Two actresses involved | Filmmaker Benoît Jacquot charged with rape

(Paris) The judicial noose is tightening in a flagship investigation of the French #metoo movement: filmmaker Benoît Jacquot was charged on Wednesday with the rape of actresses Julia Roy in 2013 and Isild le Besco between 1998 and 2000, and placed under judicial supervision.

The septuagenarian, a figure of auteur cinema in France, is suspected of marital rape of Julia Roy in 2013 and of rape of a minor by a person in authority over Isild Le Besco, between 1^er November 1998 and November 21, 2000, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office, contacted by AFP.

The investigating judge did not, however, fully follow the prosecution’s requests and placed him under the more favourable status of assisted witness for marital rape of Isild Le Besco in 2007 and of Julia Roy between 2014 and 2018.

His judicial supervision also requires him to “not come into contact with witnesses and victims” in the case, nor “to engage in any activity related to minors,” according to the prosecution. He must “provide a bond of 25,000 euros ($37,000),” it added.

A regular at festivals and long prized by the cultural press, the filmmaker cannot “practice the profession of director” or even make “public appearances in connection with the activities which allowed the commission of the offences for which he is being indicted”, the public prosecutor continues.

Heir to the New Wave, the director has mainly enjoyed critical success, with the exception of Farewell to the Queenwho won three Césars –– the French cinema awards –– in 2013. The release of his latest film, Beautiful with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Guillaume Canet, has been postponed sine die.

“Cancellation”

“More than a professional ban, this is a genuine measure of judicial cancellation (or suppression), based on an embryonic investigation and before any judgment,” his lawyer M.^e Julia Minkowski, “we will obviously appeal.”

Questioned since Monday at the juvenile brigade of the Paris judicial police, Benoît Jacquot, 77, answered questions from investigators, according to a source close to the case, and denies the accusations against him.

Her indictment constitutes “a very important step in the legal proceedings for Julia Roy”, aged 42 years younger than Benoît Jacquot and who starred in four of his films from 2016 to 2021, “whose state of post-traumatic stress is profound and persistent”, commented her lawyer, Margot Pugliese.

“We must be pleased that justice has taken the exact measure of the criminal acts” denounced, added Isild Le Besco’s counsel, M^e Benjamin Chouai.

M^me Le Besco, 41, has made six films with Benoît Jacquot, whom she met when she was 16, and accuses him of sexual, psychological and physical violence.

New complaints against Doillon

The filmmaker was taken into custody at the same time as another director, Jacques Doillon, 80, who was also the target of accusations of rape.

Jacques Doillon’s police custody was lifted on Tuesday evening “for medical reasons” and without prosecution at this stage, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which specified that it was still considering “the modalities of the follow-up action” concerning him.

In front of the police, Mr. Doillon was notably confronted by Joe Rohanne, a non-binary trans person, who filed a complaint for three rapes, assault and battery and psychological violence, his lawyer, M.^e Laure Heinich.

The world revealed his complaint on Wednesday evening, as well as those of two women accusing Jacques Doillon of rape for one, of attempted rape for the other.

The filmmaker’s lawyer, M^e Marie Dosé did not wish to respond.

The preliminary investigation was launched after a complaint was filed against the two filmmakers by another actress, Judith Godrèche, who lived with Benoit Jacquot from the age of 14 to 19, in the late 1980s, and appeared in his films. Beggars Or The Disenchanted. But it is not included in the scope of the investigations launched as part of the open judicial inquiry.

“These complaints (from Isild Le Besco and Julia Roy, Editor’s note) are not time-barred. The period that I denounced is time-barred. But I feel heard through this decision,” reacted Judith Godrèche on Instagram after the announcement of the prosecution’s indictment requests.

Aged 52, the actress publicly accused Benoît Jacquot of rape in early February, then Jacques Doillon of sexual assault, triggering a new storm in French cinema, to the point of shaking the Césars ceremony and the Cannes Film Festival.

“The prosecution has not yet made a decision regarding Jacques Doillon,” Mr.^me Godrèche, “all his victims and I are holding our breath. Our hope persists.”

Requested by the actress, a commission of inquiry into sexual violence in cinema, audiovisual, live performance, fashion and advertising began its work in May, but it was brought to a halt by the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9, decided by French President Emmanuel Macron.