Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexual assault against two women on a movie set (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
by Mick the Ram
French film star Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty at a trial in Paris of sexually assaulting a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director on a film set, and has been handed a suspended jail sentence of 18 months.
The 76-year-old was accused by the women of groping them in September 2021, during the making of a film called Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) about an ageing actor, coming to terms with his declining powers.
The judge also fined Depardieu a total of €29,040 and ordered him to pay compensation of €1,000 each to the two women; in addition he was placed on a list of sex offenders.
The actor was not in court for the verdict but his lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said they would be appealing against the sentence.
Depardieu is France’s biggest film star who has made more than 200 films and TV series, and becomes the highest-profile figure in the French film industry to be convicted of sexual assault since the #MeToo movement started.
This was Depardieu’s first trial on sexual assault charges; he could be called back to face up to allegations made by several other women in regards to more inappropriate behaviour and also a potential rape case could materialise.
Disgusting behaviour
The court in Paris found that one of the women, a set designer named in the media as Amélie, had given consistent evidence, while the actor’s accounts had changed over time.
She had told the court that after a minor argument with Depardieu he targetted her whilst she was making phone calls to track down parasols for the film. He said to her: “Come and touch my big parasol. I’ll stick it in your pussy.”
He then pincered her between his legs as she squeezed past him in a narrow corridor, holding her by the hips, spouting obscenities at her, whilst grabbing her buttocks, chest and pubic area.
Savage attitude to women
Amélie said: “I remember his eyes, I saw this big face, red eyes, very angry, very agitated, he had a crazy look; I’ve never seen anything like that.
“What stands out for me is not his sexual desire but his savagery. It was the fact that he knew I was afraid, I saw his eyes light up with a kind of pleasure in making someone afraid. He really terrified me, and that amused him.”
She told the court that the actor’s calm and cooperative attitude during the trial bore no resemblance to his behaviour at work and after the verdict was given she expressed “satisfaction” saying she was “very moved” calling it a “victory, and a major step forward – justice has been done.”
Three separate attacks
The second plaintiff, called Sarah, who is an assistant director, said she had been assaulted by the actor on three separate occasions.
On the first, she had been accompanying him from his dressing-room to the set when she felt his hand on her buttock. Another time he touched her breasts through her clothes on a set inside a Paris apartment, and a third time the buttocks again.
She said the assaults left her “petrified” and after she found the courage to tell her superiors what had happened, Depardieu allegedly called her a “snitch” and refused to have her come near him.
Defence accuse “victims” of lies
The Depardieu team obviously viewed the entire situation differently and his lawyer Jérémie Assous accused the women of lying throughout their evidence.
He demanded an acquittal and called the plaintiffs’ team “more militants than lawyers”. Continuing, he said: “They cannot bear that there should even be a defence; they think any defence is a supplementary assault.”
Not at ease in the “new society”
During the trial the movie star admitted that he was given to “rude” and “vulgar” language which he acknowledged was no longer regarded as acceptable.
He said it had reached a point a few years ago, where he always insisted no female assistants should come near him in his dressing-room, because they were too liable to be shocked.
“Knowing the vulgarity of the old world, today I try to avoid being listened to by the new world – so that I don’t come across as detestable. I am not very much at ease with this new society… I think my time is done,” he told a shocked court.
Reputation “dragged through the mud”
Nevertheless, Depardieu himself has always denied the sexual assault claim, telling the trial that the media had used allegations against him to damage his reputation.
The French actor was keen to point out that his name had been dragged through the mud by what he called ”lies and insults”.
He flatly denied being a sexual abuser. “I don’t see how it could be fun feeling up a woman, her buttocks, her breasts. I am not a metro-train groper,” he said.
Deoardieu also attacked the #MeToo movement, suggesting that it would “become a terror”.
Rehearsal, or just wishful thinking?
Almost tongue -in-cheek he went on to thank the prosecution as well as his defence team, for giving him insights into how courts operate.
He said: “These lessons may be an inspiration for me one day if I get to play a lawyer” although since the sexual allegations first began to circulate against him over three years ago, he has not had any acting work.
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