Louis Garrel

Primarily known in the U.S. for his memorable performance in director Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial 2003 drama The Dreamers, Paris-born actor Louis Garrel made his first onscreen appearance in the 1989 film Les Baisers de Secours (Emergency Kisses). While it was over a decade until Garrel would appear onscreen again, his comeback role in Rodolphe Marconi’s 2001 Ceci Est Mon Corps (This Is My Body) marked the beginning of a spectacular run that would find him working with some of the biggest directors on the international film scene and winning his very first César Award (for the 2005 film Les Amants Réguilers [Regular Lovers]). Shortly after portraying the male half of a cinema-obsessed pair of siblings in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, Garrel stunned viewers with his performance as a young man who loses his father and subsequently follows his amoral mother on a hedonistic journey of depravity in Christophe Honoré’s adaptation of the notorious Georges Bataille novel Ma Mère. On the heels of his critically acclaimed performance in Les Amants Réguilers, Garrel again teamed with Honoré for Dans Paris in 2006 and Les Chansons d’Amour in 2007. —allmovie guide