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A decade in the past, Gerard Depardieu performed Dominique Strauss-Kahn — the disgraced former head of the Worldwide Financial Fund who was accused of assaulting a lodge maid — in Abel Ferrara’s “Welcome to New York.” In an ironic twist, the enduring French actor has now turn out to be the poster boy for France’s #MeToo motion, having been charged with rape and confronted with over a dozen sexual assault allegations.
However the French stay divided over him as a result of his profile as a mascot of the nation’s cinematic historical past. He’s starred in over 150 movies, together with classics akin to Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” François Truffaut’s “Le Dernier Metro” and Bertrand Blier’s “Going Locations.” Nevertheless, the tide is beginning to shift — whereas French President Emmanuel Macron refused to revoke his Legion of Honor, the Paris wax museum went forward and eliminated his statue on Dec. 18.
Certainly, Depardieu has triggered a watershed second for the #MeToo motion in France in a approach that instances involving administrators Roman Polanski and Christophe Ruggia failed to perform. However why Depardieu, and why now?
In 2020, Depardieu was indicted on rape fees in connection to a 2018 lawsuit filed by actor Charlotte Arnould. However that was not sufficient to stall his profession — he even offered a film, “Robuste,” on the opening evening of Cannes’ Critics Week in 2021. Then in April of final yr, Depardieu was accused of sexual misconduct by 13 girls in an investigative story that ran in Mediapart.
However the Depardieu scandal actually started snowballing after the Dec. 7 broadcast of a bombshell documentary displaying uncooked footage of the actor making sexually inappropriate and obscene jokes, together with one a few baby using a pony, throughout a shoot in North Korea. The documentary, which aired on public broadcaster France Televisions and was seen by a near-record 2.2 million folks, revealed {that a} second actor, Hélène Darras, had additionally filed a criticism in opposition to him alleging that he had sexually assaulted her throughout the filming of “Disco” in 2007. The Paris prosecutor’s workplace informed Selection that the criticism was being investigated internally. Within the wake of the documentary, Spanish journalist Ruth Baza additionally mentioned she had filed an official criticism in opposition to the actor in Spain after being allegedly assaulted throughout interview in Paris in 1995, which is past the 20-year statue of limitation in France. Depardieu has not been convicted in connection to any of the allegations and denies any wrongdoing.
For the reason that documentary aired, a number of #MeToo-related occasions have surfaced in France. Judith Godrèche, the 51-year-old actor-turned-director, has spoken out about about being sexualized and feeling entrapped on the age of 14 by filmmaker Benoit Jacquot, who directed her in “La Desenchantée,” for which she gained a Cesar award. Godreche, who had beforehand accused Weinstein of harassing her in 1996 in Cannes, alluded to her encounter with Jacquot in her semi-autobiographical present “Icon of French Cinema” and posted on social media addressing how their relationship had been “romanticized by the media,” although it was about an “grownup benefiting from his energy over me.” “The little lady in me can’t silence that identify any longer,” she wrote. “I’m afraid. Of not working once more. Of not being supported. However I need to do it. For our little women. For our little sisters. His identify is Benoit Jacquot.” A consultant for Jacquot didn’t instantly reply to Selection‘s request for remark.
One other case entails actor-turned-director Samuel Theis (“Anatomy of a Fall”), who has been accused of rape by a crew member on his third directorial outing, “Je le jure.” Upon listening to of the alleged incident midway by means of the shoot, producer Caroline Bonmarchand tapped an unbiased group to conduct an investigation. Whereas the probe in the end discovered no proof of abuse, Bonmarchand remoted Theis from the shoot and he directed the rest of the movie remotely. It was the primary time ever such step had been taken by a French movie producer.
Iris Brey, a Franco-American movie critic and feminist scholar who lately penned and directed the TV collection “Break up,” compares Depardieu’s downfall to that of Harvey Weinstein within the U.S.
