One in all France’s most profitable actors has been accused of sexually assaulting two girls on the set of one in every of his movies.
Gerard Depardieu, 76, has starred in additional than 200 movies over 5 a long time, profitable two finest lead actor awards on the Cesars, in addition to being nominated for an Oscar and 15 different Cesars.
On Tuesday, judges on the Tribunal de Paris are anticipated to disclose whether or not he has been discovered responsible of the 2 counts of sexual assault alleged to have occurred in 2021, each of which he denies.
If convicted, he faces as much as 5 years in jail or a wonderful of €75,000 (£62,000).
Whereas the #MeToo motion in the end led to the downfall of Hollywood movie director Harvey Weinstein within the US, France’s #balancestonporc equal has struggled to realize momentum.
However Depardieu’s courtroom case, coming quickly after that of Gisele Pelicot, who waived her anonymity to disclose her husband had orchestrated her drugging and rape by greater than 50 males, is proof for a lot of that France is lastly getting its personal #MeToo second.
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Gerard Depardieu arrives at courtroom. Pic Reuters
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Depardieu arrives for sexual assault trial.
What’s he accused of?
Depardieu is accused of sexually assaulting two feminine crew members on the set of the movie Les Volets Verts (Inexperienced Shutters) in 2021.
The nameless girls each declare the actor compelled himself on them on a number of events, touching them over their garments, the courtroom was advised.
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Pic Reuters
The primary lady mentioned in a single incident, as she handed him in a hall he grabbed her, pinned her down between his legs and rubbed himself in opposition to her waist, hips, and chest, making accompanying gestures and lewd feedback.
The opposite lady claimed he touched her buttocks in public on multiple event, in addition to touching her chest.
Depardieu denies the allegations and appeared in particular person on the Tribunal de Paris, telling the courtroom: “I’ve always been told I have a Russian nature, I don’t know if it’s because of the drinking or the vulgarity.”
However he added: “I’m not touching the butts of women.”
One of many alleged victims claimed he behaved “like a madman” who took “pleasure in frightening me”.
Depardieu responded: “I understand perfectly if she’s a bit upset. I am capable of trash talk… I don’t have to talk like that, get angry like that, voila.”
He additionally claimed that he had been in a “bad mood” as a result of the set was sizzling, which was troublesome for him, being chubby.
The trial was because of begin in October however was postponed till March after Depardieu’s authorized group requested for a six-month delay because of his poor well being. Struggling issues from diabetes and hypertension, they mentioned he was unable to take a seat for lengthy intervals.
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In Cannes in 1997. Pic: Reuters
Individually, he additionally stays underneath investigation for the alleged rape and sexual assault of a 22-year-old actress. The lady claims Depardieu sexually assaulted her twice at his dwelling.
She initially reported the alleged incidents in 2018 however the expenses have been dropped in 2019 following a nine-month investigation.
Nonetheless, the case was reopened in October 2020 when the girl refiled the grievance.
In March 2022, Depardieu’s bid to get the case thrown out was rejected by Paris’s courtroom of enchantment, with authorities saying he would stay underneath investigation till the matter is both despatched to trial or dismissed. He denies the allegations.
In April 2023, investigative French media outlet Mediapart reported claims of 13 girls who mentioned Depardieu sexually assaulted or harassed them between 2004 and 2022.
A gaggle of fifty French stars, together with singer and spouse of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy Carla Bruni, wrote their very own open letter defending him in Le Monde, condemning what they described as his “lynching” and describing him as “probably the greatest” French actor.
Every week later, President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “manhunt” for Depardieu, calling him an “immense actor” who “makes France proud”.
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A girls’s rights activist throughout a protest in January 2024 in Paris. Pic: AP
Who’s Gerard Depardieu?
Depardieu was born in Chateauroux, central France in 1948. He left dwelling on the age of 16 for Paris, the place he obtained his first appearing job with a travelling theatre firm.
After a couple of minor movie roles, his break got here in 1973 with a lead half in Bertrand Blier’s movie Les Valseuses (Going Locations) – alongside his former theatre buddies Patrick Dewaere and Miou Miou.
From there his recognition boomed and he turned probably the most prolific French actors of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties.
He received awards for his roles in The Final Metro and Cyrano de Bergerac, which additionally acquired an Oscar nomination. He was made president of the Cannes Movie Competition jury in 1992.
His success additionally noticed him turn out to be a Chevalier of France’s Legion d’Honneur and its Ordre nationwide du Merite – two of the nation’s most prestigious honours.
