The Gérard Depardieu affair continues to make ink flow. Accused of sexual and sexist violence, the sacred monster of French cinema is experiencing a real descent into hell. Raphaëlle Bacqué and Samuel Blumenfeld, journalists at World, took a close interest in “Depardieu case” in a series of six episodes subtitled “The Fall of an Ogre”. This Wednesday, July 19, 2023, the duo notably returned to the links that the now 74-year-old actor has long maintained with director Maurice Pialat. For the occasion, actress Sophie Marceau has also agreed to evoke the terrible memories she has of the filming of the film. Policereleased in 1985. According to her, “the director and the main actor can afford, without anyone saying anything […] behavior considered elsewhere as inadmissible”.
At the time, the star had just come of age. Although already famous thanks to The partyour colleagues report a “power relationship” set up by Gérard Depardieu towards the young woman whom he seemed to take pleasure in humiliating. The actress remembers in particular the day when her partner would have deliberately eaten snails before a scene of reconciliation in order to impose his fetid breath on her. During more intimate scenes, he would have put his hands in inappropriate places, without this being written in the script.
See also: Gérard Depardieu targeted by the sordid testimonies of 13 women in “Mediapart”
“He never dared to touch me in front of the team”
Sophie Marceau would not be the only victim of this chaotic shooting since the father of Julie Depardieu would also have had inappropriate gestures towards a woman of the team to whom he would have touched the chest several times. “He never dared to touch me in front of the team, otherwise he would have been punched in the face”confides the actress before adding: “But with the poor dressers…”
According to her, the Depardieu-Pialat duo was “infernal”. Words confirmed by the filmmaker’s assistant director who describes the two acolytes as “machos”. During the filming, Maurice Pialat even asked his favorite actor (who played the role of the policeman, editor’s note) to give a real slap to Sophie Marceau during an interrogation scene. Traumatized, the latter had tried to denounce these behaviors in the media, which unfortunately had come to nothing. A few years later, the actress also called her stage partner a “predator” in the columns of Society. A chilling story.
VB