Gérard Depardieu, the one-time lion of French cinema, cut a diminished figure at his recent trial for sexual assault as judges allowed him to testify sitting down and munch on snacks because of health problems.
Yet the 76-year-old retained enough of his actor’s presence to turn the courtroom into a stage on which he vehemently denied allegations that he abused two women on a movie set in 2021. The effect was amplified by Depardieu’s male lawyer, whose aggressive tactics were criticised by opposing counsel for allegedly seeking to discredit the women with derogatory language.
The trial has fascinated France, given Depardieu’s stature as one of the most successful French actors of his generation, whose name on a movie poster in the 1990s and 2000s practically ensured a blockbuster. In films such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card, a more youthful Depardieu played roles in which he embodied cliches of seductive French men.
Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the lawyer for Amelie K – who said Depardieu groped her on the set of the movie Les Volets Verts – said the case would test the progress of the MeToo movement in the arts.
“I have been working on cases involving Gérard Depardieu for almost five years and roughly a dozen women have come to me,” Durrieu Diebolt said in the court. “He was and still is influential in the cinema world. Women didn’t speak out or file complaints out of fear of losing their jobs.”
Jérémie Assous, Depardieu’s lawyer, said later in his closing argument that the plaintiffs’ testimony was unreliable and their lawyers were on a witch-hunt. “The trial, however, has served precisely to establish the baseless and unfounded nature of the accusations.”
Three judges at the Paris criminal court will issue their verdict on May 13th. Depardieu faces an 18-month suspended prison sentence if convicted, along with a €200,000 fine and the payment of damages.
During the trial, Depardieu contested accusations that he had groped the set designer Amelie K and an assistant director named as Sarah. He warned that the MeToo movement risked becoming “a terror”, in reference to a violent period of the French Revolution.
“I defend free speech, I love femininity, but not women who are hysterical,” he told the court.
Allegations of sexual abuse by Depardieu began to trickle out in 2018 when a 22-year-old aspiring actor, Charlotte Arnould, accused him of raping her when she went to his apartment for career advice – something Depardieu denies. Since then, more than a dozen women have come forward to media outlet Mediapart about other allegations of sexual misconduct.
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Depardieu has repeatedly denied such allegations. In a 2023 op-ed in Le Figaro newspaper he admitted to being “provocative, excessive and crude”, but said he was “neither a rapist nor a predator”.
Preliminary charges have also been filed against Depardieu over the alleged rape of Arnould, and prosecutors have asked for a trial. A judge will decide if and when that trial occurs.
In France, as elsewhere, MeToo has prompted people to reveal sexual harassment and abuse they have faced across society and within powerful institutions such as the Catholic Church and top universities.
Gisèle Pelicot, a 71-year-old grandmother, became a feminist icon last year when she publicly testified at the trial of her former husband, who admitted to drugging and raping her for decades.
But critics say the artistic industries, especially cinema, have resisted change, with older generations the most reticent. There is still a tendency to excuse artists’ bad behaviour in the name of creative genius, and oft-repeated calls for the work to stand on its own, even if the artists were flawed or committed wrongdoing.
In 2023, some 50 directors, actors and singers including Charlotte Rampling and Carla Bruni wrote an open letter to call for a stop to the “lynching” of Depardieu. French president Emmanuel Macron also came to his defence, saying that he should be presumed innocent and that the actor still “makes France proud”.
A recent parliamentary commission that interviewed 140 people working in theatre, arts schools, and film and television found that sexual violence and harassment were still “systemic, endemic and persistent”.
“The system is a meat grinder that consumes people,” said Erwan Balanant, a centrist member of parliament who co-led the commission.
“There are aspects of the cultural sphere that aggravate the phenomenon – the temporary nature of the jobs, the fear of being blacklisted in what remain small circles, and the cult of the auteur that can protect offenders.”
The commission began after 53-year-old actor Judith Godrèche issued a blistering critique at the national César awards for film, accusing the industry of complicity in a toxic culture that victimised people. She accused directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot, who were well-known from the 1970s to 1990s, of abusing her when she was starting out as a teenager. The directors have strongly denied the allegations.
At the time France’s laws around consent were more permissive, and such alleged relationships between artists and young muses were romanticised.
Well-known French actors and directors appeared before the commission. The 36-year-old Adèle Haenel, the star of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, related how she quit cinema after revealing that she was abused as a minor by a film director. Jean Dujardin, an Oscar winner for The Artist, said sexism was still a problem, while actor and director Gilles Lellouche admitted he had at times “behaved inappropriately” on sets, although he said there was no sexual assault.
The cult of the auteur has weakened, as symbolised by the reconsideration of rock star Bertrand Cantat, frontman of the band Noir Désir, who was convicted in 2004 of beating his girlfriend to death.
A new Netflix documentary issued a harsh critique of how the case was handled by the courts – he only served four years in prison – and also by the media and fans, who enabled his return to performing.
Balanant said the commission had observed improvements, but called for greater progress, such as more on-set coordinators for sex scenes and punishments for bad behaviour.
Of the Depardieu case, he said: “The case is very revelatory to the system that is still in place and how hard it is for victims to come forward. There can be no more excuses for bad behaviour in the arts world, just like there cannot be in wider society.” − Copyright the Financial Times Limited 2025
