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Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Gerard Depardieu's sex assault convictions deliver a shameful reckoning for all France: JANE FRYER
Yesterday, in a Paris courtroom, Gerard Depardieu, the 76-year-old French one-time sex symbol, hell-raiser, star of more than 200 films including Jean de Florette, Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women – a 34-year-old assistant director and a 54-year-old set dresser. The court heard how, during the shooting of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in Paris in September 2021, Depardieu trapped the set designer, known as Amelie, when she was making calls to track down parasols for the film. How he grabbed her hard between his legs, groped her buttocks, pubis and chest with great force, and allegedly said, 'Come and touch my big parasol. I'll stick it in your p****,' until he had to be pulled off of her. 'That's where I understood the strength he had, he held me very, very hard,' said Amelie. 'I remember his eyes, I saw this big face, red eyes, very angry, very agitated… with a crazy look. I've never seen anything like that.' And how, according to the assistant director who was not named in the media, he 'talked about sex all day on set, constantly talking of 'p****' to everyone' and attacked her in a similarly opportunistic and savage manner. He was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence, fined 31,540 euros and will have his name added to France 's sex offender register. He also faces allegations of sexual harassment and assault from at least a dozen other women, along with a claim by actress Charlotte Arnould of rape on a set in 2018, when she was just 22. But Depardieu didn't bother turning up for the verdict yesterday and no one seemed to know where he was. Perhaps he was back on set for his latest film which, astonishingly, he is making with his old friend, the actress Fanny Ardant, who testified in support of him. Or maybe he is drowning his sorrows. Or, who knows, perhaps he is just marvelling at how he got away with it all for so long. Because, for half a century, however badly he's behaved, nobody in France seems to have cared, festooning him with awards, making him a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, presenting him with the Ordre National du Merite and celebrating him as a national icon. They've lapped up stories in his autobiography of robbery, prostitution and extreme random violence when he was a teenager. And indulged his love of extreme boozing – he claims to regularly drink up to 14 bottles of wine a day, limbering up with red or champagne before 10am, two carafes at lunch; champagne, beer and pastis in the afternoon, and vodka and whisky in the evening. And when, in 2011, he urinated into a bottle on a flight, which he then spilled, mention was made of his 'louche charisma'. The French film industry didn't even seem to get very wound up about ongoing allegations of tax fraud against him. Or care about his dodgy friendships – with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, with whom he went hunting. Or Vladimir Putin, whom he describes as 'the man Russia needs' – which perhaps has something to do with Putin granting him Russian citizenship in 2013. And astonishingly, despite a slew of complaints about his sexually aggressive behaviour on set and off, until recently, nothing really stuck. Indeed in December 2023, when a documentary aired showing him making sexually suggestive comments about a young girl in North Korea, he dismissed it as a 'manhunt'. President Emmanuel Macron even defended him on national television, saying: 'Gerard Depardieu makes France proud.' (Though Mr Macron did rethink his approach weeks later to confirm it was 'important for women who are victims of abuse to speak out'.) Depardieu's lawyer Jeremie Assous arrives at the courthouse, in Paris, Tuesday, May 13, 2025 Two woman - a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director - claimed that Depardieu subjected them to sexual violence on set Then again, the French have never seemed keen to embrace the #MeToo movement, confront sexual violence or hold influential men accountable. Just last month, a damning parliamentary report concluded that sexual violence and sexual harassment remained 'endemic' in France's entertainment industry and that women and children were still routinely preyed on. They've got a point. Back in 2018, actress Catherine Deneuve, now 81, signed a letter along with 100 other women that defended men's 'freedom to bother' women as essential to that oh-so-French ritual of seduction. And on the eve of the trial, 90-year-old Brigitte Bardot defended 'talented people who grab a girl's bottom'. Of course, whatever Brigitte says, a quick 'grab' is never okay. But, says set designer Amelie, this was never about the grab, but the 'savagery'. 'That fear that I felt – 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. I remember that savagery.' For all his gallic charm, it seems that Depardieu has always struggled with an unhappy blurring between right and wrong. Most likely due to his grindingly poor upbringing in Chateauroux, 200 miles south of Paris, where his mother told him how she'd tried to abort him with a knitting needle. His parents couldn't afford a midwife so he delivered his younger siblings, and they were so poor they ate hedgehogs and bought meat only once a month. 