2023-12-13 21:36:00
The public admired him for his escapades; the profession put up with its excesses: the revelations regarding the behavior of French actor Gérard Depardieu towards women shed a harsh light on the awareness of French cinema in the fight once morest sexist and sexual violence.
The awareness surrounding the interpreter of Cyrano de Bergerac follows several cases which mark a change of atmosphere in the French seventh art (archives).
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A national icon in the same way as Alain Delon or Brigitte Bardot, the man, known throughout the world, has long seemed to benefit from a certain leniency, even following his indictment for rape, in 2020, at the following a complaint from an actress then aged around twenty, Charlotte Arnould.
Six years following the start of the #MeToo affair in Hollywood and the fall of American producer Harvey Weinstein, are times changing in France?
Since the broadcast at the beginning of December, on the television channel France 2, of a sequence shot five years earlier in North Korea, the sacred monster of French cinema seems radioactive. In these images, the actor, who contests the accusations once morest him, multiplies misogynistic and insulting remarks while addressing women, not sparing a little girl from his obscene remarks.
The wind is turning
At the same time, a second complaint for sexual assault was filed once morest him by the actress Hélène Darras, for facts a priori prescribed, dating back to 2007 on a shoot.
Since then, rare mea culpa have been heard. “We are all a little guilty” admitted on France 2 the president of the cinema producers’ union, Marc Missonnier. “There was a tolerance [à l’égard de Depardieu] which is an error.
The actress Anouk Grinberg, who has known him for 30 years and only recently spoke out to support Charlotte Arnould, denounced once more Monday, on France Inter radio, the “monstrosity” of Depardieu and called for an end to “the other monstrosity […] that of people in the cinema who are indifferent to the harm done to women, to the humiliations inflicted on them.
But the tide is turning: bulimic regarding filming, Depardieu had to put his career on hiatus at the end of October, refusing to lend his voice to the next animated film by Michel Hazanavicius, the director of “The Artist”. Last spring, he was removed from the “Umami” promotion. With 50,000 admissions, the film was a dismal failure.
Sneaky exit
France Télévisions, a manager of which judged that it was no longer necessary to “celebrate” Depardieu, is however careful not to censor the works of a major figure in the national cinematographic heritage. The public television group clarified its position to AFP on Monday: “Films with Gérard Depardieu will continue to be purchased and broadcast”, including several “masterpieces”. The feature film “Lost Illusions”, by Xavier Giannoli, will be broadcast on Sunday on France 2.
On Wednesday evening, we learned that the actor was removed from the National Order of Quebec by the Prime Minister of the French-speaking Canadian province François Legault “for his shocking remarks once morest women”. “The scandalous remarks made by Gérard Depardieu in front of the cameras shocked the international public, with good reason. His behavior tarnishes the reputation of the members of the National Order of Quebec,” announced François Legault in a press release.
The awareness surrounding the interpreter of Cyrano de Bergerac follows several cases which mark a change of atmosphere in the French seventh art.
Nicolas Bedos, who turned the elite of cinema from Guillaume Canet to Isabelle Adjani, will be tried in early 2024 for touching in a nightclub, an involuntary gesture according to him. Since July, he has been the target of an investigation for rape and sexual assault following three separate complaints.
In this context, it was on the sly that the Amazon Prime platform released its series, “Alphonse”, in October with a luxury cast: Jean Dujardin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nicole Garcia.
Already introspections
More broadly, under pressure from activists, such as the 50/50 collective, and the authorities, prevention is progressing. Training in this area has become compulsory, while the use of intimacy coordinators for sex scenes is starting to become commonplace.
But French cinema has already experienced periods of introspection on the subject, before it fell into relative oblivion. In 2019, actress Adèle Haenel denounced the “control” of director Christophe Ruggia when she was a teenager, leading to her indictment for “sexual assault on a minor”. Four years later, she left an environment whose “complacency” she denounces.
And everything is not settled. This is evidenced by the fury of feminists, when Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the public body overseeing the sector, supposed to work once morest this violence, the CNC, was renewed in his position by the State, despite a case, not yet judged. , of alleged sexual assault on his 21-year-old godson, which he contests.
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