One of France’s most successful actors is in court accused of sexually assaulting two women on the set of one of his films.
Gerard depardieu76, played in more than 200 films over five decades and won two best awards for the actor at the Cesars, and also nominated for an Oscar and 15 other Cesars.
In recent years, he has faced a series of allegations about sexual assault he denies.
While the #MeToo movement eventually led to the downfall of Hollywood film director Harvey Weinstein, France’s #BalANCESTONPORC equivalent struggled to gain momentum.
Depardieu’s court case, shortly after Gisele Pelicotwho has waived her anonymity to reveal that her husband has orchestrated her drug and rape with more than 50 men, is to many proof that France eventually gets its own #MeToo moment.
Here Sky News looks at the matter – and what it means for women’s rights in France.
What is he accused of?
Depardieu is accused of sexually assaulting two female crew members on the set of the film Les Volets Vers (green shutters) in 2021.
The anonymous women both claim that the actor forced him on them on several occasions and touched them on their clothes, according to court documents.
The first woman said in one incident when she passed him in a hallway, he grabbed her, pinned her between his legs and rubbed himself against her waist, hips and chest, made associated gestures and fierce remarks.
The other woman claims that on more than one occasion he touched her butt in public, as well as touched her chest.
Depardieu denies the allegations and is expected to appear in the tribunal De Paris personally for the case that will be heard on Monday and Tuesday. A panel of judges will decide whether to be convicted, which will leave him up to five years in prison or a fine of a fine € 75,000 (£ 62,000).
The hearing would begin in October but was postponed after Depardieu’s legal team asked for a six -month delay Because of its ill health. They have complications of diabetes and high blood pressure and said he could not sit for long periods.
In Cannes in 1997. Pic: Reuters
Separately, he also remains investigating the alleged rape and sexual assault of a 22-year-old actress. The woman claims that Depardieu sexually assaulted her twice at his home.
She originally reported the alleged incidents in 2018, but the charges were rejected in 2019 after an investigation of nine months.
However, the case was reopened in October 2020 when the woman refilled the complaint.
In March 2022, Depardieu’s bid was rejected by the Paris Court of Appeal, with the authorities saying he would be investigated until the case was sent to the trial or rejected. He denies the allegations.
In April 2023, the investigative French media outlet Media Part claimed from 13 women who said Depardieu sexually assaulted or harassed them between 2004 and 2022.
In an open letter in the Le Figaro newspaper in October, Depardieu said he “never abused a woman”.
A group of 50 French stars, including the singer and wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy Carla Bruni, wrote their own open letter defending and condemning him in Le Monde as his ‘Lynch’ and probably describing him as “the greatest” French actor.
A week later, President Emmanuel Macron condemned the ‘Manhunt’ for Depardieu and called him an ‘enormous actor’ who ‘makes France proud’.
A women’s rights activist during a protest march in January 2024 in Paris. Pic: ap
Who is Gerard Depardieu?
Depardieu was born in 1948 in Chatauroux, Central France. He left for Paris at the age of 16, where he found his first acting work at a traveling theater company.
After a few minor films, his pause came in 1973 with a starring role in Bertrand Blier’s film Les Falseeses (Going Places) – along with his former theater friends Patrick Dewaere and Miou Miou.
From there, his popularity bleed and became one of the most productive French actors of the 1980s and 1990s.
He won awards for his roles in the last Metro and Cyrano de Bergerac, who also received an Oscar nomination. He is president of the Cannes Film Festival -Juria in 1992.
With his success, he also became a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honor of France and his Ordre National Du Merite – two of the country’s most prestigious honors.
Train French President Jacques Chevalier Awards Depardieu The Chevallier de La Legion d’Honneur in the Elysee Palace in 1996. Pic: Reuters
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In about 250 films, he worked with more than 150 directors, including Jean-Luc Godard and Ridley Scott.
He became good friends with Robert de Niro after compiling in 1976 in Bernardo Bertolucci’s film 1900.
