Everyone has secrets. The people you’ve known and loved your entire life, the person you married, they have secrets, too. Nothing could prepare Léa Seydoux for what she discovers about her husband in Gentle Monster, Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer’s psychological drama, which premiered earlier this year at Cannes, where it competed for the Palme d’Or.
Seydoux plays Lucy, a successful pianist who sets her career aside to help her husband, only to have their seemingly normal family life upended by a police raid. When her husband is arrested for a terrible crime, Lucy must face the possibility that the life she knew may have been a lie.
Joining Seydoux in the cast are Laurence Rupp, Jella Haase, and screen legend Catherine Deneuve.
The film is Kreutzer’s first since 2022’s Corsage, which starred Vicky Krieps as Austrian Empress Elisabeth.
I had a chance to catch Gentle Monster while at TIFF, and I think Seydoux is extraordinary and has to be in the Best Actress conversation. You can check out my review here.
SYNOPSIS: From director and writer Marie Kreutzer (Corsage, Austria’s entry for the 95th Academy Awards), Gentle Monster tells the story of concert pianist Lucy (Léa Seydoux), who has just relocated her family to a country house hoping to ease her husband Philip’s (Laurence Rupp) severe burnout. Before they have a chance to set up their new home, an early morning police visit tears their life apart. Trapped between the man she loves and the fear of what he may have done, Lucy must face the situation alone as her world unravels. With a cast that includes Jella Haase alongside the legendary, Academy Award nominee Catherine Deneuve, Gentle Monster asks what we do when someone we love turns out to be someone we never really knew.
Netflix will give Gentle Monster a limited theatrical release on October 30th before streaming exclusively beginning November 18th.
