producer Alain Sarde accused by nine women of rape, sexual assault or inappropriate behavior

In an investigation published Monday evening by “Elle” magazine, these actresses, who remain mostly anonymous, describe the contours of a recurring modus operandi. In the hope of landing a role, the women went to a meeting with Alain Sarde. Through his lawyer, the 72-year-old producer evokes “false allegations”.

A new affair for French cinema. On the eve of the opening of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the magazine She publishes, Monday May 13, the testimonies of nine women against the producer Alain Sarde detailing inappropriate behavior, sexual assaults or even rapes. These facts would have occurred between 1985 and 2003. None of these women testified in court, specifies the magazine, most of them having wished to remain anonymous.

All of the testimonies describe the contours of a recurring modus operandi on the part of this producer of numerous successful films, such as Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, The Venus in Furs by Roman Polanski or even Goodbye to language by Jean-Luc Godard. In the hope of landing a role in a film, young beginner actresses went to a meeting organized with Alain Sarde. Presumed innocent, the 72-year-old producer denies to the magazine all of these “false allegations (…)”. Through the voice of his lawyer, he also says “outraged and devastated”. The magazine recalls that he had already been indicted for rape in 1997 before benefiting from a dismissal of the charges.

“It was beastly!”

Among the testimonies, an actress from TV series from the 1990s-2000s recounts a rape in 1985, when she was 15 years old. “Suddenly, he pushed me onto the bed and jumped on meshe assures. I remember his lips very well, his disgusting mouth. He was ugly despite his manicured hands. It was beastly!”

“I still feel the pressure of his body on mine. He held me down and raped me.”

An actress

In the “Elle” magazine investigation into Alain Sarde

Another actress evokes a sexual assault during a meeting in 1987 to talk about a “very nice role” in a film by Jean-Luc Godard. “He asked me if I liked chocolate, took one from the box, bit half of it, came over to me on the sofa, and suddenly shoved the remaining piece into the box. mouth, while throwing me backwards and sprawling on top of me.” The actress managed to escape by slipping on the ground, before running towards the large padded door. “Behind my back, I heard him call me a ‘slut’,” she remembers. She did not get the role and remembers the reactions around her from the cinema industry seeking to minimize the facts: “These kinds of stories are not simple anecdotes, unfortunate accidents, it’s a whole system that allows that.”

“I felt stuck”

Another actress, aged 20 in 1990, recounts another rape, again during a meeting supposed to be professional. “We talk a little about the script, then he tells me that he would like to produce a film with an erotic atmosphere, and asks me bluntly: ‘What is eroticism for you?’ I do not know what to saysays this woman. He gets up, walks around the desk and comes towards me. He touches my shoulder, I am paralyzed. He is standing, facing me, and he says to me: ‘This is eroticism,’ while unbuttoning his pants.” She then says that the producer then took out his penis and forced her to perform oral sex.

Aged 15 at the time, another woman accused the producer of rape during an appointment for a role in 1985. “Very quickly, he explained to me that if I wanted to break into the cinema, I had to be nice to him. I had no choice, I felt stuck. I was paralyzed by fear, he took advantage of it to brutally rape me from behind. I felt at fault, as if I had thrown myself into the den of the wolf.” She never turned to justice.

Another actress, well known to the general public but preferring to remain anonymous, mentions “a system where powerful men looked at what was happening on the market, young actresses, and they helped themselves with the complicity of our agents.” She says she was also the victim of sexual assault by Alain Sarde: “I see us again on the sofa, I was talking to him about literature. Suddenly, he put his hand under my white blouse and grabbed my breast. I gasped. I muttered something and I I ran away.”