heart of the world of French cinema, among stories and legends.

In his directorial debut - the ironic melodrama "Friends" - he will send the heroes into the crowd of the next film about the events that changed France: to build barricades and shout slogans known to the whole world. In Michel Hazanavicius' The Young Godard, recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival, his Jean-Luc marches around Paris with his camera.

Perhaps precisely due to the fact that cinema for him since childhood was not a dream, but a reality, Garrel does not need to play this life, and when playing, he does not need to replay it. He feels and understands his characters and, among other things, knows how to express feelings in songs. On the set of “All Songs Only About Love” by Christophe Honore, with whom Louis began working together with the film “My Mother,” he performed all the compositions himself, easily demonstrating that he sings no worse than he plays.

Starting from the world of cinema, the artist did not limit himself to it, quickly mastering the theater stage. Moscow audiences could see him in Luc Bondi's play “False Confessions,” based on the comedy by Pierre Marivaux. It was shown two years ago as part of the Chekhov Theater Festival, and Garrel, having arrived in Moscow, managed to present his father’s film “Jealousy”, in which he got the traditional leading role - this time as a theater actor, whose new girlfriend, an actress corroded by jealousy, year after year he can't get a role.

In “False Confessions,” Louis plays with Isabelle Huppert, again finding himself in the role of a sad young man who is fond of the rich widow Araminta. Both his Dorant and Araminta Huppert have to face the fact that they are not the only ones who have plans for the future. However, through a series of false and not so confessions, the story will still come to the end. In 2016, after the death of Luc Bondy, a film version of his production was released, finally transferring the action from the 18th century to the 19th.

Both False Confessions and most of Philippe Garelle's films feature the actor in relationships with older women. And since such proportions persist in life - a long-term affair with Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi was replaced by an affair with Letizia Casta - the press is not going to ignore this topic at all. The actor himself does not like to talk about personal matters, preferring, like his heroes, to remain thoughtfully silent. He wants to think about something else - and this, of course, is life, which Louis Garrel now looks at from a director’s perspective. In his debut “Friends,” he picked up the director-father’s style of filming loved ones and friends. Having cast Golshifteh Farahani and Vincent Macken in the leading roles, he kept the third for himself, inviting the viewer to watch how the nervous Clément (Maquin), the mysterious Mona (Farahani) and Abel (Garrel), who imagines himself a writer, wander around Paris. The resulting love triangle is complicated by the secret of Mona, who certainly needed to catch the train the day before, and the strange friendship between the bearded, clumsy Clément, always waiting for advice, and the languid, handsome Abel, who knows his worth.

The flaws that the film could not do without were unanimously forgiven by the critics, and the young director received a blessing. Already his debut suggests that Louis Garrel does not set himself the goal of repeating the style in which his father was so successful, choosing a much more thorny, but also interesting path - to develop his own view. And here his ability to notice details that others would not pay attention to will clearly come in handy for Garrel.

The beautiful Mona (Golshifteh Farahani) is serving out her sentence in prison: during the day she is released to work, and she sells coffee and sandwiches at the North Station, but every evening, of course, she must return to her cell. At the station, an awkward bearded man with dog eyes waits for her every day - Clément (Vincent Macaigne) has a surplus of free time, since he earns money as a film extra, and devotes it to his unrequited love.

Clement has no idea why Mona invariably disappears on the train after dark - given her Eastern origins, her conservative parents are under suspicion. But even he, blinded by feelings, understands that something is wrong. And he asks for help from his best friend Abel (Louis Garrel), although it is obvious that he - a poser, an egoist and a self-proclaimed writer - is not the best candidate for establishing other people's relationships.

Louis Garrel, as usual, made his feature-length directorial debut with friends. The co-author of the script is Christophe Honore, who regularly films it. With Maken, Garrel worked in the theater and played for his father. Farahani, an Iranian actress who has now moved to Paris, was his girlfriend for some time. A few years ago, Garrel, as if rehearsing for Friends, directed a short film with the same cast, albeit with a slightly different love triangle configuration.

