Netflix Drops First Teaser for 'Gentle Monster,' Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve in Marie Kreutzer's Cannes Drama

Netflix has released the first teaser trailer for Gentle Monster, Marie Kreutzer's film starring Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve, which premiered In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year (Deadline).

In the film, Seydoux plays Lucy, an experimental pianist who relocates with her husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) and their young son to a rural farmhouse in Bavaria. Deneuve plays Lucy's mother. The domestic quiet breaks when police led by Detective Kühn (Jella Haase) seize Philip's device and discover thousands of images of child pornography, exposing a double life (Deadline).

Kreutzer wrote and directed the film; Alexander Glehr and Johanna Scherz produced it. The story is a measured fictional account of a family torn apart by child-pornography accusations, and it incorporates many details of the real-life Florian Teichtmeister affair. In 2023, Teichtmeister — who starred in Kreutzer's previous film Corsage alongside Vicky Krieps — was arrested and pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography involving 76,000 files spread across 22 devices. He received a suspended sentence (Deadline).

Netflix acquired Gentle Monster as Cannes was wrapping up in May 2026 (Deadline). The deal landed the streaming service worldwide rights to a title that had generated significant festival conversation.

The release strategy follows a pattern Netflix has used for prestige titles: a limited theatrical run to qualify for awards consideration, then a streaming debut. Gentle Monster opens in limited theatrical release on October 30, 2026, before streaming begins November 18, 2026 in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. (Variety; Deadline).

Before either of those dates, the film will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, giving it another festival platform ahead of its commercial rollout (Deadline).

What makes the project unusual is the line Kreutzer walks between fiction and documented events. Corsage, her 2022 film, cast Teichtmeister as Emperor Franz Joseph I opposite Krieps's Empress Elisabeth. His arrest came after that film's release. Gentle Monster returns to the circumstances — not as documentary, but as a dramatic exploration of what happens to a family when such accusations surface — and the teaser makes clear the film will not look away from the rupture point.