Louis Garrel was probably destined for a film career from the cradle. As the offspring of director Philip Garrel and actress Brigitte Sy, he first appeared in front of the camera as a child – in his father's film Les baisers de secours (1989), where he played his mother's son. A telling start of a close connection between film roles and his real life, characteristic for his further career.
After graduating from the Conservatoire de Paris, he started appearing on screen regularly. He played in two films themed around the tumultuous year of 1968, in Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003) and in his father's Regular Lovers (2005) – a role which earned him a César. He confirmed his reputation of the most romantic French actor when he transferred a film relationship with the director and leading actress of Actresses (2007), Valeria Bruni Tadeschi, to real life as well.
Gradually, he started focusing not only on acting, but also directing. He made three short films, and later remade the last of them, La règle de trois (2011), into his feature debut, Two Friends (2015). The leading female role in this story of a love triangle and a hard test of male friendship is played by the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani.
His characteristic focus on feelings and relationships is also apparent in his second feature film, A Faithful Man (2018). Garrel in the leading male role must choose between two women: Eva (Lily-Rose Depp) and Marianne, portrayed by his actual wife, Laetitia Casta.