The premise of the film is reportedly borrowed from the play by Alfred de Musset, which, however, is not too important. And Garrel, of course, is no stranger to triangles balancing on the brink of threesome love: one can recall “The Dreamers” or “All Songs Only About Love” by the same Honoré; a venerable French tradition that goes straight back to “Jules and Jim.”

The breath of the “new wave”, which Garrel Sr. interpreted in his own way (and differently) throughout his career, is obviously felt by the younger one - and not only at the level of aesthetics, technology, and so on: it is its intimacy, its obsessions, her foppishness. Garrel, no matter how banal it may sound, grew up - in the most literal sense - in that coordinate system, he breathes like that, and, say, an excellent scene about May 68 (the characters act as extras in a historical film) somehow miraculously does not look like this a pretentious “homage”, but the most natural gesture: something like a call to parents.

Garrel compensates for the elementary plot - we learn all its few secrets ahead of time - with the unpredictability of the characters, the development of which is not always convincing, but invariably curious. Working on both sides of the camera, he demonstrates both a lot of self-irony and commendable gentlemanliness: there are three people under the blanket, and Abel never pulls him over himself. As the title transparently hints, this film is not so much about love - it always remains in quotation marks, be it Clément's obsession, Abel's professional tricks or the despair that has accumulated in Monet - but about friendship, her closest relative, who lives, in general, exactly according to the same laws; sometimes it is impossible to distinguish them. The missing numeral in the Russian translation - in the original “Two Friends” - is, of course, no coincidence, just as it is no coincidence that “Jules and Jim” is not called “Jules, Jim and Catherine.”

The actor and director Louis Garrel, who has received a permanent residence in the hearts of the weaker half of humanity, became famous after the release of the chamber erotic drama “The Dreamers” by Bernardo Bertolucci on the big screens. The seductive intellectual has been delighting fans of deep psychological films with his fantastic performance for 28 years. Louis Garrel was born on June 14, 1983 in the capital of France - Paris. Garrel's professional career was predetermined from birth.

Louis is the son of the great director Philippe Garrel and actress Brigitte Sy. His grandfather Maurice also achieved success in the field of acting. According to the recollections of the master of reincarnation himself, an atmosphere of all-consuming creative anarchy reigned in the family. His parents never limited him in anything, giving him the right to choose. Sports, singing, drawing - wherever Louis went, Philippe and Brigitte would support the choice of the heir. Despite such permissiveness, it is difficult to imagine that a child with such creatively gifted parents would gravitate towards mathematical sciences.

At the age of 6, the actor starred in his father’s film “A Spare Kiss.” Twelve years after his debut, he returned to the big screen in 2001 in Rudolf Marconi's This Body of Mine. In the same year, the young talent entered the National Paris Conservatory, where the talented guy pored over textbooks, meticulously studying dramatic art.

Movies

In 2003, Louis played one of the three main roles in the provocative melodrama of the recognized master of cinema Bernardo Bertolucci “The Dreamers”. The film takes place in 1968 in Paris. Young American Matthew () comes to Paris on a student exchange program to improve his knowledge of French.

There the guy meets twins Isabelle () and Theo (Louis Garrel). New acquaintances invite Matthew to move into their apartment while his parents are away. Cut off from the world of student unrest, the guys indulge in sexual and psychological experiments, blurring the boundaries between the concepts of good and evil.

In 2004, the talented actor appeared in the film “My Mother” directed by Christophe Honore, in which an outstanding actress became his partner on the set. In 2005, Louis received a Cesar Award for his role in his father's film Constant Lovers. The following year, the talented actor appeared in the films “The Parisian Story” and “Prelude.” In 2007, Garrel’s cinematic collection of images was replenished with the role of the bisexual Ismael.