'I did not change one iota from how I was when I was about 12,' he once said. Which is rather telling because, by his own account, aged 12 he was wandering the streets stealing, fighting, prostituting himself and beating people up. It was only after spending three months in prison for stealing a car aged 16 that a psychologist told him he should be on the stage. And then one day, as if by magic, he got chatting in a bar with the niece of French filmmaker Roger Leenhardt, who recommended him for a small part as a beatnik in one of her uncle's movies. It was in 1974 that he won his breakthrough role, playing a petty thief in the sexually explicit film Les Valseuses and scaring the crew half to death. 'We literally had to follow him at night to stop him getting into punch-ups,' director Bertrand Blier once said. But he really could act, so his career rocketed. By the 1980s, he was the most sought-after French actor: talented, sexy, internationally famous and astonishingly versatile, playing everything from Joseph Stalin to Auguste Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac to the Count of Monte Cristo. He even rubbed shoulders with Princess Diana and the Pope. The real shame, of course, is that neither his astonishing success nor the massive riches that came with it made him any nicer. He drank and drank – once so inebriated that he downed a bottle of hair lotion, thinking it was a specialist Italian liqueur – and ate to excess. Several chickens and four steaks at a single sitting. Often five meals a day. Meanwhile, he remained as angry and aggressive as his 12-year-old self – headbutting photographers and punching a motorist after his scooter collided with the man's car. And through serial infidelities, he wrecked his relationship with Elisabeth Guignot, his wife and co-star in Jean de Florette, and there were endless dramas with partners including French-Senegalese model Karine Silla and James Bond actress Carole Bouquet. But on and on he worked. Often at a rate of four films a year. Until, over the last couple of years, the allegations of sexual misconduct started piling up so fast – more than 20 women have now publicly accused him of improper behaviour – that even French film-makers have stopped casting him. And prosecutors are now calling for him to be tried for the alleged rape of Charlotte Arnould. Depardieu, of course, denies all allegations. 'Never, but never, have I abused a woman,' he wrote in an open letter in the French newspaper Le Figaro in 2023. 'I have only ever been guilty of being too loving, too generous, or having a temperament that is too strong,' he insisted. Try telling that to poor Amelie.
Russia Today
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Russia Today
French actor Gerard Depardieu convicted of sexual assault
French actor Gerard Depardieu was convicted on Tuesday of sexually assaulting two women during the filming of a movie in Paris in 2021. The 76-year-old cinema veteran was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence. The court also ordered Depardieu to pay more than €29,000 ($32,650) in damages to the victims, a set decorator and an assistant director, and added his name to France's national sex offender registry. The verdict marks the most high-profile conviction for sexual misconduct in the French film industry since the rise of #MeToo, a global social movement against harassment and assault which encouraged survivors to share their experiences to raise awareness. Depardieu, who has appeared in more than 200 film and television productions, has denied any wrongdoing. He has faced over 20 sexual misconduct allegations in recent years, most of which were dropped due to lack of evidence or statute of limitations. He also remains under investigation in a separate rape case linked to a complaint filed by actress Charlotte Arnould in 2018. One of the victims, identified as Amelie K., told the court that Depardieu grabbed her waist, pulled her toward him, and groped her intimate areas while making obscene remarks. The second woman, a 34-year-old assistant director who has not been publicly identified, said Depardieu had touched her breasts and buttocks on three occasions during the production of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters). During the March trial, Depardieu admitted to grabbing one of the women by the hips during an on-set dispute but denied any sexual intent. He acknowledged using vulgar language and attributed his behavior to differences in social norms across generations. 'I hope this is the end of impunity for cinema artists. I've heard some actors recently still supporting Depardieu. Now with this verdict, no one can say Gerard Depardieu is not a sexual predator,' Carine Durrieu Diebolt, Amelie's lawyer, reportedly said. Depardieu, who did not attend the verdict due to filming commitments in the Azores, intends to appeal. In 2023, veteran actress Brigitte Bardot publicly defended him, saying, 'Those who have talent—if they put their hands on a girl's butt—they are thrown into the dungeon.' Bardot has not commented since the ruling.
