At the beginning of 2023, because the awards marketing campaign for Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage” was in full swing, a bombshell landed: Florian Teichtmeister, certainly one of its lead actors, was charged with possession of child pornography.
On Friday, Kreutzer debuts her newest movie, “Gentle Monster,” in competitors at Cannes. Its topic: a person is charged with possession of kid pornography.
So, did the revelations about Teichtmeister – who pled responsible to the cost – affect “Gentle Monster”? “It didn’t really,” Kreutzer tells Selection. “The thing is, I was already working on the script before all that happened. Obviously, I was stunned, because I knew him.”
In “Gentle Monster,” we comply with singer-pianist Lucy Weiss, performed by Léa Seydoux, as she slides right into a nightmare because the police examine her husband Philip (performed by Laurence Rupp), a filmmaker, after baby porn is discovered on his laptop.
“I read a newspaper article about the subject in 2020, and it was a very good piece of journalism, a long article, and very explicit,” she tells Selection. “It stayed with me, and I just felt like I had to do something, and the only thing I can do is tell a story about it.”
Léa Seydoux performs singer-pianist Lucy Weiss in Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage.”
Courtesy of Frederic Batier, Movie AG
“Two days before I learned about [the charges against Teichtmeister], I had had a one-and-a-half-hour research conversation with a police investigator [about child pornography], so I was in it, and then this happened.”
Kreutzer thought she must shelve “Gentle Monster” because of the similarities with the Teichtmeister case. “It was crazy, and when we had the scandal and the shitstorm, and it became really difficult, I felt like, ‘Okay, I can’t do this film anymore because everyone would always connect it [with the Teichtmeister case],’ and then it didn’t take very long until I realized, ‘No, that’s maybe not a good reason to not make the film, it’s maybe even more of a reason [for me to make it].’”
The movie’s topic is prone to be a speaking level in Cannes, so what would Kreutzer like these conversations to zero in on?
“For me, it’s a movie about honesty … and being sincere to oneself. Whenever you see one thing in somebody, otherwise you be taught one thing about somebody, imagine it. Clearly, imagine the victims, but additionally imagine it in case you have a intestine feeling, or in the event you be taught one thing about somebody that you just don’t need to know.
“A phrase that got here up typically throughout the analysis was ‘shame.’ It’s disgrace that makes us look away; it’s disgrace that makes us not confront this. In private relationships, but additionally as a society.
“Sometimes, because we are all well-behaved, we’re like, ‘Oh, that can’t be true. He’s such a nice guy.’ It’s not the creepy guy behind the bush. It could be your partner, your friend, your father, someone you know, who you trust and you like … a cool guy.”
The movie’s title displays this subject. “The monstrous or evil thing can come from a very nice person,” she says.
The overwhelming majority of those who commit these crimes are males, and – to a big extent – it’s rooted within the lust for energy, Kreutzer says. “Why is it always around power? What do we tell [boys] when they are growing up? Why is power such an important thing for them?,” she asks.
Within the movie, we see that the policewoman assigned to the case, performed by Jella Haase, finds it tough to confront her father when it turns into clear that he’s sexually harassing his feminine caregiver. This sub-plot “mirrors” the central story, Kreutzer says, exhibiting that we will “look the other way if it makes our lives easier,” and this is applicable to the professionals on this discipline too. “All of the women in the film are basically trying to fix the lives of the men they live with,” she says.
Catherine Deneuve performs Lucy’s mom Eloise, who has no important man in her life and who has, we uncover, been eager that her daughter maintains her independence. “She is someone who has always made her own decisions, and who knew what she wanted, and where she wanted to go, and what she wanted to do,” Kreutzer says. “She is a strong mother, with very clear views on things, which she doesn’t shy away from telling her daughter. But, although she is tough on her daughter at times, she is always warm. That was important to me.”
A lady’s wrestle for independence when she’s in a relationship, and when “both partners are passionate about their work,” turns into even harder after they have kids, and this Kreutzer has skilled first-hand. “Who has more freedom for his or her work when there are kids? Women are still being judged … I always get the question, ‘Where’s your daughter?’ when I’m traveling. My husband has four kids. He never gets that question. So that’s a little bit where that came from.”