The film “All Songs Only About Love” received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In May 2010, the film “Imaginary Love” premiered at the same festival. In the film by the Canadian director, Louis got a cameo role as a guest invited to a party. The period 2011–2014 was marked by the publication of the works “Beloved”, “Shells”, “Castle in Italy”, “Jealousy” and “Saint Laurent. Style is me."

In 2015, Garrel made his feature-length directorial debut. The film “Friends” was released on the big screens, immersing the viewer in the cycle of emotions reigning inside a love triangle. Louis gave the main role in the film to actress Golshift Farahani. In the same year, the actor was involved in work on the films “My King”, “In the Shadow of Women” and “Astragalus”.

2016 was remembered by viewers for the films “False Confessions” and “The Illusion of Love.” The first tells the story of the young man Dorant (Louis Garrel), who is hopelessly in love with the rich widow Araminta (Isabelle Huppert), and the second tells about the difficult life of a free-spirited woman who seeks salvation from the dullness of everyday realities in the illusory world of love.

Personal life

Louis never talked much about relationships with representatives of the weaker half of humanity. Despite the efforts of the master of disguises not to make his personal life public, nosy journalists always managed to identify people for whom the charming Frenchman had tender feelings. It is reliably known that the actor, beloved by viewers all over the world, was married twice. The first wife of Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is the elder sister of the wife of the ex-president of France.

The young people met in 2007 on the set of the film “The Dream of the Previous Night.” In the film, Garrel played Alexei Nikolaevich, an inexperienced, timid young man in love with actress Marcelina Berovskaya (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), who is trying to find herself in this world. As often happens, love, contained within the framework of cinematic timing, migrated from the big screens to real life. According to the recollections of close friends of the artists, Louis and Valeria did not leave each other a single step.

The age difference (Tedeschi is 18 years older than Garrel) did not in any way affect their relationship. In conversations with media representatives, the actress has repeatedly stated that the serious, thoughtful Garrel perfectly understands her subtle mental organization and is lenient about her periodic mood swings. In 2009, the couple adopted a Senegalese girl who was born a year earlier. The baby was named Celine.

Four years after this significant event, Louis and Valeria broke up. The reasons for the sudden breakup were not covered by any European publication. A year later, rumors began to spread about the actor’s new hobby. This time, the brown-eyed brunette drew attention to the former Victoria's Secret angel. Contrary to popular belief, the relationship between the master of disguise and the model developed by leaps and bounds.

Having one failed marriage and three children behind her, Letitia was in no hurry to plunge headlong into the pool of amorous experiences. The lovers had been eyeing each other for a couple of years. In June 2017, the 39-year-old French woman and the 34-year-old actor officially legalized their relationship. The chamber wedding ceremony took place on the island of Corsica. Among the invited guests were only relatives and close friends of the newlyweds.

At the moment, the couple enjoy the delights of family life and lead an active social life: they go to presentations, attend film screenings and, of course, participate in charity events.

Louis Garrel now

In May 2017, at the opening of the 70th Cannes International Film Festival, the premiere of the French thriller “The Ghosts of Ismael” by Arnaud Desplechin took place. The plot of the film centers on the life story of director Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), who for 20 years tried to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of his beloved Carlota (). In the film, Louis plays the role of the brother of the main character, Ivan.

In November of the same year, Michel Hazanavicius’s melodrama “Young Godard” will be released worldwide. The basis for the film was the autobiographical novel “One Year Later” by Anne Wiazemsky, which tells about the family and work relationships between the actress and the director. The main roles in the film went to Louis Garrel and Stacy Martin. The master of disguise will also appear in Pierre Schoeller’s film “The People and Their King,” which is scheduled for release at the end of 2017.

Despite the fact that Garrel is not on Instagram, on the social network VKontakte, fans of the master of disguise have created a community in which they publish the latest news from the life of their favorite. In addition to specially cut scenes from films with the participation of the actor, the group regularly posts photographs and interviews, which periodically appear on the pages of various Internet resources.

