A seemingly ordinary family life can conceal something monstrous. That is the nightmare at the center of “Gentle Monster,” the new psychological thriller from Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer (“Corsage”), starring Léa Seydoux as a woman forced to reconsider everything she thought she knew about her husband.
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Seydoux plays Lucy, a concert pianist whose life is shattered after a police raid and the arrest of her husband for an unspeakable crime. Suddenly left to protect their son while confronting the possibility that the man she married may be a stranger to her, Lucy begins to unravel under the weight of suspicion, fear, and uncertainty.
Written and directed by Kreutzer, “Gentle Monster” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where Seydoux’s performance drew particularly strong notices. The Playlist praised her work as another performance that “demonstrates why [Seydoux] is among cinema’s finest working actresses.”
The film marks Kreutzer’s follow-up to 2022’s “Corsage,” her revisionist Empress Elisabeth drama starring Vicky Krieps, which represented Austria in the Best International Feature Film race at the 95th Academy Awards.
Jella Haase, Laurence Rupp, and Catherine Deneuve co-star. Kreutzer also wrote the screenplay, with Alexander Glehr and Johanna Scherz producing. Judith Kaufmann serves as cinematographer, Ulrike Kofler edits, and Academy Award-winning musician Camille composed the score.
Following Cannes, “Gentle Monster” will continue its festival run with its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release “Gentle Monster” in select theaters on October 30 before the film begins streaming November 18 in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Watch the teaser trailer below.
