PARIS– PARIS (AP)– Gérard Depardieu as soon as appeared bigger than France itself. With his hulking framework, jagged nose, and volcanic personal appeal, he controlled movie theater for 50 years– a nationwide symbol as acquainted as the baguette.
Yet today, the star that starred in greater than 230 movies– and that influenced author John Updike to lament, “I assume that I will never ever check out/ a French movie without Depardieu”– rested sagged on an unique orthopedic feces in a Paris court.
He deals with 2 matters of sexual offense. If founded guilty, he can confront 5 years behind bars and a EUR75,000 ($ 81,000) penalty.
Yet greater than Depardieu is on trial.
For numerous in France, this situation notes the nation’s ultimate litmus test— a concern not simply of shame or virtue, however of preparedness. Can a country well known for its society of temptation– and long slammed for securing its man musicians– ultimately hold among them answerable?
Depardieu, 76, is implicated of searching 2 ladies– an established cabinet and an aide– throughout the 2021 shooting of “Les Volets Verts” (” The Environment-friendly Shutters”). According to problems and witness declarations, he caught one lady with his legs, ordered her busts and waistline, and yelled: “I can not also obtain it up due to this warm!” prior to crudely welcoming her to touch his “large sunshade.”
He refutes all claims. “Never ever, however never ever, have I abused a lady,” he composed in Le Figaro. “I have actually just ever before been guilty of being as well caring, as well charitable, or having a personality that is as well solid.”
Yet this is the very first time among the greater than 20 allegations versus him has actually gotten to court.
When an icon of France’s imaginative power, Depardieu’s profession currently darkness the country’s postponed considering#MeToo The court has actually come to be the phase for something deeper: a nation ultimately challenging the misconceptions it has actually long informed itself regarding art, power, and male brilliant.
Birthed in 1948 to a working-class family members in Châteauroux, Depardieu’s surge was right stuff of tale. A stuttering teenager without any official education and learning, he wandered right into acting and took off onto the French phase with Les Valseuses (Going Places), a 1974 movie so intriguing it continues to be prohibited in some nations.
From there came a blur of hits: “Jean de Florette,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “Permit,” “The Last City,” “Danton.” He won a Golden World, an Oscar election, and the love of millions. He played Columbus, Jean Valjean, and also Obélix in the “Asterix” movies. He was respected, universal– untidy, magnetic, and untouchable.
Yet the unwanted was actual off-screen as well. He collapsed his bike while intoxicated, approved a Russian key from Vladimir Putin throughout a tax obligation disagreement, and as soon as peed in an aircraft aisle. He showed off his cravings. France appeared to applaud them on.
That misconception– of the adorable brute– is currently deciphering.
In Hollywood, #MeToo fell titans. In France, the motion was consulted with a careful eye. When #BalanceTonPorc (” Reveal Your Pig”) arised in 2017, it rattled the nation’s self-image– especially in the arts, where temptation and disobedience had actually long been commemorated.
Some alerted that #MeToo was eliminating love. In 2018, display tale Catherine Deneuve and 99 various other noticeable French ladies released an open letter in Le Monde, reprimanding the motion for going, in their words, “as well much.” They promoted la liberté d’importuner– “the liberty to trouble”– as a column of French life, safeguarding the right of guys to go after ladies without concern of effect. To numerous, it seemed much less like a protection of flirtation than an approval slip for harassment, masked in fragrance and fond memories.
Also Head of state Emmanuel Macron resembled the view. In Dec. 2023– soon after a docudrama broadcast video of Depardieu making sexually symptomatic remarks regarding a girl in North Korea– Macron protected the star on nationwide tv, condemning the reaction as a “manhunt.” “Gérard Depardieu makes France proud,” he stated.
The comment triggered nationwide outrage– not simply for its timing, but also for what it exposed: the reaction to safeguard social titans, despite the expense.
France’s unwillingness to challenge sex-related transgression amongst its celebrities has actually long established it apart.
Roman Polanski, founded guilty of legal rape in the united state and implicated by a number of various other ladies, remains to function and live easily in France. In 2020, his César Honor win motivated walkouts– however likewise an applause. There was little institutional pushback.
Johnny Depp, went down from United States manufacturing “Pirates of the Caribbean” after residential misuse claims by ex-wife Brownish-yellow Heard (he was vindicated), was accepted in France. In 2023, he played Louis XV in “Jeanne du Barry”, the opening movie at the French Cannes Movie Celebration. In the middle of the test, Dior, the deluxe French style residence, not just maintained him on as the face of its Sauvage scent– it authorized him to a multiyear, seven-figure sell 2022.
Depardieu’s test isn’t the only situation trembling French movie theater. In current months, a string of top-level sentences have actually recommended that the guard of popularity might ultimately be splitting.
Supervisor Christophe Ruggia was punished in 2024 for sexually abusing starlet Adèle Haenel when she was a kid. Nicolas Bedos was handed residence apprehension in 2023 after searching several ladies.
Actor-director Judith Godrèche quickly adhered to. Indicating prior to parliament, she implicated 2 distinguished supervisors of manipulating her as a teen. “This is not regarding wish,” she informed legislators. “It has to do with power. Regarding silence. Regarding a system that secures itself.”
That very same payment has actually considering that mobilized significant stars– consisting of Jean Dujardin. Some apparently asked to affirm behind shut doors.
Anouk Grinberg, that showed up in Les Volets Verts, has actually openly sustained both ladies charging Depardieu. “What I saw on collection was not temptation,” she stated. “It was disgraceful.”
The situation has actually come to be a nationwide mirror– mirroring whatever France has actually endured, refuted, and excused.
On the Parisian walkways, point of views still split. “We’re shedding our society of flirtation,” stated Alain Morel, 62, drinking a coffee at a coffee shop near the Arc de Triomphe. “Flirting isn’t a criminal activity– it belongs to that we are.”
Yet nearby, 28-year-old trainee Yasmine Bensalem drank her head. “We called it beauty,” she stated. “Yet it was constantly regarding power.”
The test proceeds. Depardieu, that has diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, participates in with clinical lodgings. His legal representative asserts the situation is a political grudge– a story to “make Depardieu autumn.”
Yet whether he is founded guilty or otherwise, the much deeper judgment is currently underway.
For years, France’s musicians were viewed as untouchable– their brilliant a guard. That guard is splitting. The misconception is passing away. And in its location, a concern climbs:
Can France ultimately hold its most effective guys to account?
This is not simply the test of Gérard Depardieu. This is the test of a nation– and whether its incomplete change will certainly complete finally.
