Gentle Monster: Seydoux and Kreutzer's drama on a pianist's husband accused over abuse images

Left · 2Gentle Monster, directed and written by Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer, stars Léa Seydoux as a concert pianist whose home is raided by police investigating her husband over child sexual abuse imagery. 1 2 Left · 1The A.V. Club names the husband as Philip (Laurence Rupp) and the couple's young son as Johnny (Malo Blanchet), who may or may not appear in the illicit content. It says the film follows a bureaucratic investigation, including scenes with a female officer played by Jella Haase, and flashbacks hinting at earlier suspicious behaviour. Catherine Deneuve plays Lucy's mother. 2 Left · 1The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and has played at other festivals since. It opens in selected cinemas on 30 October and streams on Netflix from 18 November. 1

Left · 1Kreutzer told The Independent the idea came in 2020 from a newspaper report on an investigation into a German paedophile ring. The report made clear to Kreutzer that perpetrators are "much closer than we want to think", prompting the question of how they would react if it were their partner. 1 Left · 2The film was also shaped by a scandal around Kreutzer's earlier film Corsage (2022). Its actor Florian Teichtmeister was charged over possession of child sexual abuse images, with police reportedly finding more than 76,000 files. He received a two-year suspended sentence in September 2023, and Austria later brought in the "Teichtmeister Law" extending penalties for such crimes. 2 1 Left · 1Kreutzer said that after filming wrapped in 2021 they were made aware of allegations against Teichtmeister, who "convincingly assured us (and others) of their falsity". Kreutzer said they refused to pull Corsage from cinemas, partly out of fairness to the 350 other people who worked on it, and were attacked in Vienna and by colleagues. The film's credits thank "all the haters who made me stronger in 2023". 1

Left · 1Seydoux told The Independent they were "afraid of the subject, to be honest" because they have children, but found the script moving and liked its subtlety, since nothing explicit is shown. Seydoux hopes the film helps people open up about abuse, and Kreutzer said some viewers who were abuse victims wrote that the film was healing. 1 Left · 1The A.V. Club's review is more critical. It says the film, though loosely inspired by the Teichtmeister case, "doesn't truly reckon with any of the repercussions", offers "no real provocation" and makes no genuine effort to understand abusers' motivations or the culture that enables them. It calls the film's feminist foundation "tenuous at best", while praising Seydoux's performance as "utterly enthralling" and Judith Kaufmann's 35mm cinematography. 2 Left · 1The review also notes that Austrian director Katharina Mückstein criticised the applauding of a predator at Corsage's 2022 premiere, which prompted a wave of accounts of abuse in the Austrian film industry. It adds that Kreutzer had resisted distancing from the then-unnamed actor over "rumors". 2