French actor Gérard Depardieu appeared on Monday before a Paris court where he faces two accusations of sexual assault two women working on the set of a film in which he played.
The trial will be the first time that Mr. Depardieu will be forced to respond to court to accusations of trial and error, sexual assault and harassment and rape that have stacked him for years and that he has denied.
The accusations of this trial intervened after two women on the set of “Green shutters”, “ A film by French director Jean Becker which was published in 2022, filed complaints to the police that he had groped their genitals, buttocks and their breasts. If he is found guilty, Mr. Depardieu risks up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros, or about $ 81,000.
Mr. Depardieu denied all the accusations of the case translated on Monday. His lawyer, Jérémie Assous, called them “totally false and unrealistic”.
The trial was scheduled for last October, but was postponed after Mr. Depardieu did not appear for health reasons. Mr. Assous presented medical assessments which showed that Mr. Depardieu suffered from long -term diabetes and heart problems after having suffered a quadruple bypass, and that the anxiety of the test had aggravated his conditions.
For many, the case represents a breakthrough for the #MeToo movement in France, which has been blocked for years, especially in the film industry.
Considered that the most famous and powerful actor France produced in generations, Mr. Depardieu, now 76 years old, has dominated the French screen for decades, appearing in more than 230 films, including “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “The Man in the Iron Mask”.
“He is really an artist, tied with the directors, given his aura,” said Geneviève Sellier, the author of “The Cult of the Author”, a book on sexual abuse in a segment of the film industry. “The fact that Depardieu has been charged and will therefore be tried, from now on the artist in France is no longer above the law.”
While the #MeToo movement overthrew the dozens of powerful men in Hollywood almost immediately after its start in 2017, in France, its advent was considered with suspicion as a Puritan American import which surrounded an essential part of the intellectual and cultural identity of France.
The movement has brought some small structural changes to the film industry, including compulsory training for producers to prevent sexual violence on sets if films must receive significant government grants. But it had otherwise had to face a strong resistance of a sector considered to be almost sacred in France and largely directed by men.
“Until now, French cinema institutions have covered all these excesses,” said Ms. Sellier. “All these institutions are led by men – who are irremovable and who have closed their eyes on these abuses as long as possible.”
In recent months, however, a number of cases have been tried and have resulted in convictions. Last fall, director and actor Nicolas Bedos was found guilty of having sexually assaulted two women in 2023 and one year in prisonwhich was reduced to six months of residence resistance with electronic surveillance.
Last month, a French court condemned the director Christophe Rugghia for having sexually assaulted actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, pronouncing a four -year sentence – two years after a house arrest and suspended rest. Ruggia appealed the decision.
It is too early to determine whether the decisions report a change for #MeToo in French cinema, said Marie Lemarchand, an actress who is a member of the Association of Actors and Actresses, who was trained in 2021 to put pressure for changes in the industry.
“But symbolically, it is very powerful, because these people who filed complaints were recognized as victims,” said Lemarchand.
The first allegations against Mr. Depardieu in the #MeToo era took place in 2018, when a young budding actress Charlotte Arnould, police told the actor that the actor raped her twice at the age of 22.
An investigation into these allegations was abandoned, then resumed in 2020 and continues, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
After Ms. Arnould advanced publicly, others followed.
At least three surveys on allegations of sexual assault and rape against Mr. Depardieu, brought by French actresses and a Spanish journalist, were launched. Two were abandoned because they exceeded the limitation period.
Mr. Depardieu called for all false accusations and media coverage a “lynching”. In 2023, He wrote in the conservative daily Le Figaro That it could be “provocative, overflowing, sometimes rude” but that he had “never abused a woman”.
Many eminent people rushed to the defense of Mr. Depardieu. The most notable among them is President Emmanuel Macron in France, who condemned what he called a “manhunt” against the actor, who, according to him, “makes France proud”.
“There is always this protection of honor of men,” said Lemarchand, noting that Mr. Depardieu had been fed by a system that has best ignored sexual abuse and violence and the worst promoted it.
But, there was a danger to distinguish M. Depardieu as a “monster”, she said. “It cannot be separated from the rest of the profession, from the environment in which we work,” she said, nor “of the rest of what our society appreciates”.
The trial is expected to last two days, but could be extended because the medical expert of the court said that Mr. Depardieu’s health had allowed him to attend for more than six hours, said his lawyer.
Ségolène the Stradic Paris contributed reports
