Sometimes, horrible things happen right under our noses. And sometimes, we just do not want to see things as they are, particularly when it comes to the people we love. Gentle Monster, the new film from Austrian writer-director Marie Kreutzer (Oscar submission and historical drama Corsage), which world premieres in the competition program of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, explores such themes as love, trust, loyalty and narratives, both factual and fictional, in ways that will get under your skin.

Lucy and Elsa have built their lives around men who may have dark sides lurking. Pianist Lucy, played by French star Léa Seydoux, with Catherine Deneuve as her mother, loves her husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) so much that she agreed to move to the countryside with him and their son Johnny after Philip’s burnout. This affects her professional life, but a bigger worry emerges from the shadows. In an early morning police visit, investigators from the sexualized violence against children, child and youth pornography unit accuse Philip of being active in online chat forums where men share footage of kids. Is he a pedophile? Did he look to make a quick but illegal buck? Or is there another explanation? Desperate to protect Johnny, Lucy feels trapped between the man she loves and the horror of what he may have done.

Meanwhile, Elsa, portrayed by German actress Jella Haase (Berlin Alexanderplatz), who international audiences will recognize as the star of Netflix spy series Kleo, lives for her job as a special police investigator, while also being responsible for her father (Sylvester Groth), who has dementia. But he also seems to have a dark side rearing its ugly head.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde send their regards as the film takes the women, and audiences, on an emotional cinematic journey through complex and painful territory to an abyss where they must confront horrible questions!

For Gentle Monster, Kreutzer re-teamed with cinematographer Judith Kaufmann (Yellow Letters, Late Shift), editor Ulrike Kofler (Gina) and producers Alexander Glehr and Johanna Scherz of Film AG, with Komplizen Film and Kazak Productions also backing the film. mk2 Films is handling international sales.

The auteur talked to THR about the inspiration for her latest creation, getting to cast big international stars, her work with music, in what ways a real-life scandal surrounding Austrian actor Florian Teichtmeister, who featured in her previous feature, Corsage, played into the process for the new movie, and how a pair of sunglasses inspired the title Gentle Monster.

What led you to explore the heavy and difficult themes related to relationships and sexuality that the women in Gentle Monster face?

For me, it’s all about power and wanting to dominate someone, to be above someone. I was inspired by a newspaper article that I read during COVID, while I was still preparing two other films, one of them being Corsage. It was great journalism, and it really haunted me. I couldn’t even finish it in a day, because it was extremely explicit. I just felt that the only thing I could do was to tell a story about this issue, this problem that we, as a society, don’t really know how to deal with.

Of course, I knew about sexual violence towards children, but reading that article in 2020, I realized even more that it’s not about the creepy guy behind the bushes. Statistically speaking, it has to be someone we know. Hence the title. We all do know victims, and we all do know perpetrators. We just don’t know who they are. What I wanted to show was that it could be someone you love, it could be someone you trust. That’s what I like about the title. There can be something really dark and dangerous in someone we trust and love.

Can you share how you actually found the title for the film?

It’s actually a Korean sunglasses brand. We obviously had to check if we were allowed to use the name. The first title was [different]. I had a pair of sunglasses while I was working on the script. The sunglasses were lying on the table, and I was looking around and thinking. Then I just saw the little writing [on the glasses], and thought, “This is the perfect title.”

I felt you made me, as a viewer, feel different emotions throughout, including worry, anger, fear. Since you mentioned the writing stage, how did you approach the writing process to make me care so much?

I basically wrote it as if it were happening to me and asking: “What would I do?” I don’t know who said it, but it’s a famous quote: Write about your biggest fear. The worst thing for me, of course, is if something happened to my kid. But right after that, it would be that my partner did something [horrible]. This is where the story and the plot came from.

When we started looking for financing, we always said this is a film about trust and about violence. Now, looking at the film, I think it’s really a film about honesty, including honesty towards oneself. At what point are you going to acknowledge that a person did something, and you just didn’t want to see it, you just didn’t want to believe it, even if the proof was there all along?

How different was it from making a period drama like Corsage?

It always seems that doing a period film is more work. But actually, doing a contemporary film is as much work, because everyone who sees it knows this world and knows this time. Getting it right in a way that it feels very natural is sometimes even harder than with a period film, where you can make things up and create things. I tried to make it a film that feels authentic [in the sense that it could be happening] to our friends or our neighbors.

Can you talk a little bit about the music and how important it is for your filmmaking, and specifically for Gentle Monster? I got a sense that these two women have different soundtracks. For example, Coldplay’s “Yellow” is part of Lucy’s and her family’s world, while Elsa listens to rap or hip-hop.

Music is always a big part of my work, especially when I’m writing. I have my playlists, I have playlists for different characters, and I just have a soundtrack in my head. Sometimes, some of the songs make it into the film.

