(Paris) Two camps who insult each other after a scandalous video, a support forum which fuels the controversy with a political background: the Depardieu affair fractures French cinema.
Having fallen from his pedestal after the broadcast of images in which he multiplies misogynistic and sexual remarks, including towards a little girl, the 75-year-old actor, also targeted by three complaints for sexual assault or rape which he refutes, does not has not finished dividing.
The controversy touched the highest summit of the State, since President Emmanuel Macron defended the presumption of innocence in favor of the actor, believing that he made France “proud”, to the great dismay of feminists and several personalities, including his predecessor François Hollande, who wanted to underline the “courage of the victims”.
Among those who spoke out, Anouk Grinberg and the “James bond girl” Sophie Marceau, who denounced the actor’s “predatory” behavior in 2015 and returned to the subject in Paris Match.
“Vulgarity and provocation have always been his stock in trade,” she said.
Another actress, Isabelle Carré, called in Elle magazine to say that “it’s high time that [sexism] ended.”
Charlotte Arnould, who filed a complaint against Depardieu, leading to his indictment in 2020 for rape and sexual assault, maintains discretion.
The young actress thanked her supporters on Instagram: “I blame the blows […] it’s not in great shape”. And responded to the discomfort expressed by the actress and ex-partner of Depardieu, Carole Bouquet, after signing the petition: “You had to think about it before, right? ! »
Others, like Clotilde Hesme or Judith Chemla, are among more than 600 signatories of a “counter-tribunal” of artists published by the collective Cerveaux non avaliables.
She intends to denounce a petition signed by around sixty well-known cinema personalities in France and beyond, calling for “not to erase” Gérard Depardieu, published on Christmas Day in Le Figaro.
Among these personalities are the Spanish actress Victoria Abril, the British Charlotte Rampling, the filmmaker Bertrand Blier, the actresses Nathalie Baye, Arielle Dombasle, the actors Jacques Weber and Pierre Richard…
“We can no longer remain silent in the face of the lynching that has befallen [Depardieu] in defiance of a presumption of innocence from which he would have benefited, like everyone else, if he were not the giant of cinema that he is. he is,” states this text.
But some signatories, like Carole Bouquet or Nadine Trintignant, then expressed their discomfort.
“I signed,” Carole Bouquet said on Instagram. “However, I do not support the ideas and values associated with the journalist behind this column. Giving it visibility through Gérard makes me, as you can imagine, deeply uncomfortable.”
In question, an almost unknown actor, Yannis Ezziadi, close to Julie Depardieu, the actor’s daughter. At the initiative of the text, he is an editorialist for the ultraconservative magazine Causeur and described in an investigation by the newspaper Le Monde as “close to the identity and reactionary spheres”. He was not available for comment Friday.
Director Nadine Trintignant, whose daughter Marie was killed by singer Bertrand Cantat in 2003, told the weekly Le Point that she did not know who wrote it: “I ask the people I shocked to don’t blame me for my big mistake.”
Former boss of the Cinémathèque française, Serge Toubiana also claims not to have known who was at the origin of the text. “I signed because I hate pack spirit and the presumption of innocence must be defended.”
The actor Gérard Darmon, on RTL, for his part regretted the content of the signed text. “Be careful not to say that by touching Depardieu, we are touching art. […] It’s bullshit,” he admitted. Just like Yvan Attal, who admitted “discomfort”. “I did not sign […] against women”, he clarified to BFMTV, but Depardieu “has the right not to be lynched publicly […] we must let justice speak”.
