what is accused of the president of the National Cinema Center, accused of sexual assault by his godson

The former producer, aged 54, appears on June 14 before the Nanterre criminal court, for facts dating back to the summer of 2020.

A month after the Cannes festival, another meeting, this time legal, awaits French cinema: the trial of Dominique Boutonnat, president of the powerful National Cinema Center (CNC). The former producer, aged 54, was tried on Friday June 14 before the Nanterre criminal court (Hauts-de-Seine) for sexual assault on his godson. This case symbolizes, according to some, the ambiguity of the sector on the freedom of speech with regard to sexist and sexual violence (SGBV). Dominique Boutonnat, who disputes the facts and remains presumed innocent, was in fact retained at the head of the CNC despite his indictment and subsequent referral to justice. Placed under judicial supervision, he will appear free.

The events denounced date back to the summer of 2020, on the night of August 3 to 4. Dominique Boutonnat is on vacation in his villa on the island of Kea, in Greece, with his family and that of his godson, Antoine*, then 21 years old. A thirty-year friendship brings them together after a long confinement linked to Covid. According to the elements of the investigation, consulted by franceinfo, the drunken evening ends at the edge of the swimming pool for the young man and his godfather. Dominique Boutonnat, best man at his mother’s wedding, is like a second father to him. Driven by his godfather, who serves him more and more drinks, Antoine agrees to take a midnight swim naked in the swimming pool, according to the story he gave to the police during his complaint, filed two months later.

According to the student’s version, Dominique Boutonnat attempted a first approach after getting out of the bath, by taking a naked photo of him, complimenting him and hugging him tightly. The two men then find themselves in Antoine’s room on the ground floor. Still according to the complainant’s account, Dominique Boutonnat lies down next to him on the bed, tries to kiss him before getting on top of him and caressing his body and buttocks. Describing himself as paralyzed, disgusted and unable to scream, the young man accuses his godfather of having tried to “masturbate”. “I masturbate him so he stops touching me”, he reports, ensuring that Dominique Boutonnat then tried to impose fellatio on him. Antoine says he managed to free himself from his grip by pretending to want to sleep.

The next morning, according to the young man’s statements, Dominique Boutonnat entered the bathroom while he was there, gave him a hug and kissed him on the mouth. He slips in passing that he pretended to his wife, who surprised him at dawn trying to leave his godson’s room, having had to accompany him because of his drunkenness.

Antoine explains to investigators that he lost 10 kilos in three weeks and considered suicide after that night. A psychological expertise ordered as part of the judicial investigation, opened in February 2021 for attempted rape and sexual assault, confirmed that the young man suffered from post-traumatic stress following the facts denounced. And that he had no tendency to distort reality. Asked by franceinfo, his lawyer did not respond.

Several telephone exchanges, deleted by Dominique Boutonnat but kept by Antoine, were added to the file. In a conversation, his godfather half-heartedly acknowledges the facts, while blaming the boy, who had come out some time before.

“There was something weird that happened at that time, which is linked to your sexuality too, and I have a lot of love for you, and then it came to fruition like that because We were completely drunk.”

Dominique Boutonnat

in a telephone exchange with his godson

According to these exchanges, Dominique Boutonnat asks Antoine to keep this evening a secret, while offering to come to him if he feels the need to get closer physically. Investigators also note the less affectionate nature of his messages since his stay in Greece. The exploitation of the ex-producer’s telephone also reveals open, but empty, conversation threads with young men posing shirtless. The person concerned denies having come into contact with these numbers.

In police custody then before the investigating judge, the influential president of the CNC evokes kisses with his godson as a simple sign of affection and affirms that it was the young man who made sexual advances towards him. He claims to have put an end to it, denouncing the remarks “completely” forgery of Antoine. As for the episode in the bathroom, Dominique Boutonnat recognizes a “smack” awkward in order to put him at ease with what had happened the day before.

During a confrontation, the two men maintain their respective versions. The ex-producer announced shortly after that he was going to file a complaint for slanderous denunciation. This complaint was closed for insufficiently characterized offense in September 2022.

In their referral order to the court, the judges mention the ascendancy exercised by Dominique Boutonnat over his godson, due to their quasi-filial bond and their age difference. They believe that there are sufficient charges against the fifty-year-old for having “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise, committed sexual assault” on Antoine. On the other hand, they reject the qualification of rape, for lack of sufficient evidence. Dominique Boutonnat’s lawyer, contacted, has not yet responded to our requests. At the time of his client’s indictment, Emmanuel Marsigny had regretted to franceinfo “a completely objectionable haste” and assured that Dominique Boutonnat was “totally calm about the evolution of the procedure”.

Is he the same for the rest of his career? Since his indictment, the president of the CNC has been the subject of several calls for resignation. Reappointed to his post by the government in July 2022, he is notably responsible for developing a policy to combat SGBV in the cinema sector, through compulsory training on the prevention of this violence. An ambiguity denounced by the CGT-spectacle, the 50/50 collective, which campaigns for equality, parity and diversity in the film and audiovisual industry, or even the actress Judith Godrèche, who has become a figure in the #MeToo movement in the French seventh art.

“The CNC is an institution that producers go to while laughing, because they say to themselves: ‘It’s funny, I’m going to go and do training against sexual violence within an institution whose president is himself accused of sexual violence’. What is this joke?

Judith Godreche

during a Senate hearing at the end of February

“We are part of a logic where justice must do its job. The CNC does not have to take a position”, the organization responded to a delegation of 15 people received after a demonstration in front of its headquarters in Paris in mid-May. Known for financing the films The Heartbreaker (by Pascal Chaumeil), Untouchables (by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano) or even Polish (de Maïwenn), Dominique Boutonnat risks five years in prison.

*The first name has been changed