With Lucy, it was clear early on that she would be a musician and work with existing material. At some point, I realized that all the songs I collected for Lucy to play with and to perform are songs by men. She mentions that in one line, but I thought it was very interesting that we are so influenced by these love songs by men.

For Elsa, I was looking for something that would be a contrast. When I discussed it with Jella, the female rap idea was really more her idea than mine. I had my music supervisor just show me different artists, and this is how we found these tracks.

You mentioned how Gentle Monster explores how people near us could be involved in dark and scary things. The conversation about Corsage at some point ended up becoming partly about one of its actors and how he was charged with possession of child pornography. Did that affect your work on Gentle Monster, or did making the film help you process that experience further?

I had been working on this film for a while when all of that happened, so it was really absurd. I literally had a one-and-a-half-hour research phone call with a police investigator on a Friday, and on Monday, I heard about these rumors for the first time. It was so crazy.

In the middle of that whole scandal and shit storm, I thought maybe I cannot make Gentle Monster anymore, because everyone will always make that connection. It didn’t take me very long until to realize that I might have to make it even more. If I don’t make the film for that reason, wouldn’t that be wrong? What happened to us was not on such a traumatic level as what happens to Lucy, because it was not someone I loved, but someone I had worked with. This might sound cheesy, but it felt like maybe this was a calling.

I also asked someone at a child protection organization if we should not show Corsage anymore. And she said that would be a very Austrian solution. It would just mean brushing it under the rug and not having to look at that ugly side.

Speaking of child protection: How involved were the safeguarding measures for the cast of Gentle Monster, especially to protect young Malo Blanchet, who plays Lucy’s son, Johnny?

We were extremely careful with everything. There was a whole crew involved, and we had very high standards of child protection. We were [careful about] how we and also how his parents communicated with Malo and what he should know and not know. We agreed on all these things with his parents, who know him best.

We also kept in mind the whole crew. Kasia [Szustow], who did the intimacy coordination, brought that up. She said we needed a mental health person or someone people can talk to, because, statistically speaking, there must be people on the team who have experienced these kinds of things. So, if something came up, they could have someone to speak to. But in general, when you are finally making a film, it’s split up into so many small scenes and bits and pieces that it’s not like you’re thinking about the subject matter every day, but you’re [focused] on that specific scene. So, to be honest, I didn’t have the feeling that it was really heavy on us.

How did two huge French stars, Léa and Catherine, end up in Gentle Monster?

After Corsage, I really got a lot of calls and had a lot of meetings with actors. I learned something that the Americans do, which we are not very familiar with in Europe, or at least in Austria, which is a “general meeting.” After Corsage, I started working with an American manager, and she said people wanted to have a general meeting just to get to know me, and maybe at some point, we were going to work together. I started enjoying this and realized this would also work the other way around. I could also say I wanted to meet this or that person, which I then did. So, it was not that hard to get in touch with great actors.

I had some U.S. and international offers, but I just wanted to make my film with my people, and at some point, I realized that I could make it more international with the cast. Lucy was already a character who spoke two languages because of her parents, and so, I thought it would be good for the story if she was not a native Austrian or German, because when it comes to institutions and all of these problematic things, it’s harder for you if you are not dealing with them in your country and in your first language. [Using] three languages in the film also highlights that this problem [transcends] social and country borders. And Léa is just excellent.

What was the hardest part about shooting the film?

The music scenes, because they were technically very demanding for all of us. This was a whole new situation I had never had to work with on screen, music that’s supposed to be live. It was really like a parallel production, shooting these big concert scenes with a lot of extras. These were days when I was quite tense, because I couldn’t really do much. I just had to rely on everyone else, and I couldn’t really direct that much. That was the most stressful part.

How cool is it that Gentle Monster will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival? Corsage had its debut in the Un Certain Regard section, and this time, you are in the competition program?

It’s very special. I just learned that the number of films in competition compared to the number of entries is under 1 percent. It’s like winning the lottery, in a way. And I’m especially happy for this film. With Corsage, people wanted to see this period film about an Austrian Empress. Many people loved it so much. I knew, when I started on this project, that it wouldn’t be the same, because this is not a film you can enjoy watching three times. People did that with Corsage; they will not do that with Gentle Monster.

It’s important to tell these difficult stories. I knew it would be harder to get the love and attention for this film, so I’m even happier that it gets to be presented in this very special place and with all this attention.

Are you already working on something new?

I have four projects, but in different stages. So, it’s not that I’m shooting anything next week.

You have also done TV productions, but are movies your big passion?

I just love the cinema. I just went to the movies last night … to see Hamnet – late to the party. (laughs) Whenever the light goes down, and you’re with people you don’t know in a dark room watching a film, it’s just magic.