(Paris) On the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, nine women, most anonymously, accuse Alain Sarde, a major French film producer, of having raped or sexually assaulted them when they were minors or young actresses, in the women’s magazine SHE published Monday.
The facts denounced date back mostly to the 1980s and 90s and were not the subject of complaints, according to the magazine.
An actress “from TV series from the 1990s-2000s” confides under the first name “Elsa” how the producer, now 72 years old, allegedly raped her when she was 15, in 1985, under the pretext of a date -you professional for a role in his private apartment of 8e district of Paris.
Other women, whose first names have been changed, denounce rape, attempted rape or what could amount to attempted pimping.
Actresses, who claim to have seen their careers come to a complete halt and to have received no support from their agents in whom they sometimes confided, describe an identical modus operandi: invitations to the producer, attempts at seduction, offered chocolates and attacks.
Contacted by AFP, the producer’s lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, did not respond immediately.
In SHE,Me Laffont denies these “false accusations, which attribute to him behaviors that he disapproves of and which are totally foreign to him. (Alain Sarde) refutes them with the greatest firmness and affirms that he has never used the slightest violence or coercion in his relationships with women whose consent has always been essential for him,” adds his counsel.
The producer was indicted for “rape” in 1997 in a pimping case involving political, artistic and sporting figures in France and internationally. He benefited from a dismissal of the charges almost two years after being implicated by two young women, heard as witnesses in the context of the dismantling of a luxury prostitution network in Paris.
Alain Sarde started in cinema alongside French actor Jean Yanne then worked as a collaborator with Roman Polanski. He then produced films by French directors André Téchiné, Bertrand Tavernier and Jean-Luc Godard.
The 77e Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday against a backdrop of rumors linked to #metoo, in a context of freedom of speech carried in particular by the actress Judith Godrèche, who accused two figures of auteur cinema, Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, of rape. .
The latter will present a short film on Wednesday, Me tooproduced with a thousand victims of sexual violence who responded to his call.