In 2017, Matilda Lutz announced herself to the world with a tour-de-force performance in Coralie Fargeat ’s Revenge . The French action-thriller received festival accolades and critical acclaim, but due to a limited U.S. theatrical run, it became one of those word-of-mouth movies that film buffs proudly recommended to their uninitiated friends. The assumption at the time was that Lutz would go on to become a fixture in the action genre, but the Italian actor had a very different takeaway from her breakout turn.
Instead of doubling down on actioners, Lutz proceeded to operate with a filmmaker-first mentality. After all, Fargeat turned what could’ve been an overly familiar revenge story in another director’s hands into a subversive rape-revenge tale. The French writer-director appli