The Innocent

The Innocent (2022), the fourth feature directed by the actor Louis Garrel, premiered at Cannes and won the César for Best Original Screenplay. Garrel had long been a fixture of French art cinema as a performer, and this confirmed him as a deft film-maker in his own right. A nimble mix of comedy, crime and romance, it was also his most commercially successful work behind the camera.

Garrel himself stars as Abel, the anxious son convinced that his mother's new husband, a charming ex-con played by Roschdy Zem, is leading her astray. Anouk Grinberg is the irrepressible mother and Noémie Merlant the friend who pulls Abel into the scheme. Garrel directs with a light, classical touch and an evident affection for the genre traditions he plays with, setting heist-movie mechanics against a warm comedy of family and second chances. A much-admired set piece built around a rehearsed seduction shows how sure his control of tone has become, and the sharp ensemble around him gives every scene somebody worth watching.

French audiences and critics responded warmly, and the screenplay's wit and structure drew particular praise. Under its caper plot, The Innocent is brisk, funny and surprisingly tender, part of a new generation of French film-making that reworks the pleasures of classic genre cinema without pretension. It is an unpretentious delight, and it marked Garrel out as one of the most promising actor-turned-directors in recent French cinema, with gifts that reach well past the screen presence that first made his name.