The judicial noose is tightening in a flagship investigation of the French #MeToo targeting two filmmakers: the Paris prosecutor’s office has requested that Benoît Jacquot be indicted for rape and is considering “what to do next” with the accusations against Jacques Doillon.
The two filmmakers, who deny the accusations against them, have been in police custody since Monday at the Brigade for the Protection of Minors.
After spending another night there, Benoît Jacquot, 77, was presented to an investigating judge on Wednesday.
Contacted by AFP, the prosecution indicated that it had requested his indictment for “rape, sexual assault and violence, likely to have been committed between 2013 and 2018” against the actress Julia Roy and for “rape of a minor by a person in authority, rape by a partner, likely to have been committed between 1998 and 2000, and in 2007” against the actress Isild Le Besco.
The public prosecutor also requested that he be placed under judicial supervision.
His lawyer, Me Julia Minkowski declined to comment at this stage. On Monday, she deplored “incessant attacks” on her client’s presumption of innocence.
Actress Julia Roy, 42 years younger than Benoît Jacquot and who starred in four of his films released between 2016 and 2021, mentioned “a context of violence and moral constraint that lasted several years” in her complaint against him which denounces rapes and sexual assaults, according to a source close to the case.
Actress Isild le Besco, now 41 years old and spotted in the feature film Sade by Benoît Jacquot in 2000, also mentioned in the press “psychological or physical violence”.
“With this complaint, it is not so much that I am attacking Benoît Jacquot, but that I am supporting the women who do it and expose themselves publicly. Morally, I feel obliged to do it, even if alone, I would not have done it,” she explained to Release at the end of May.
Godrèche feels “heard”
The other accused, Jacques Doillon, had his police custody lifted on Tuesday evening “for medical reasons”, explained the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The 80-year-old director and producer has been released without charge at this stage – the public prosecutor has yet to define “the terms of the follow-up” concerning him.
His lawyer, Me Marie Dosé did not wish to respond.
“In both procedures, the complainants who reported facts that do not appear in the charge retained will be contacted personally,” the prosecution stressed.
The preliminary investigation was in fact launched following a complaint filed by another actress, Judith Godrèche, against the two filmmakers.
The latter, aged 52, publicly accused Benoît Jacquot of rape in early February, then Jacques Doillon of sexual assault, triggering a new storm in the #MeToo movement in French cinema, to the point of shaking the César ceremony and the Cannes Film Festival.
“We acknowledge the referral of Benoit Jacquot to an investigating judge for acts of the same nature as those committed against Judith Godrèche, whose acts are, as far as she is concerned, time-barred,” Judith Godrèche’s counsel, M.e Laure Heinich.
Mme Godrèche “can nevertheless feel heard through the decision taken by the prosecution,” the lawyer stressed.
Counsel for Julia Roy and Isild Le Besco did not immediately respond.
A commission of inquiry into sexual violence in cinema, audiovisual, live performance, fashion and advertising began in May but was brought to a halt following the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9.