The Independent
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
The Depardieu verdict is proof France learned nothing from Gisèle Pelicot
Gisèle Pelicot ought to have changed everything. After a trial that saw 50 men, including her husband, convicted of raping the 72-year-old while she was unconscious, it would be impossible for things to remain the same. Sex crimes would have to be taken more seriously by the French courts. In waiving her anonymity, Madame Pelicot had forced the country to look into its darkest corners and confront horribly outdated attitudes to misogyny and sexual violence. It could no longer be ignored. That was in December. Today, 76-year-old Gérard Depardieu was given a lowly 18-month suspended sentence for sexually assaulting two women on a Paris movie set, in 2021. The actor wasn't even in court for the verdict, and has apparently been in Portugal working on a new film. A fall from grace? Sacré bleu. Am I the only one who thinks this is meagre progress as far as the French MeToo movement is concerned? That Depardieu has been found guilty is certainly a vindication of the brave women who came forward to accuse him, including the 20-plus who never made it to trial thanks to a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations. (An allegation of rape by actress Charlotte Arnould is still making its way through the legal system.) One of his victims, who cannot be named, has said that she is 'very moved' by the judge's decision, which was 'a real victory and a great step forward'. I'm glad, so glad, she feels that way. But I also can't help but feel disappointed that women are supposed to be grateful for such limited justice. This is a man who attacked a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director, trapping them between his thighs, grabbing their buttocks, crotches and chests and using obscene language. In one case, he had to be pulled off by others. One told the court she had been left 'petrified'. Where is the sentence that would send a message to others who feel they can harm women with impunity? Are we supposed to feel grateful that Depardieu – who is estimated to be worth around $250m – was fined £24,414 and will be placed on the sex offenders register? How meaningless that feels in the face of a man who thanked the prosecution and defence teams for showing him how the court system works and joked: 'These lessons may be an inspiration for me one day, if I get to play a lawyer.' Presumably he already has enough 'inspiration' should he ever get to play a sex offender. Anyone who imagined the Pelicot case had shot down the tropes that still exist around sexual assault in France ought to think again. Depardieu's lawyer employed every sexist stereotype under the sun, calling his victims 'liars' and 'hysterical', as well as saying they were working for the cause of 'rabid feminism'. Reporting of the trial was little better, with headlines glorifying the 'French movie legend'. Film director Fanny Ardant defended Depardieu using extraordinary lamguage, saying that 'genius […] carries with it an element of the extravagant, the untamed, the dangerous". (Last time I checked, climbing Everest was the definition of dangerous, not working on a film set.) Brigitte Bardot criticised how 'talented people who touch the buttocks of a girl are consigned to the deepest dungeon' – or, you know, are free to continue their careers, while their victims have to live with the great personal cost of having come forward in the first place. Even President Macron had to backtrack after implying on a chat show that Depardieu was the victim of a 'manhunt' and had 'made France proud'. Yes, a man who, during his trial, claimed that he didn't even know what sexual assault was. So proud. Were we naive following the Pelicot trial? After all, six of her rapists walked free having already served the duration of their sentence or received a suspension and the French legal definition of rape – predicted to change in the wake of her ordeal – still doesn't include any mention of consent. Excuses are still being made for talented men because, naturellement, rapists look like 'monsters' and not Hollywood stars. Deep cultural change can't happen overnight – and needs to happen in Britain, too, where just 2.6 per cent of rape cases result in a charge or summons. But that Depardieu has been handed such a flippant sentence – which he will, of course, be appealing – says so much about power structures and what kind of change really matters. Or as Madame Pelicot put it: 'It's time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape changes.' Anything else really would be dangerous.
