“A kiss, but all in all, what is it? “, said Cyrano de Bergerac in a beautiful tirade. “An oath made a little more closely, a more precise promise, an admission that wants to be confirmed, a pink dot that we put on the i of the verb to love…”
We are far from the pen of Edmond Rostand when we hear Gérard Depardieu, who played a magnificent Cyrano, growling insanities towards women (and even a little girl), notably treating them as big sluts in a string of garbage such as revealed in the show Further investigation – Depardieu, the fall of the ogre. But who is surprised since everyone knew?
The images come from a documentary filmed in North Korea by Yann Moix, who finds nothing better to do than to yell at his former producer who allegedly provided these “decontextualized” extracts.
In another era, we would have made this disappear quickly, that’s for sure, salute to the producer on that one, and it would all make a good movie when you think about it. I wish French cinema something fierce like Tell us about love by Jean-Claude Lord (co-written with Michel Tremblay), in which, in 1976, we did not hesitate to show producers who rape minors behind the scenes of Quebec showbiz.
Nonetheless, the famous French gallantry is having a hard time lately.
This week, it was the turn of Frédéric Beigbeder to be there, this “slightly outdated heterosexual” as his latest book was titled, the one which supported Gabriel Matzneff and Roman Polanski until recently. He’s being investigated for rape now, and we’ll see how that pans out, he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. Even though he histrionics a bit in a press release sent after his custody in Pau: “I thank the staff at the Pau police station for welcoming me to their premises. Two reservations, however: the chicken curry was dry, and my car ended up in impound while being held in police custody for just a few hours. There is definitely a lack of parking in front of this police station. »
Ha, the (increasingly unbearable) lightness of the Parisian dandy! Me, if I were a man, as Diane Tell sang, I would be devastated to be accused of rape and incapable of making jokes, but others know how to maintain their panache.
The same day, we learned of the suicide of actress Emmanuelle Debever, “the first public accuser of Gérard Depardieu”, headline Release. Few remember her, as her career was short, but we may remember her role as Louison in the Danton by Wajda, another crushing milestone in Depardieu’s long career. How many women have had short careers due to the toxic climate of an environment, perhaps cut short even more when they dared to resist it?
A little behind the United States, the movement to denounce sexual assault seems to be reaching France, where many slaps have been lost, but which come back even harder, because the behavior persists. Let’s think about the incredible impunity that protected former star presenter Patrick Poivre d’Arvor for so long.
The slow change in morals is slowly transforming the image we have of the famous French gallantry. Let’s say that it’s starting to resemble the very caricatured character of Pepe le Pew, this skunk harassing a poor cat who does everything to escape his attacks. The character was deemed to have aged too poorly to be included in the film. Space Jam 2, in order to avoid the inevitable criticism since Pepe le Pew is associated today with “rape culture”. Pepe made me laugh when I was little, because it was cartoon. But perhaps that’s the problem, finding characters who attack others sympathetic from childhood.
It’s crazy how much ugly has been erased under this idea of libertinism, from heavy flirting to sexual assault. Simone de Beauvoir was wary of this praise of gallantry which, according to her, renewed relations of domination between men and women.
Fanny Ardant recently gave an interview to the show Contact by Stéphan Bureau, in which she defends her friendship with Gérard Depardieu despite the growing accusations against him – so far, 16 women have accused him of harassment and assault. We can see in this loyalty something admirable (true friends never abandon you) or the illustration of the way we stick together in the French showbiz elite, depending on your point of view. I could never resist Fanny Ardant, as attractive in life as in the film Ridiculouswhere she plays an intriguer who will see her mask fall like the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous relationships.
Who hasn’t enjoyed at least one role in Depardieu’s career? As for me, I stopped admiring him when he started pissing on planes and worshiping Vladimir Putin, without forgetting his troubled relationship with his son Guillaume Depardieu, who died in 2009 after a life of suffering. Let’s say that these recent revelations complete the image of the man which was already less glorious.
As for my moral towards cinema, it remains unchanged: no one will be able to take away from me the first impression of a significant film from my past, even if I learn later that it was directed or played by bastards in the real world. life. I won’t be able to stop watching The goat Or Freinds, films that make me laugh so much, but I agree with the singer Lio when she said she understood that we could continue to listen to Bertrand Cantat, despite the murder of Marie Trintignant, while specifying this: “A bastard can to have talent. But no honor for the rapists, the violent. »
Precisely, in this regard, Depardieu was removed from the National Order of Quebec after the report of Further investigation, which must go ten feet over his head, because it’s not tomorrow that we’re going to take away the many honors to which he was entitled in France for ages, while traumatizing generations of colleagues . An ogre is hard to bring down.