Known for her sharp, character-driven films that often explore the complexities of women’s lives, societal expectations, and personal rebellion, Marie Kreutzer‘s 2011 debut Die Vaterlosen and third feature in 2019’s The Ground Beneath My Feet premiered at the Berlinale. It’s with her sumptuous four feature in 2022 that landed at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section and won Best Performance for Vicky Krieps that pushed the Austrian filmmaker to new heights. This success of Corsage (read ★★★★ review) meant some choice folks joined this fifth feature. We might just see some more leanings into female agency and rebellion in this next project. Here is Everything We Know So Far … about Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster.
Word on Gentle Monster first came to surface just before it was headed off to Cannes’ Marché du Film Investors Circle last May where it picked up the ArteKino International Prize of €20,000. Production took place this past September in Austria and Germany for just over two months. It’ll be a busy post production schedule for this to showcase next May.
Lucy Weiss (Seydoux) loves Philip (Laurence Rupp) and, after his burnout, even moved to the countryside with him and their son, despite the professional limitations this entails for her. Elsa Kühn (Jella Haase), on the other hand, lives for her job as a special investigator with the police, but is kept on her toes by the responsibility of caring for her father, who has dementia. Both women build their lives around men whose dark sides they would rather not see. A story about Lucy and Elsa, about trust and deception, about love and violence.
Léa Seydoux, Laurence Rupp, Jella Haase and Catherine Deneuve form the film’s quartet.
Cinematographer Judith Kaufmann and Film Editor Ulrike Kofler returns to work with Kreutzer, and among the producer circle of trust we have Film AG’s Alexander Glehr and Johanna Scherz, Komplizen Film’s Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski with Kazak Productions’ Jean-Christophe Reymond.
The aim here will be for Marie Kreutzer to shore up in the competition for the Palme d’Or. Mk2 are handling world sales.
