With the French film industry in the spotlight for the Oscars, actors who say they were teenage victims of sexual and physical abuse by directors decades older than them are speaking out about the horrors of the country’s film industry. The back side is illuminated.
The latest step in the #MeToo movement could be announced at Friday’s French Film Awards.
French media reports that director Judith Godreche will give a speech about sexual violence at the César Awards, France’s version of the Oscars, which will be broadcast live on television.
Actress slams #Metoo movement as ‘whimsical’ and accuses Hollywood of having ‘no moral backbone’
Godreche has already sent a powerful message to the public through a recent interview in which he denounced the industry’s “omerta.”
The announcement comes amid expectations that the French film industry will shine at next month’s Oscar ceremony with Justine Triet’s courtroom drama “Anatomy of Fall.”
Mr. Godreche, 51, is well known to French film fans. She recently accused two film directors of rape and sexual abuse when she was a teenager. She formally filed a complaint earlier this month, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
French actress Adele Haenel attended the 2020 Cesar Awards ceremony. Haenel has denounced allegations of sexual assault by the French coach when she was 15 years old in the early 2000s. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
She has accused film director Benoît Jacot, who she dated for six years starting when she was 14, of rape and physical abuse. Jacot is a prominent French director and is 25 years older than her.
She also accused another film director, Jacques Doillon, of sexually assaulting her when she was 15 years old while directing a film. Mr. Doillon is 28 years older than her.
Both Jacot and Doillon deny the allegations.
Godreche told France Inter radio earlier this month that he was never attracted to Jacot. “But in the end I ended up with him, in his bed, and I became his child’s wife.” Godreche and Jaco met on the set of his film The Beggars in 1986.
“I was brainwashed, it was like being part of a cult,” she said. The relationship was marred by violence, confinement and control, she said.
Godreche previously spoke about her relationship with Jacot, without naming him, on the autobiographical TV show Icon of French Cinema, which was released in December.
She was one of the actors who spoke out against American film producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017, accusing him of sexual assault when she was 24, amid the #MeToo movement.
Jacot told Le Monde newspaper that she had “no direct concerns” about Godreche’s accusations and said she was in love with Godreche at the time. He denied abuse of power.
Doillon said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that “just cause does not justify arbitrary accusations, false accusations and lies.”
Following Godreche’s accusations, other women decided to speak out.
Isilde Le Besco, 41, accused Jaco of “mental and physical violence” in their relationship, which began when she was 16 and he was 52. Ms Doillon also accused him of choosing someone else for the position that was supposed to be his. He refused his sexual advances.
Another actor, Anna Mouglalis, 45, accused Doillon of sexual assault in 2011.
The French film industry was previously rocked by accusations of sexual misconduct against actor Gerard Depardieu.
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In 2020, women’s rights activists staged a protest at the Cesar Awards ceremony when Roman Polanski won the Best Director award in absentia. Actor Adele Haenel, who accused another French director of sexual assault when she was 15 in the early 2000s, got up and left the room.
Polanski remains wanted in the United States, decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