“It’s been an enormous media occasion, all people’s been speaking about it for a month. Similar to with Harvey Weinstein, it began with 13 girls accusing him of sexual misconduct, three of that are rape,” Brey says. “However they’re totally different sorts of beasts. Harvey Weinstein made Hollywood however wasn’t beloved by folks, whereas Depardieu has formed French cinema and he’s adored by the French, together with our president.”
In France, the progress introduced by #MeToo has been generally rejected by essentially the most conservative voters and outwardly embraced by these within the middle and left. However Sophie Lainé Diodovic, a casting director (“Toni, en famille”) who’s a key determine of the feminist org 50/50, says France’s cultural perspective has saved the motion from going far.
The #MeToo motion doesn’t have as many supporters in France as within the U.S. or the U.Okay., Diodovic says, as a result of “French tradition celebrates freedom, transgression within the arts.”
“However arts mustn’t function an excuse to unacceptable conduct that unusual folks aren’t allowed to do,” she provides.
The Depardieu case illustrates how essential it’s to create a secure atmosphere on set the place those that are in susceptible positions are too usually disregarded to please essentially the most highly effective actors.
“They’re extras, interns, in order that they’ll endure and preserve quiet,” Diodovic says. “Everyone knows that on each shoot with Depardieu, girls have been being warned to watch out round him, however we’d additionally hear issues from a earlier century like, ‘Oh, however he doesn’t act on his phrases and those that discuss essentially the most are those that do the least.’”
France has certainly been on the crux of the post-#MeToo debate about separating artwork from the artist, financing and honoring Roman Polanski’s largest hit in current historical past, “An Officer and a Spy,” and producing and distributing Woody Allen’s motion pictures, together with his newest one “Coup de Probability.”
“Within the U.S., when the #MeToo motion emerged with all of the testimonies from victims of Harvey Weinstein, there was an nearly fast emotion and sense of solidarity with them,” Brey says. “However in France, the empathy has been on the aspect of aggressors. It’s France’s rape tradition.”
Regardless of folks defending Depardieu for years, she says the footage confirmed within the documentary “actually struck an emotional chord in a approach and it was watched by individuals who had most likely not been inquisitive about the tales that ran earlier than.”
Whereas French stars have a tendency to stay tight-lipped in the case of commenting on #MeToo issues in concern of ruffling feathers, the Depardieu shockwave has been such that well-known expertise like Sophie Marceau and Laure Calamy have taken a stand in opposition to the actor’s conduct. Nevertheless, others like Pierre Richard and Carole Bouquet signed an op-ed to point out their help of Depardieu, although they’ve since backtracked after studying that the letter had been penned by an artist with shut ties to the far-right, Yannis Ezziad.
Depardieu has polarized the nation much more than the robust immigration coverage endorsed by Macron’s authorities across the identical time that the documentary was launched. Macron, who was invited on the primetime present “C à Vous” to debate the immigration invoice, even weighed in on it, saying the actor “makes France proud” and that he’ll “by no means be seen partaking in a manhunt” as a result of he believes within the “presumption of innocence.” Whereas Tradition Minister Rima Abdul Malak recommended Depardieu’s Legion of Honor may probably be revoked amid new accusations of sexual assault, Macron mentioned it was out of the query.
Because the Depardieu fallout continues, the org 50/50 has been pushing for a brand new plan to increase its current office security workshop past producers so that each crew member and actor would now have to finish the three-day coaching previous to filming.
Apart from the workshop and the appointment of an on-set sexual harassment consultant, the 50/50 org has additionally been lobbying for the hiring of an intimacy coordinators on movie shoots. Brey was the primary TV director to impose one on her shoot, “Break up,” which entails a lesbian romance.
“It’s the duty of producers to impose an intimacy coordinator on shoots and guarantee everybody’s security,” Brey says. “It’s like a stunt coordinator, it’s a necessity.”
The scholar argues that even when the Depardieu case vanishes as abruptly because it got here into mild, it’ll have “raised consciousness as to why France’s beloved freedom of expression shouldn’t be a free go for sexual harassment.”
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