Filmography

Dasha Tatarkova

IN THE RUBRIC “NEW NAME” Once a week we talk about promising newcomers: musicians, directors, artists and other creative people - that is, everyone whose name is increasingly appearing on the pages of magazines, in social media feeds and in our conversations and who are clearly on the verge of great success. Today we will talk about actress Golshift Farahani, who was banned from entering her native Iran because of her political views and her successful career in world cinema.

In conservative Iran, the Golshifteh family stands out immediately: her parents, brother and sister are all involved in art in one way or another, regardless of social status. Her mother is an artist, her father is a playwright, screenwriter and director. Following him, both daughters chose an acting career; Farahani's brother is a musician. Golshifteh also wanted to connect her life with music: she was going to become a pianist, studying at the Tehran Conservatory, but there was no talk of cinema. However, the first random role at the age of 14 became fateful in its own way. By playing a girl who wants to move to Paris, she inadvertently predicted her fate. Today Golshifteh Farahani lives in France, which has become her second home. Due to her roles in Hollywood and several nude filmings, her entry into Iran is denied, and half of her filmography is banned by censors in her homeland.

Despite all the hardships and oppression, Farahani's career always went up. In her youth, she starred a lot in Iranian cinema, almost always successful: her debut “The Pear Tree” instantly made her a young star, and each new film brought her awards at local festivals. She can be seen in the classic Iranian cinema Abbas Kiarostami (“Shirin”), and “Ellie’s Story” directed by Asghar Farhadi, her last film shot in her homeland, received the “Silver Bear” at the Berlinale 2009. The actress began to appear in international projects, including “The Stone of Patience” and “Chicken with Prunes,” which was directed by the author of “Persepolis” Marjane Satrapi.

The road to American cinema was opened for her. The actress was invited to join Ridley Scott in Body of Lies, where she played alongside DiCaprio. For her sake, the director found a way to circumvent the ban on working with Iranians, introduced after the Islamic Iranian Revolution in 1979. Upon returning from filming, Farahani was interrogated for eight months and his documents were taken away. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance completely banned her from working after she appeared without a headscarf at the premiere. Her interrogators told her directly: no one needs her here. Formally, she can return, but she will face unfavorable consequences and, most likely, will not be released again.

Farahani is a reluctant heroine. Although she simply wanted to act in films, every career decision she made became a political statement. The nude shoots were a turning point. After promo video young actors of the French Cesar Award, her family living in Tehran began to receive threats from the Islamic State (a terrorist organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation), which promised to cut off her breasts and present them to her father on a platter. It didn't help that she spoke out in support of the Green Revolution, which was defeated.

The actress also appeared nude on the covers of Madame Le Figaro and Egoïste. Golshifte says she was seething with anger at the time: she tried to break the stereotype of the “Oriental” woman and appeal to conservatives in her homeland: “I was not born with a headscarf glued to my head.<...>What's your problem? Am I a threat? She was always worried about how much Iranian women had no control over their own bodies. As a girl, she cut off her hair and wore men's clothes just to ride her bike. She even had a fictitious male name - Amir.

Seven years ago, Farahani left the country after her actions were considered an administrative offense and she was given an unaffordable fine. She calls not to romanticize her status: the actress calls her exile “like death,” and sees her family only occasionally abroad. However, now she is filming literally all over the world. For example, she could be seen in another Scott project - “Exodus: Kings and Gods.” Not long ago, Golshifte appeared in Jon Stewart’s debut and highly politicized film “Rose Water” about a journalist in captivity.

After three years of working on Garrel's debut, she has several fresh projects on the way: a role in the new Pirates of the Caribbean, Jarmusch's chamber drama Paterson, in which she plays alongside Adam Driver, and the French epic The Song of Scorpions. - there she got the role of a female shaman who enchants scorpions to extract poison. She also began filming the film adaptation of Ports of Call, again co-starring with Louis Garrel.

photos: Les Films des Tournelles,