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New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Some See Depardieu Verdict as Turning Point for #MeToo in France
The French film star Gérard Depardieu was convicted of sexual assault in Paris on Tuesday. But for many, he wasn't alone on the stand: French cinema and the country's long-term resistance to the #MeToo movement were also being judged. They, too, were found guilty. 'This was the trial of impunity, the trial of silence and forced forgetting, the trial of letting things slide,' said Emmanuelle Dancourt, president of #MeTooMedia, an association advocating for victims of sexual violence in the world of French culture. She added: 'It was the trial of a man who was answerable to the law like all others. But of a man who was protected for decades, and who embodies a much bigger system.' Mr. Depardieu, who is among France's most famous actors, groped two female colleagues on the set of the 2022 film 'Les Volets Verts.' He was handed an 18-month suspended sentence, ordered to pay the two women more than 39,000 euros — about $43,000 — and his name will be added to the national sex and violent offender registry. While Mr. Depardieu's lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said his client intended to appeal the ruling, feminists across France celebrated a rare and potent victory. Since the #MeToo movement arrived in France in 2017, there has been an outpouring of testimony of sexual abuse, but relatively few cases have gone to court. The fact that Mr. Depardieu was not only tried but also convicted was a significant milestone, they said. But many also sensed it might reveal a growing crack in the severe resistance the #MeToo movement had faced in the country, and offer an indication of societal change. The verdict followed one in February, when a French court convicted the director Christophe Ruggia of sexually assaulting the actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor. He is also appealing. 'Until now, we had the impression that the police and the justice system were incapable of seriously taking these issues into account,' said Geneviève Sellier, a feminist film critic and author of 'The Cult of the Auteur.' 'It feels like we are turning a page.' Mr. Assous said the decision made the whole point of a trial moot. 'From the moment you are charged today in a so-called sexual assault case, you are automatically condemned' he said. Included in the damages awarded to the victims by the panel of three judges were 1,000 euros each for the suffering that Mr. Assous had caused them in the four-day trial, during which he called the accusers liars and their female lawyers 'stupid' and 'hysterical.' The defense itself was very much in keeping with the history of #MeToo in France, which Laure Murat, an expert on #MeToo in France at the University of California, Los Angeles, describes as a 'counter-history.' 'There was a backlash, which preceded the event, before anything happened,' said Ms. Murat. First, the movement of women telling their stories of victimization online was dismissed by many as a toxic importation of puritanical American mores that were unnecessary in a culture of seduction and harmony between the sexes. 'Persistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime,' the film legend Catherine Deneuve and 99 other women wrote in an open letter in the French national newspaper Le Monde just three months after the French version of #MeToo — #balancetonporc — began. They defended 'the freedom to bother' and for women to say no. Then, there was something known as the French cultural exception — the financial support and cultural adulation of artists that let them get away with anything in the name of genius. That has meant that while there have been small changes in fighting sexual violence since 2017, particularly regarding children, the judicial system has been largely intransigent. At the same time, the numbers of women speaking out about sexual violence and going to the police have surged. Between 2017 and 2023, police reports of rape and attempted rape in France rose to 42,600 from 14,800. There have been #MeToo eruptions in the French news media, the music industry, theater, politics and the sports industry. And building now is a #MeToo in the private Roman Catholic school system. 'If you look at #MeToo in France, it has never stopped,' said Sandrine Rousseau, a feminist lawmaker who publicly accused her powerful party leader of sexual harassment in 2016. 'But like a river, it doesn't go straight — it avoids obstacles, sometimes it takes an unexpected path, and then it comes back. But what strikes me is how it hasn't stopped.' Mr. Depardieu is a powerful symbol of both those forces. In recent years, more than 20 women have publicly accused the actor of sexual abuse. Six filed complaints with the police — two of which were dropped because they were past the statute of limitations. A strong defense, packed with famous actors and politicians, rushed into place each time, celebrating the actor's 'genius' and 'masterful' talent, and calling him the victim of a 'lynching.' Even President Emmanuel Macron got involved, saying on public television that Mr. Depardieu 'makes France proud.' 'Depardieu, he's a monument of French cinema, and there was a whole system to protect people, but particularly him,' said Anne-Cécile Mailfert, the president of the Women's Foundation, a nonprofit in central Paris that houses many women's rights associations and funds feminist community projects across the country. Ms. Mailfert said the highly publicized trial exposed the public to misogynistic defense tactics that victims commonly face in court and the deficiencies of the criminal system when it comes to addressing sexual violence. But much bigger changes are needed, she said. In fact, while the number of sexual violence cases has surged in France, so, too, has the percentage of cases that are thrown out by investigators — climbing to 94 percent in 2020 from 82 percent in 2012, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy in Paris. 'We are confronted by a wall of justice that we can't get through because they absolutely do not want to put the resources needed to treat all these complaints,' Ms. Mailfert said. 'They say there are too many complaints. But if there are too many complaints, it's because there's too much rape.' Her organization launched a broad campaign demanding that the government make major reforms and commitments to combat sexual violence in education and enhance child protection, victim support and, notably, the judicial system. The annual estimated cost is 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion) — money the government, to date, has been unwilling to spend. 'We haven't had our #MeToo,' Ms. Dancourt said. 'We speak out, we talk about the abuse, but it hasn't been followed by a political will. There is no urgency when it comes to sexist and sexual violence.' Some systemic changes have started to take place, particularly in the wake of the mass trial in which 51 men were convicted, most for raping Gisèle Pelicot after she had been drugged by her husband at the time. This spring, the government approved a robust curriculum for mandatory sex education classes for the first time, that focus on the prevention of sexism and sexual violence. A law introducing the concept of consent into the legal definition of rape in France was passed by the lower house of Parliament in April and is awaiting debate in the Senate. And Ms. Rousseau, the lawmaker, recently ended a six-month parliamentary investigation into sexist and sexual violence in France's cultural sectors. It was the first #MeToo in-depth examination of the industry. It found that sexual violence was endemic in the country's cinema and that, while victims had spoken up for years, the people in power had refused to listen. Among the committee's 89 recommendations, many target the larger justice system. The include offering financial aid to victims of sexual violence so they can pay for lawyers. The report took aim at the 'cult of genius creator' status in France that created a 'breeding ground of abuse of power and a feeling of impunity.' 'People are realizing that the 'exception française' has meant we are 10 years late in addressing #MeToo,' said Ms. Murat, the academic, who is French. 'There is something that is very slowly changing in French society and that young people are realizing it's not tolerable anymore.'