Depardieu married the co -actor Elisabeth Depardieu in 1971. She interpreted with him in Jean de Florette and Manon of Spring in 1986. They had two children, who became both actors. Their son Guillaume died of pneumonia in 2008. The couple divorced in 1996.
He announced his retirement from the acting in 2005, claiming to have made ‘enough’ films and wanted to pursue other things.
In 2012, he moved to Belgium to avoid tax in France. He wrote an open letter to the then Prime Minister stating that he surrendered his French passport because he “has nothing to do” with his homeland and the government is trying to “punish success”.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in 2013. PIC: AP
Vladimir Putin personally signed an executive order to give him Russian citizenship in 2013. Two years later, his films in Ukraine were banned from comments that he questioned the country’s sovereignty as an independent state. He has since condemned Russia’s war there.
He also claims to have been found through the United Arab Emirates citizenship.
In 2023 he was stripped of his National Order of Quebec after a documentary revealed him that he made ugly remarks and sexual gestures during a trip to North Korea in 2018, which described the region of the region as “shocking”.
At the Netflix premiere of the series Marseille in the city in 2016. Pic: Reuters
Why is the depardie case so important in France?
The #TimesUp movements in the US saw women in the creative industries that call out sexual harassment and assault through their male counterparts.
But it “didn’t really rise in France in the same way, but Sarah McGrath, CEO of Women for Women France, an organization fighting for sex -based violence, says Sky News.
While she sees that colleagues around the world “are excited that victims may eventually feel confident of talking about the crimes they would be subjected to”, she says in France “we had a very different experience”.
In 2018, dozens of female French stars and intellectuals signed an ‘anti-metoo manifes’, condemning the movement as a ‘witch-hunt’ and the defense of men’s sexual freedom to propose women.
Although some, especially Depardieu’s co-star and friend Catherine Deneuve, were publicly turned on the issue, it showed a resistance to change in French society.
With the actor and co-star Catherine Deneuve in Cannes in 1984. Pic: AP
Blanche Sabbah, a French feminist activist and author of comics, says: “We like to talk about the cultural exception in France.
‘We have this idea that if you are some kind of artistic genius, you are less liable for bad behavior – and that we are more sexually liberated – and we are not concerned about moral panic as in the US. I think it stops the [MeToo] movement in its tracks. “
Ms McGrath describes this ‘cultural exception’ as ‘an attitude that the reputation and existence of a man is more important than victims’.
Both women also point to a ‘general distrust’ of plaintiffs and ‘false ideas’ that they bypass the courts and tell their stories in the media to ‘get money’.
“This is simply not true and comes from a lack of understanding that the French legal system does not play a protective role for victims of sexual violence,” she says.
“It is actually more likely to come out victims with thousands of euros as they go through the justice system, which is far out of any compensation they may receive.”
Gisele Pelicot out of court after the conviction of her husband. Photo: Reuters
But although the ‘BalancestonPort’ – Report Your Pig – Hashtag in 2018 struggled to gain momentum, the women say they saw a shift – especially after the case of Gisele Pelicot and the belief of her husband for rape and invited of at least 50 other men to rape her while she was intoxicated and unconscious.
“It took time, but in the end we come somewhere,” says Ms Sabbah. “The matter of Gisele serves as a reminder that our culture has a great influence on how we act.”
Those convicted in the Pelicot case are between 20 and 70 years old and included a journalist, nurse, firefighters and a DJ.
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Mass -riction hearing that set a movement on fire
“She has proven to be the problem of every man – that what you think your favorite movie star can do as an argument to justify what crimes you would commit as a ‘normal’ person ‘,” adds Ms Sabbah.
Regardless of the outcome of the Depardie case, both women agree that his prosecution is a ‘big step forward’ for women’s rights and victims of gender-based violence.
‘There were three or four beliefs [of men for gender-based violence] Recently, I think the way these cases are now seen is different from what it was like in 2018, ‘says Ms Sabbah.
“We went from ‘Classement Sans Suite’ (no further action) to movie stars on trial.”