Malay Mail
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Gérard Depardieu: The rise and fall of a French film icon
PARIS, May 13 — Gérard Depardieu was a titan of French cinema for more than 50 years but a sexual assault conviction, a string of other allegations and several instances of lewd behaviour now cast a long, dark shadow over what was once a glittering career. The 76-year-old has been accused of sexual assault or rape by around 20 women. Today, in the first of these cases to go to trial, Depardieu was convicted of sexually assaulting two women during a 2021 film shoot in Paris for French director Jean Becker. One of the two victims said Depardieu grabbed her, groped her breasts and made 'obscene remarks' about wanting to penetrate her. His lawyer said he will appeal. In 2020, he was also charged with raping actor Charlotte Arnould when she was in her 20s. He denies the allegations. Depardieu's prolific career spans more than 200 films, making him one of the best-known French faces on the silver screen. French audiences long appreciated his brash, unfiltered and frequently offensive character. But this is now often seen in a strikingly different light in the #MeToo era. 'Fall of the Ogre' A 2023 television investigation entitled 'The Fall of the Ogre' revealed images shot five years earlier in North Korea, in which Depardieu can be heard making obscene sexual remarks about an under-age girl. When then–culture minister Rima Abdul-Malak called the recording of Depardieu in North Korea a 'shame for France', President Emmanuel Macron jumped to his defence. He remained a 'towering actor' who 'makes France proud', Macron said. Around 60 film and art figures signed a petition to support the 'cinema giant' in 2023, entitled 'Don't Cancel Gerard Depardieu'. Ahead of the sexual assault verdict, fellow film icon Brigitte Bardot also leapt to his defence, saying: 'Those who have talent and put their hands on a girl's bottom are thrown in the gutter.' While he attended the start of the trial, Depardieu was not in court for the verdict. He had in April been working on a new film directed by another of his supporters, actor Fanny Ardant, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. 'Hero with a thousand faces' Depardieu was born December 27, 1948, in Châteauroux, central France. Although his teenage years were marked by delinquency, he went on to discover the theatre in Paris and appeared in his first film in 1965. One of Depardieu's breakthrough roles came as a violent small-time crook in 1974's Les Valseuses (Going Places) directed by Bertrand Blier — a film that drew criticism for its on-screen depictions of sex. The controversy did nothing to harm Depardieu's career. He went on to be crowned with France's version of an Oscar, the César award, for Le Dernier Métro (The Last Metro) by New Wave icon François Truffaut. US magazine Newsweek called Depardieu a 'hero with a thousand faces' in 1987, when he was on a successful run that peaked with 1990's Cyrano de Bergerac by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. He began dipping into Hollywood in the years after, with movies such as Green Card and 1492 which won him new audiences. But his reputation took a blow in 1991 — just before the Oscars ceremony where Depardieu was nominated for Best Actor for Cyrano de Bergerac — when Time magazine printed an interview where he admitted to rapes during childhood. There was anger in the French government about an alleged conspiracy to deprive him of the Oscar and Depardieu denied having made the remarks, although Time stood by the interview. 'Provocative, excessive' While Depardieu's other antics — such as urinating on board a plane in 2011 — had once drawn laughs, he now became a liability for film studios. Pleading before the court of public opinion in an open letter in 2023, he swore that he was 'neither a rapist nor a predator'. 'I've been provocative, excessive, sometimes crude throughout my life... If when I thought I was living intensely in the present moment, I have hurt or shocked anyone at all, I never meant to do harm and I apologise,' Depardieu wrote. The father-of-three, whose son Guillaume died in 2008, has undergone a quadruple heart bypass and suffers from diabetes that has been aggravated by the stress of the trial, according to his lawyer. In 2013, he received a Russian passport personally from President Vladimir Putin. But he has criticised Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. — AFP
