(Paris) On this day of presentation of the 48e ceremony of the Césars of French cinema, this industry is splashed by actresses who claim to have been victims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of directors several decades older than them.
French media report that Judith Godrèche will give a speech on sexual violence during the Césars ceremony which will be broadcast live on television. She has already sent a strong message to the public through recent interviews in which she denounced “omerta” in the industry.
This controversy comes as French cinema prepares to shine next month at the Oscars ceremony in the United States, with Justine Triet’s legal drama, Anatomy of a fall.
Judith Godrèche, who is 51 years old, is well known to French film buffs. She recently accused two directors of rape and sexual abuse when she was a teenager. She officially filed a complaint at the beginning of the month, according to what the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed.
She denounces the director Benoît Jacquot, with whom she had a six-year relationship that began when she was 14, for rape and physical violence. Benoît Jacquot, a prominent director in France, is 25 years her senior.
She also accuses another director, Jacques Doillon, of sexual abuse while he was making a film when she was 15 years old. Doillon is 28 years older than her.
Both directors have denied the allegations.
Speaking on France Inter earlier this month, Mme Godrèche said she was never attracted to Jacquot, “but I found myself with him, in his bed, and I was his little wife.”
Judith Godrèche and Jacquot met in 1986 on the set of her film Beggars. “I was indoctrinated, it was like I had joined a cult,” she explained. The relationship was marred by violence, confinement and control. »
Judith Godrèche had already spoken about her relationship with Benoît Jacquot, without naming him, in an autobiographical television program entitled French cinema icon released in December. She was one of the actresses who spoke out in 2017 against American producer Harvey Weinstein as part of the #metoo movement, accusing him of sexual assault when she was 24 years old.
Jacquot told the newspaper The world that he “does not feel directly concerned” by the accusations of Judith Godrèche, with whom he says he fell in love at the time. He denied any abuse of authority.
As for Jacques Doillon, he declared to Agence France-Presse that “the just cause does not justify arbitrary denunciations, false accusations and lies”.
Following Judith Godrèche’s accusations, other women decided to speak out.
Isild Le Besco, 41, accused Jacquot of “psychological and physical violence” in a relationship with him that began when she was 16 and he was 52. She also accused Doillon of casting someone else for a role she was supposed to get because she refused his sexual advances.
Another actress, Anna Mouglalis, 45, accused Doillon of sexual assault in 2011.
The French film industry is already badly shaken by accusations of sexual misconduct leveled against famous actor Gérard Depardieu.
And in 2020, protests by women’s rights activists took place during the Césars ceremony, with director Roman Polanski winning the best director award in absentia. Actress Adèle Haenel, who denounced alleged sexual assaults committed by another French director in the early 2000s when she was 15, got up and left the room.
Roman Polanski has still been wanted by the United States justice system for several decades after being accused of the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.