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Former French President Jacques Chevalier awards Depardieu the Chevallier de la Legion d’Honneur on the Elysee Palace in 1996. Pic: Reuters
Throughout roughly 250 movies, he has labored with greater than 150 administrators, together with Jean-Luc Godard and Ridley Scott.
He turned shut buddies with Robert De Niro after they starred collectively in Bernardo Bertolucci’s movie 1900 in 1976.
Depardieu married fellow actor Elisabeth Depardieu in 1971. She starred alongside him in Jean de Florette and Manon Of The Spring in 1986. That they had two kids, who each turned actors. Their son Guillaume died from pneumonia aged 37 in 2008. The couple divorced in 1996.
He introduced his retirement from appearing in 2005, claiming he had made “enough” movies and wished to pursue different issues.
In 2012 he moved to Belgium to keep away from paying taxes in France. He wrote an open letter to the then prime minister, saying he was surrendering his French passport as a result of he wished “nothing to do” together with his dwelling nation and the federal government was making an attempt to “punish success”.
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With Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in 2013. Pic: AP
Vladimir Putin personally signed an government order to provide him Russian citizenship in 2013. Two years later his movies have been banned in Ukraine over feedback he made questioning the nation’s sovereignty as an impartial state. He has since condemned Russia’s warfare there.
He additionally claims to have been given citizenship by the United Arab Emirates.
In 2023 he was stripped of his Nationwide Order of Quebec after a documentary revealed him making lewd feedback and sexual gestures on a visit to North Korea in 2018, which the area’s premier described as “shocking”.
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On the Netflix premiere of the collection Marseille within the metropolis in 2016. Pic: Reuters
Why is the Depardieu case so necessary in France?
The #MeToo and #TimesUp actions within the US noticed girls within the artistic industries calling out sexual harassment and assault by their male counterparts.
Whereas she noticed colleagues around the globe “thrilled that victims could finally feel confident to talk about the crimes they’d be subjected to”, she says in France “we had a very different experience”.
In 2018, dozens of feminine French stars and intellectuals signed an “anti-MeToo manifesto”, condemning the motion as a “witch hunt” and defending males’s sexual freedom to proposition girls.
Though some, notably Depardieu’s co-star and pal Catherine Deneuve, have publicly U-turned on the problem, it demonstrated a resistance to vary in French society.
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With actor and co-star Catherine Deneuve in Cannes in 1984. Pic: AP
Blanche Sabbah, a French feminist activist and comedian e book creator, says: “We love to talk about being the cultural exception in France.
“Now we have this concept that if you’re some form of inventive genius then you might be much less accountable for dangerous behaviour – and that we’re extra sexually liberated – and do not concern ourselves with ethical panics like within the US. I believe that stopped the [MeToo] motion in its tracks.”
Ms McGrath describes this “cultural exception” as “an perspective {that a} man’s fame and livelihood is extra necessary than victims”.
Both women also point to a “normal mistrust” of claimants and “false concepts” they are bypassing the courts and telling their stories in the media to “get cash”.
“It is merely not true and comes from a lack of information that the French justice system doesn’t play a protecting position for victims of sexual violence,” she says.
“Victims are literally extra more likely to come out with money owed of 1000’s of euros in the event that they undergo the justice system, which far exceeds any compensation they may get.”
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Gisele Pelicot exterior courtroom after her husband’s conviction. Pic: Reuters
However whereas the “balancestonporc” – report your pig – hashtag struggled to realize momentum in 2018, the ladies say they’ve seen a shift – significantly following the case of Gisele Pelicot and the conviction of her husband for raping and welcoming at the very least 50 different males to rape her whereas she was drugged and unconscious.
“It’s taken time, but finally we’re getting somewhere,” Ms Sabbah says. “Gisele’s case serves as a reminder that our culture has a huge influence on how we behave.”
These discovered responsible within the Pelicot case have been aged between 20 and 70 and included a journalist, nurse, firefighters, and a DJ.
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Mass rape trial that ignited a motion
“She has proven that this is the problem of every man – that what you think your favourite movie star can do serves as an argument for justifying what crimes you would commit as a ‘normal’ person’,” Ms Sabbah provides.
Whatever the consequence of the Depardieu case, each girls agree that his prosecution represents a “huge step forward” for girls’s rights and victims of gender-based violence.
“There have been three or four convictions [of men for gender-based violence] recently, so I think the way those cases are perceived now is different to how it was in 2018,” Ms Sabbah says.
“We have gone from ‘classement sans suite’ (no further action) to movie stars on trial.”
