2024-10-29 11:36:00
Is Gérard Depardieu a rapist, a libertine or a national hero? The great French actor will be tried in Paris. Out of respect for his health, the court postponed the hearing: the company has already made its decision.
In France the big names of cinema are defined as “sacred monsters”. On Gérard Depardieu it seems like the name sacred monster particularly applicable. If you believe the numerous women who have accused him of sexual harassment, France’s greatest actor would be a dangerous monster protected for decades by the film industry. But for many he is and remains an icon, a kind of saint against whom a hunt has begun. Depardieu, monster and saint at the same time.
The first accusations against Depardieu were made in 2018 in the wake of the MeToo movement. About a dozen women have accused the star of sexual harassment and two have sued him for rape. Now the judiciary should finally clarify what is behind the accusations against the 75-year-old. Depardieu’s first trial is expected to begin on Monday at the Paris criminal court. Two women reported him because he allegedly sexually harassed them during the filming of Jean Becker’s film “Les volets verts” (The Green Shutters) in the summer of 2021.
But the accused did not show up. “Gérard Depardieu is deeply affected because unfortunately his doctors prohibited him from appearing at the hearing,” his defense lawyer Jérémie Assous told France Info radio on Monday morning. He is said to have presented medical reports from Depardieu’s cardiologists and diabetologists . After that Depardieu could not be expected to sit through a six-hour trial. Outside the courtroom, Assous reiterated that Depardieu wants nothing more than to finally be able to defend himself. The trial began, but after a few hours it was postponed to March 23 and 24, 2025. It was also in the plaintiffs’ interests that the defendant was present, their lawyers said.
Depardieu’s lawyer, for his part, used the platform to insult the claimants, claiming that they had spread “misinformation and lies” and were only asking for compensation. Then an indignant murmur spread through the room.
“Makes France proud”
One of the plaintiffs, decorator Amélie Kyndt, testified before the trial that Depardieu grabbed her with “great brutality” during filming, then massaged her waist, belly and breasts. She quotes him as saying, “Come on, touch my thick parasol, I’ll stick it in your pussy.” He brought her into the press with legs “like a crab”. When the now 55-year-old couldn’t free herself, her bodyguards are said to have helped her. The next day he is said to have begrudgingly apologised.
A few days later, he harassed an assistant director in a similar manner. The woman, who was 33 years old at the time, also filed a complaint. The French star faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. On Monday, numerous women, feminist groups and actress Anouk Grinberg gathered outside the criminal court in Paris. They chanted “This is not cinema, this is trauma!” Or: “We believe the victims, we see the rapists!”
After the first accusations and a rape complaint in 2018, archived immediately afterwards and reopened only in 2020, the avalanche against Depardieu really broke out in April 2023, when the online magazine “Mediapart” published an investigation with the declarations of thirteen women who had supported Depardieu all accused of sexual harassment. The star responded with an open letter to the newspaper “Le Figaro”: “Never, absolutely never, have I abused a woman.”
At the end of 2023, France 2 will broadcast a report with documentary footage from his writer friend Yann Moix, who accompanied Depardieu to North Korea but never published the footage. In it, Depardieu was seen making vulgar comments about his translator and a little girl on a horse.
This document left many people speechless. Others complained about the media court and the hunt for Depardieu. “These are rude comments, he’s not really trying to cover himself in glory. But he always did. This is not a crime,” said actress Carole Bouquet, who has known him for almost 50 years and was his partner for ten years. She is very worried about him, Bouquet said. President Emmanuel Macron also defended Depardieu after the broadcast of the documentary and spoke of an “immeasurable actor” who “makes France proud”.
A heated debate then developed which showed how deeply divided French society is. Many women are angry that the old macho culture continues to survive. Others simply don’t want to make an advance judgment on Depardieu. But an old guard resists the new times. Its main representative is the Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who in his numerous media outlets leads a crusade against “American cancel culture”.
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