New York Times
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Gérard Depardieu Appears in Court Over Sexual Assault Allegations
The French actor Gérard Depardieu on Monday appeared before a Paris court where he faces two charges of sexually assaulting two women working on the set of a film in which he was starring. The trial will be the first time Mr. Depardieu has been forced to answer in court to accusations of groping, sexual assault and harassment, and rape that have piled up against him for years, and which he has denied. The charges in this trial came after two women on the set of 'Les Volets Verts,' a movie by the French director Jean Becker that was released in 2022, filed police complaints that he had groped their genitals, buttocks and breasts. If found guilty, Mr. Depardieu faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros, or about $81,000. Mr. Depardieu has denied all accusations in the case being brought to trial 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 that showed Mr. Depardieu suffered from long-term diabetes and heart problems after undergoing a quadruple bypass, and that anxiety from the trial had worsened his conditions. For many, the case represents a breakthrough for the #MeToo movement in France, which was stalled for years, particularly in the film industry. Considered the most famous and powerful actor France has produced in generations, Mr. Depardieu, now 76, 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's truly an artist, on a par with directors, given his aura,' said Geneviève Sellier, the author of 'The Cult of the Auteur,' a book about sexual abuse in a segment of the movie industry. 'So the fact that Depardieu was charged, and is going to trial, means that from now on the artist in France is no longer above the law.' While the #MeToo movement toppled scores of powerful men in Hollywood almost immediately after it started in 2017, in France its advent was viewed suspiciously by some as a puritanical American import that was tainting an essential part of France's intellectual and cultural identity. The movement has brought some small structural changes to the cinema industry, including mandatory training for producers in preventing sexual violence on sets if movies are to receive important government subsidies. But it has otherwise faced strong resistance from a sector that is considered near sacred in France and run largely by men. 'Up until now, the French institutions of the cinema covered up all these excesses,' Ms. Sellier said. 'All these institutions are run by men — who are immovable and who have turned a blind eye to these abuses for as long as possible.' In recent months, however, a number of cases have gone to trial and resulted in convictions. Last fall, the film director and actor Nicolas Bedos was convicted of sexually assaulting two women in 2023 and sentenced to one year in prison, which was reduced to six months of house arrest with electronic surveillance. Last month, a French court convicted the director Christophe Ruggia of sexually assaulting the actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, handing him a four-year sentence — two years under house arrest and the rest suspended. Mr. Ruggia has appealed the ruling. It is too soon to determine if the rulings signal a shift for #MeToo in French cinema, said Marie Lemarchand, an actress who is a member of the Association of Actors and Actresses, which was formed in 2021 to lobby for changes in the industry. 'But symbolically, it's very powerful, because these people who filed complaints were recognized as victims,' Ms. Lemarchand said. The first allegations against Mr. Depardieu in the #MeToo era arose in 2018, when a young aspiring actress, Charlotte Arnould, told the police that the actor raped her twice when she was 22. An investigation into those allegations was dropped, then later picked up again in 2020 and is continuing, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. After Ms. Arnould stepped forward publicly, others followed. At least three investigations into allegations of sexual assault and rape against Mr. Depardieu, brought by French actresses and a Spanish journalist, were launched. Two were dropped because they were past the statute of limitations. Mr. Depardieu has called all the accusations false and the media coverage a 'lynching.' In 2023, he wrote in the conservative daily Le Figaro that he might be 'provocative, overflowing, sometimes rude' but that he had 'never, ever abused a woman.' Many prominent people have rushed to Mr. Depardieu's defense. Most notable among them is President Emmanuel Macron of France, who condemned what he called a 'manhunt' against the actor, who he said 'makes France proud.' 'There is always this protection of men's honor,' said Ms. Lemarchand, noting that Mr. Depardieu had been nurtured by a system that at best ignored sexual abuse and violence and at worst promoted it. But, there was a danger in singling out Mr. Depardieu as a 'monster,' she said. 'He can't be separated from the rest of the profession, the environment in which we work,' she said, nor 'from the rest of what our society values.' The trial is scheduled to last two days but could be extended because the court's medical expert has said that Mr. Depardieu's health permitted him to attend for no more than six hours at a time, his lawyer said.
