Often described as avant-garde for his unorthodox directing methods, Perret introduced innovative camera, lighting and film scoring techniques to French cinema.

[2] In addition, Perret collaborated with many of the French and American idols of his generation such as Abel Gance, Gloria Swanson, Gaby Morlay, René Cresté, Arletty, Suzanne Grandais, Mae Murray, and Huguette Duflos.

He was finally noticed by the playwright Eugène Brieux, who tapped him in the spring of 1900 for his first important role in the play La Robe rouge (The Red Dress).

In 1902, he toured again in Europe visiting Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, etc., acting in plays by Alexandre Dumas, fils, Alfred Capus, Marcel Prévost, and Émile Augier.

He continued to tour in the theatres of Paris, the provinces of France, and sometimes Europe; however, he had severe financial difficulties during this period since he was rarely given the leading role.

From Berlin, he went back to Paris and found employment at the Gaumont Film Company under the artistic direction of Louis Feuillade.

He started out there as an actor in a good number of films shot in the Gaumont studios at 53, rue de la Villette.

Perret and the cast at Gaumont worked with many actors including Suzy Prim, Yvette Andréyor, Suzanne Grandais, etc.

That same year he directed the dramatic comedy Le Mariage de minuit (Midnight Marriage) featuring Suzanne Grandais, an actress he had discovered at the Moulin Rouge.

One day, Perret demanded that Gaumont and Louis Feuillade include the leading actors' names in the credits, a precedent that was soon followed by all the other directors of the time.

The same year Perret directed L'Enfant de Paris, the film that would mark the end of his financial difficulties and make his reputation as one of the best French directors of his era.

Furthermore, at a showing of L'Enfant de Paris at the French Film Library in 1951, Georges Sadoul stated: "Perret made brilliant use of every editing resource at his disposal: varied camera angles, backlighting, his cameraman Specht's beautiful photography… all while working from a rather ordinary script that borrowed heavily from the Deux orphelines.

Mixing Ennery's melodrama with a few jingoistic episodes, Léonce Perret was able to render a graceful and lively story by using an extraordinarily refined cinematic repertoire: backlighting, low-angle shots, close-ups, moving shots and numerous other innovations, all of which Perret implemented with flair, in stark contrast to Louis Feuillade's minimalist style and the still somewhat primitive technique of David W. Griffith at that time."

Everyone was called up to serve in the army, including Perret, who for a time was conscripted as a nurse's aide in Niort as he was unable to fight due to his health problems.

Perret believed that "the cinema has won the freedom to go where it chooses throughout the world and has become a universal medium that facilitates open artistic and commercial exchanges."

This was a sizable community of expatriate French directors in America looking to participate in the rapidly growing American film industry.

With this new company, he produced and directed a series of films including La 13ème chaise based on the play by Bayard Veiller and The Twin Pawns starring the Hollywood celebrity Mae Murray.

His 1920 film, The Lifting Shadows, strongly criticized the newly ascended powers in Russia and revealed Perret's prejudices towards Bolshevism.

His passion for the renewal of French cinematography was evident in this statement: "The artistic, economic, scientific and social ambitions of the film industry are so strong that its potential is limitless.

"Having benefited from the all research and progress made in the American cinema, he planned to adapt his newly acquired knowledge to the French film industry.

Madame Sans-Gêne (1925), released by Paramount Pictures and starring Gloria Swanson, was the first joint Franco-American film production.

The retelling of the French Revolution overthrowing King Louis XVI enjoyed record box office receipts in both France and the United States.

Perret was named artistic director and board member of this new company operating out of the Rex Ingram studios in Nice, France.

The first film Perret distributed with Franco-Film, Morgane la sirène, was wildly successful in France, England and Canada, which confirmed the young company's international ambitions.

Henri Langlois, a pioneer in film preservation, observed that "Léonce Perret's legacies to cinema are his aesthetic discoveries and priceless refinements."

Convinced that there was a future in talking films, Perret directed an adaptation of Huguette Garnier's famous novel entitled Quand nous étions deux in 1929.

Perret's next project was Grains de beauté in 1932, followed by Enlevez-moi, a film that showcased the young actress Arletty as well as the veteran actor Roger Tréville.

Based on a play by Francis de Croisset, the movie won the best French film of the year award from the weekly cinema review Pour Vous.

Although the experiment was met with limited success, it proved to be an inspiration for other artists such as Sacha Guitry who later created similar types of experimental films.

While working on a new bilingual (French-English) talking version of Koenigsmark, Perret fell ill and had to be hospitalized at the Saint Jean de Dieu clinic in Paris.