'Fall of the ogre': Depardieu sparks #MeToo moment in French cinema
Entertainment
He was placed under formal investigation in December 2020 but not jailed
Paris (AFP) – For more than a year after rape allegations against French actor Gerard Depardieu, the film industry shrugged its shoulders and the cinematic legend with more than 200 titles to his name continued working.
But the tide appears to be slowly turning.
Mounting accusations of sexual harassment, as well as newly released footage of him making obscene comments, are finally forcing a debate about sexism and sexual violence in French cinema.
In October the 74-year-old actor, known outside France for 1990 comedy "Green Card" and Netflix series "Marseille", had to put his career on hold.
Six years after the start of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood that brought down producer Harvey Weinstein, the campaign has picked up momentum in France.
"There will be an after-Depardieu, that much is clear," activist Laura Pertuy said.
"At all levels, in all generations, people are starting to speak up, to say enough is enough, the system can't continue like this," said the secretary-general of Collectif 50/50, an association promoting gender equality in film.
Depardieu had long made headlines for antics such as visiting Russia and Belarus, obtaining a Russian passport to protest a planned tax hike in France, or even delaying a 2011 flight after peeing into a bottle that overflowed.
But accusations of sexual harassment or assault, all of which the actor has denied, have also crept into the news.
'Allowed to be a monster'
French actress Charlotte Arnould in late 2021 publicly accused the actor, a family friend, of raping her twice in 2018 when she was 22 and anorexic. She said she weighed 37 kilos at the time.
He was placed under formal investigation in December 2020 but not jailed.
In April, French investigative website Mediapart published a report in which 13 other women accused him of molesting them between 2004 and 2022.
One of them, actress Helene Darras, in September filed a sexual assault complaint against Depardieu over an incident during a film shoot in 2007.
And a documentary titled "The Fall of the Ogre" aired on Thursday on France 2 showed the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter and sexualising a small girl riding a horse.
The latest images have triggered some self-reflection. "We are all a little guilty," Marc Missonnier, the head of the syndicate of French cinema producers, told France 2.
